Sunshine to government—opportunities for engagement with government data

For big data analyses to provide productive insights, an individual or team should understand the business to validate expected relationships and discover new opportunities. Students do not consistently have industry sector experience. However, they are familiar with state governments as they live, work, or attend school in various geographical locations. Also, students pay taxes to the state governments (income, sales, etc.). This article highlights the state government data sources that provide data for students to develop big data skills across a multitude of classes within an accounting curriculum. This article delineates three different types of governmental information: the financial statement, open checkbooks, and open data initiatives data. The variation in information disclosure across states offer research opportunities for academics too.