A good risk to take

At the request of Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), GAO analysts studied the idea of creating a system that could crunch reams of economic and social indicators to create something of a national barometer — a Web-based system for evaluating the state of the state. It is within the realm of possibility, they determined, although it would not be easy.

Indeed, the risk of failure is real. There's no shortage of data to analyze, nor is there a dearth of technology to analyze it. But how do you develop a system that turns all that data into a reliable gauge of the nation's health?

Source: Federal Computer Week