UK Government Sets Up 'Public Data Corporation' To Free Up Data
from the what-a-nice-idea dept
Glyn Moody points us to the news that the UK government is setting up a "Public Data Corporation" with the charge of working with various government agencies and pulling together data and freeing it up for the public:The Corporation will, for the first time, bring together Government bodies and data into one organisation and provide an unprecedented level of easily accessible public information and drive further efficiency in the delivery of public services.Of course, it looks like it's not freeing up all data. While it says that it will make data available freely in many cases, it may also look to sell some of the data. Still, this definitely seems like a good step forward.
Supporting the Government's growth agenda, it will open up opportunities for innovative developers, businesses and members of the public to generate social and economic growth through the use of data.
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Where's the incentive to free up the data?
I'm sure that there will be more incentive to sell everything for a price.
This is just as bad as Freddie and Fannie and the entire QSE fiasco.
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Overly complicated
Why doesn't the government, you know, just free the data and give it to the public? Through whatever the British equivalent of the Freedom of Information Act is.
This seems to me like something that politicians can point to and say "We're being transparent!" without actually accomplishing anything and not really being transparent at all.
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I think the reason for setting up the corporation is to head of the criticism they get whenever they release raw information. Almost all the commentators insist that no one will be have any incentive to create a user interface or investigate the data (and make it understandable to the mainstream media). Witness the tone of amazement in all today's Wikipedia anniversary stories - the MSM really doesn't understand why people contribute.
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UK info database
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UK info database
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Sounds Like A New Labour-ish National Database
So Conservative + Liberal Democrat = New Labour? Dam! ...
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