data.gov.uk launched yesterday. I was going to blog about it then, but the wifi on the East Coast train from Kings Cross was a bit flakey. Not that I'm complaining; I still think the provision of free wifi on long distance train services is something that should be a madatory requirement for the train operating companies, but that's a matter for another post.
Anyway, back to data.gov.uk, which is, in its own words:
This site seeks to give a way into the wealth of government data. As highlighted by the Power of Information Taskforce, this means it needs to be:
- easy to find;
- easy to licence; and
- easy to re-use.
We are drawing on the expertise and wisdom of Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt to publish government data as RDF – enabling data to be linked together.
Having Tim Berners-Lee's involvement gives the whole project the credibility it deserves. The site gives application and site developers (to name but two) access to a wealth of government datasets ranging from abandoned vehicles to young drivers and accidents in Wales, by way of locations of GPs/surgeries and tidal predictions. This data is going to be a massive asset to comunity web projects, mashups and other such applications.
However, there is a gaping hole in the form of the Ordnance Survey mapping data. The priority should be to open access to the complete geodata set, including post codes, electoral boundaries, etc. Currently Crown Copyright and OS licencing terms block the release of such data, but it is the foundation upon which numerous useful applications could be built. The priority should therefore be to open the OS geo data as quickly as possible. It is, after all, our data.
Anyway, if you're interested in playing with data and applications, go to the site and have some fun. And a closing message for those involved in the site; well done, please don't rest on your laurels, there's still a long way to go.
Tags: data, government, mashup, geodata, mapping, ordnance survey, national statistics