I blogged about Tim Berners-Lee’s appointment to open up access to government data when it was announced last year.
The www.data.gov.uk site has now gone live, providing developers with access to government data to power useful applications for us citizens. There are already some great little apps out there, from property prices to crime maps.
But at the moment there are two things missing if the initiative is to really fly. Firstly, it doesn’t have Ordnance Survey data, although apparently negotiations are continuing on this. Secondly, and I think more importantly is a way of getting these apps out to the widest possible audience. The risk is that lots of bright people will do cool things with the data but the general public simply won’t know about them.
What’s needed now is proper marketing of the apps, not just the concept, and a programme that mandates the public sector to publicise/include them on their own websites. Otherwise the risk is that the outputs of data.gov.uk will remain the preserve of a digital elite.
