In 2011, the government of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais created a data portal with a team from MIT to help policymakers find opportunities to diversify their economy. By focusing on attractive data visualisations and a user-friendly website, the state published data for the whole of Brazil, and within the space of three months it was attracting 9,600 visits a month from government, business and the public. Data Viva is now the Brazilian government's principle open data portal. The format has since spawned iterations in the US and Africa and influenced the redesign of the US census site.

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