[ckan-discuss] G-Cloud Open Data Platform

Mon Mar 21 10:28:37 GMT 2011

Hi Tim

> I've had a brief read of your PDF[1], however I have no idea about what
> the service offering is. Are you able to please explain what G-Cloud
actually is?

The term G-Cloud is actually coined by the UK Government, for their Cloud
adoption program:

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/g-cloud-programme-phase-2

> Additionally, why are you fighting against the grain by proposing that
> government builds applications? A stronger argument for me is that
> government should get out of the retail business and focus on the data
> wholesale business.

We're not. The core idea of the G-Cloud is that it builds on their
previous R&D of open source, to enable more reuse across government.

Therefore the ultimate goal of the G-Cloud platform is to bring together
these different worlds: Cloud platforms, Open data, open source modules.

It should be to enable "citizen developers" to create new mashups of gov
data, where these can then be easily reused by any other agency and via a
utility pricing model. This platform is intended for this purpose.

regards, Neil.