Certain industries and campaigns may find value in data that the government makes available at no charge. In December of 2009, the Federal government issued a directive to agencies within the government to post more information online. In addition, the Feds have encouraged municipal governments to do the same. A visit to www.data.gov provides a significant amount of data of public information that can be obtained at no charge. Datasets can be searched among communities like healthcare, education and manufacturing. Some municipalities have begun to post residential building permit applications. If you sell kitchen appliances, what better way to find out who is redoing their kitchen and may have a need for your product?

While not all of the data can be targeted to an individual or household, the amount of data becoming publicly available will only continue to grow. A treasure trove of public data is available for those that can figure out creative ways in which to use it.