The , whose members include Microsoft and Teradata, launched Monday and will push for U.S. government agencies to standardize federal data published online. One of the immediate goals of the coalition is to advocate for Congress to pass the Digital Accountability and Transparency (DATA) Act, sponsored by Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, and Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat.

, first introduced by Issa last June, establishes an independent board to track all federal spending on a single website and requires agencies to report data in a standardized format. The bill mandates the use of governmentwide identifier codes and markup languages, such as XBRL, in an effort to make government data easily searchable.

Issa has championed the DATA Act as a step toward a "transparent and accountable government the American people deserve."

Right now, it's difficult to extract government data from many agencies, said Hudson Hollister, executive director of the Data Transparency Coalition. In many cases, agencies don't yet publish spending information, regulatory filings, corporate disclosures or legislative actions online, he said.

"The government's not managing its data," Hollister said. "There's nobody in charge of figuring out standard markup language to report it. There's nobody minding the store looking at the whole enterprise."