President Obama's open government initiative unveiled Tuesday aims to improve government accountability and to increase collaboration with the public, wrote Norm Eisen, White House special counsel for ethics and government reform and Beth Noveck, deputy chief technology officer and director of the White House open government initiative, in a blog post Wednesday.

"Creating an open government - one that is committed to transparency and civic engagement - does more than promote accountability," the two officials said. "Working in the open fosters collaboration between government, private industry, and the public to improve the lives of Americans in their communities."

Among the information that will now be available and more searchable for the public are published patents, data on portion sizes for common food items and the ability for multiple states to share emergency response information.

On the campaign trail, Obama pledged to increase the government's use of technology to make its activities more transparent.