Official data being freed up

Finally data we've paid for is being opened up. The UK's http://data.gov.uk parallels the US's http://www.data.gov and, frankly, looks like no other government website I've seen. It even has a trendy "beta" moniker.

Quoting from the website:

"We’re very aware that there are more people like you outside of government who have the skills and abilities to make wonderful things out of public data. These are our first steps in building a collaborative relationship with you."

This is a brilliant sentiment; the tone is more open than I expected, and I cannot wait to see what comes of this.

There are near 3,000 datasets. I've only played around with a couple so far, but there's something there for everyone. The main weakness at present is that the site often points you to other government sites for the underlying data, and these are much less well organised and searchable. I'm not sure how easy it's going to be to knock together any mash-ups for example.

But it's a start, and seems to be part of a growing trend, with London's authorities are opening up 200 datasets in a couple of days (29 January) at http://data.london.gov.uk and the announcement that all Ordnance Survey map data would be freely available on-line sometime in 2010. There is a lot of promise here, and I think no one really knows how this is going to end up. There are certainly some interesting ideas already: http://data.gov.uk/ideas/list

Let me know if you had a look at the data, and what you think below. Or drop me a line at david dot ross at citrustechnology dot com with feedback, comments, or simply to say that there is someone out there. And of course you can Subscribe via RSS