This week the UK government announced it was making 2,500 data sets available to web developers and companies to make use of in their own applications. The initiative, headed by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, hopes to encourage new ways of viewing and utilising this public data.
Some beta developers have already created websites using the information provided. Alerts can send emails that inform users to planning applications near their given location. "Fill That Hole" allows users to report potholes, which the site is able to pass on to the relevant authority. The government hopes that many similar sites will now appear thanks to this project, and you don't have to be technically-minded to take part. The data.gov.uk website also includes a section where visitors can submit ideas for possible uses for the data.
This is not the first time the public sector have launched such services. The Greater London Authority released similar information earlier this month, while the United States government has also released data packages, although the new UK project covers almost three times the data.
Data sites:
http://data.gov.uk/
http://data.london.gov.uk/
http://www.data.gov/
News stories:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8470797.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/jan/21/timbernerslee-gove...
Sites using the data:
http://www.planningalerts.com/
http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/
