[open-government] How to open up local government data

[Simon Rogers]

No problem - but you guys got there first I think!

On 07/07/2010, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org> wrote:
> Pasted below are some ideas on how to open up local government data
> from Simon Rogers at the Guardian:
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/jul/07/local-government-data
>
> Simon: can we cross post these on the OKF blog?
>
> All the best,
>
> Jonathan
>
> ## 1. Make it open
>
> No T&Cs about not using the data for commercial use, no restrictions
> on access. Make the data available to anyone to do whatever they want
> to with it. That's the only way that the data information revolution
> is going to work.
>
> ## 2. Make it readable for computers
>
> The data needs to be in a format that any computer can use - no more
> PDFs, thank you very much. If developers can't build applications and
> campaigners can't analyse it, what use is it?
>
> ## 3. Make it granular
>
> The days when we only wanted official statisticians to just put the
> numbers together in a way we could understand are gone. Now we also
> want the full, disaggregated data too. It's the only way it will ever
> be useful for someone wanting to gather the true local picture of
> local spending. Let us worry about whether the dataset is too big or
> not. It's not your problem anymore.
>
> ## 4. Make it quick
>
> Just get the stuff out there. We'd rather have it as it is - and then
> get it revised later than have to wait months for it to be finalised.
> The government has provided express permission for local authorities
> to do this. So just do it.
>
> ## 5. Make it easy to find
>
> There's no point hiding this stuff away. If we can't find it, it may
> as well not exist. It should be easy to discover and simple to access.
>
> --
> Jonathan Gray
>
> Community Coordinator
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://blog.okfn.org
>
> http://twitter.com/jwyg
> http://identi.ca/jwyg
>

-- 
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Simon Rogers
Editor, Guardian Datablog and Datastore
Tel: +44 203 3534942
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