Government
Our data should be free
A long-awaited private study by Cambridge University into the pricing of public sector information (PSI) by trading funds (Ordnance Survey, Met Office, Companies House, Land Registry et al) was published on the side with the 2008 Budget Report. The study was commissioned by BERR following the OFT’s market study into the commercial use of PSI […]
Free access is not open access
I highlight again a single point from para 87 of the Power of Information review from my acronymically-entitled previous post PSI4U: It is relatively easy to suggest changes that would give citizens and organisations better access to information held by government. These include … republishing information in open standards or as web services. Let’s look […]
Bobbies on the beta
I’ve suggested before that one day we might be able to roll our own government on wiki.gov.uk. The New Zealand Police are experimenting with just that concept with a Police Act Review Wiki. This joins other wikis launched to encourage New Zealanders to engage with public sector agencies. A good example is the Participation Wiki, […]
PSI4U
The Power of Information review (see previous post) looked at how non-personal public sector information can be re-used and reinvigorated outside of government to generate public and economic value. Responding to one of its recommendations, OPSI have set up a discussion forum to to gather and assess PSI re-use requests. At issue is not what […]
Power to the people (2)
The Cabinet Office has responded positively to the independent report it commissioned on the future of government services – The Power of Information (see previous post) – saying that the Government will engage in partnership with user-led online communities, not attempt to replicate them: The Government should work in partnership with the best of citizens’ […]
We don’t need no Education
DfES and DTI are no more, replaced by three new Departments and a fair bit of confusion. The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) is responsible for children’s services, families, schools, 14-19 education, and the Respect Taskforce. The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) “will deliver the Government’s long-term vision to make Britain […]
Gov 2.0 – power to the people
Around the world, the first phase of Government use of the internet is coming to an end with public services and information largely online. We are now at the start of a new era, where Government starts to learn how to support citizens’ own ways of making, finding and re-using information online. So says Tom […]
Beefy and Lamby anyone?
Comment on the Government’s proposals to close 550 plus government websites has provoked a range of comment from “about time too” to “a bit of a sick joke“, with numerous geeks chipping in that this is all unnecessary because [Web 2.0 reason here]. One needs to dig a little deeper than the government press release […]
Gov 2.0
In its Progress report on Transformational Government Strategy just published, the Cabinet Office reports that the government will close at least 550 government websites, with only 26 certain to be retained (presumably the Departmental websites plus DirectGov and Business Link to which information from the closed websites is to be transferred). The move is sold […]
Developments in legal information
First published January 2007 in the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers. Here are some of the key developments in the field of (free) legal information provision in 2006 and some predictions for 2007. The Statute Law Database After a 10-year wait, the Statute Law Database was finally released to the public just in time for Christmas. […]
Monopoly of PSI costs the UK £500 million in lost opportunities
OFT Press Release 07/12/2006: The OFT’s market study into the commercial use of public information has found that more competition in public sector information could benefit the UK economy by around 1billion a year. Examples of public sector information include weather observations collected by the Met Office, records held by The National Archives used by […]
Don’t break it when you fix it
Time was (last millennium) when every new government department / agency website was newsworthy whatever its utility. Then lots of content was added and content management systems were employed to structure browsing and search. That was all good stuff but with plenty of room for improvement. Many are now repainting their frontages and making those […]
Culture vulture
You learn something every day on the web en passant. Well numerous things in fact. I set out to check out the website revamp at DCMSwho nowglory under the domain name culture.gov.uk.On this voyage I discovered: 1)Firefox resolves URLs in strange ways: DCMS is now producing RSS feeds of news and FoI requests. Top marks […]
ODPM nil DCLG 4
There have been a lot of column inches devoted to Prezza’s skirt lifting and croquet and his consequent loss of face and department, but not much that I have seen on the practical implications of the departmental shift. The former ODPM is now the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). On the internet odpm.gov.uk, […]
Free public sector data? – someone has to pay
Society Guardian on howSusskind has approvedthe Guardian’s Free Our Data Campaign: The British government owns one of the world’s most valuable collections of intellectual property. Government policy on what it should do with this information is muddled. On one hand, it encourages free access, for example to historic census returns. On the other hand, agencies […]
