Zillow firmly believes that free and open access to data of all kinds – from real estate information to demographic, education, business and crime statistics – can only help empower the people that use it. Which is why I’m thrilled and honored to have been chosen as one of 19 leaders named to the U.S. Commerce Department’s new Commerce Data Advisory Council (CDAC).

The CDAC was formed to help the Commerce Department fully realize its potential as “America’s data agency,” by providing the Commerce Department and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker with guidance on a number of data-related issues and opportunity areas, including:

• Data management practices
• Common, open data standards
• Policy issues related to data privacy, latency and consistency
• Effective models for public-private partnership
• External uses of Commerce Department data
• Methods to build new feedback loops between the Commerce Department and data users

Increasingly, the federal government is treating data – particularly federal data – as a commodity every bit as important a national resource as more tangible products like timber, crops or oil. Data help spur innovation and unlock new solutions to old problems. Entrepreneurs, academics, policymakers and consumers alike all benefit from information that is not only freely available, but is interpretable and able to be transformed from raw data into real and actionable insight.

At Zillow, we work on transforming data into insight every day. We’ve built an enormously successful and growing business on the simple but powerful idea of shining bright lights on previously obscure or opaque data sets, and using them to answer essential questions like “Should I buy or rent a home?” and “How much is my home worth relative to other homes in my community?”

We use all kinds of data – not just on real estate, but dozens of federal, state and local data sets ranging from education to transportation to demographics, in order to empower consumers to make the best home-related decisions. By enabling these decisions, and by answering these questions, we firmly believe we are putting real power into consumers’ hands.

And we’re always looking for more data, and always striving to answer more questions.

Supporting the Commerce Department’s efforts to open up more data in order to empower more Americans, and to do it thoughtfully and creatively with help from the best and the brightest this country has to offer, is a no-brainer for us. The balanced perspective gained from this new advisory council, and the varied expertise I and my fellow advisors can bring to the table, can’t help but result in meaningful progress in how this nation creates, maintains and makes use of its growing data resources.

“Together, [the CDAC] will help us make our data easier to access and use, and maximize the return of data investments for entrepreneurs, government, businesses, communities and taxpayers,” Secretary Pritzker said in a statement.

I couldn’t be more excited for the challenge.