[okfn-discuss] Update on data.gov.uk

Fri Nov 27 17:20:58 UTC 2009

On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 4:07 AM, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org> wrote:
> Below is update on data.gov.uk from Richard Stirling at the UK Cabinet
> Office. Includes:
>
> "CKAN – As you know we are working with the Open Knowledge Foundation
> and using CKAN as our meta-data repository. At the moment we are
> running a separate instance while the site is behind the
> username/password barrier. Once this has been dropped we want to
> become a full, load carrying, node of CKAN. This of course brings with
> it a whole host of benefits, not least a well formed API to query our
> data."

That is terrific- great news for all parties involved.

Luis

> --
> Jonathan Gray
>
> Community Coordinator
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://www.okfn.org
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From:  <Richard.Stirling at cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk>
> Date: Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 11:32 AM
> Subject: [uk-government-data-developers] Update 1.3 - So what next?
> To: uk-government-data-developers at googlegroups.com
>
>
> Over the last few weeks we have been focussing on getting the project
> moving  forward within Government and helping individual data owners
> identify datasets for release.  This culminated in the meeting last
> week in which Tim and Nigel briefed the Prime Minister, Liam Byrne,
> Stephen Timms and others and the announcement by the Prime Minister
> and the Department of Communities and Local Government about Ordnance
> Survey data.
>
> In the next phase of our work we will be focussing on:
>
> Licensing - We are looking at how to drop the transactional element of
> the current licence and move closer to something like CC-BY.
>
> Data - We have identified a number of new datasets from departments
> and hope to put some of those live shortly (including a number through
> the ONS)
>
> Site - There are number of usability and functionality issues that we
> know about and again we will be doing a fuller blog post shortly on
> this. We are reading all your comments and factoring them in into the
> contents of the next release.  There will be a blog post from the team
> shortly on improvements that went live last week and trailing some of
> the others in the pipeline.
>
> Wiki - One of the things we had to drop from the initial preview was
> the wiki for our data. This is currently being worked on by our
> designers: the aim is to give each dataset an associated wiki page.
> This would be a great home for sharing community knowledge – for
> example sample queries, who is using the data in what way.
>
> Meta-Data richness - We are improving the meta-data we collect
> (inspired in part by the work of Australia and New Zealand) and are
> looking at how best to represent that.
>
> Search - This richer meta-data should allow much better search. At the
> moment we are very limited in what we are searching against. We know
> that this makes navigating our data a bit of a pain.
>
> SPARQL - Where we have Linked Data, SPARQL queries are available to be
> run against it. We are working at joining this up across the stores
> which will eventually provide a nice open, flexible, extensible way to
> query across our data.
>
> CKAN – As you know we are working with the Open Knowledge Foundation
> and using CKAN as our meta-data repository. At the moment we are
> running a separate instance while the site is behind the
> username/password barrier. Once this has been dropped we want to
> become a full, load carrying, node of CKAN. This of course brings with
> it a whole host of benefits, not least a well formed API to query our
> data.
>
>
>
> I know this leaves a lot of questions unanswered but hopefully is a
> good starter on: who we are; what we are up to; and where we are
> going.
>
>
>
> Regards
>
>
>
> Richard
>
>
>
> Richard Stirling
>
> Digital Engagement
> CabinetOffice
> 020 7276 2071
>
>
>
> http://blogs.cabinetoffice.gov.uk
>
> http://twitter.com/rchards
>
> The Cabinet Office computer systems may be monitored and
> communications carried on them recorded, to secure the effective
> operation of the system and for other lawful purposes.
>
> The original of this email was scanned for viruses by the Government
> Secure Intranet virus scanning service supplied by Cable&Wireless in
> partnership with MessageLabs. (CCTM Certificate Number 2009/09/0052.)
> On leaving the GSi this email was certified virus free.
> Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored
> and/or recorded for legal purposes.
>
> _______________________________________________
> okfn-discuss mailing list
> okfn-discuss at lists.okfn.org
> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss
>