I'm interested to see what data the Government can provide under this new banner: something more than static small datasets, prettily presented. What more than ONS data can it provide that would move towards openness and Google style data mining?
and it's great that the new coaliton government is giving the work a big boost.
There are some basic things you can do in a community with raw open data and a calculator to drive better public service outcomes. See this from 2008 http://www.kingscrossenvironment.com/2008/02/not-blinded-by.html
The London Data store is also a goldmine of useful information that you can handle with basic excel skills that are present in most small business for instance. See this rather grim league table that took tne minutes with a spreadsheet http://www.kingscrossenvironment.com/2010/01/arson-incidents-in-islington-1.html
Whilst in one dimension you can only go so far before the 'middle ware' level of processing is needed, there is a huge amount that can be done at a more simple level by people with basic math skills who just need to know that the data it there.
The real potential for the UK and any other country is to build use of open data into social science studies in further and higher education. Simple exercises could easily be set for older school children studying economics, politics or geography and there is no limit to the potential for undergraduates.
Rosslyn Analytics, a London-based technology company that specialises in spend analysis, is passionate about making the government’s public sector expenditure data available to the public (and public sector employees) with easy-to-view and use web-based reports. People simply need to visit RA.Pid Gateway at https://hmrc.rapidintel.com.
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I'm interested to see what data the Government can provide under this new banner: something more than static small datasets, prettily presented. What more than ONS data can it provide that would move towards openness and Google style data mining?
ReplyDeleteHi sarah - we've been toiling away on open data in the UK since the Power of Information work in 2007,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.opsi.gov.uk/advice/poi/power-of-information-review.pdf
and it's great that the new coaliton government is giving the work a big boost.
There are some basic things you can do in a community with raw open data and a calculator to drive better public service outcomes. See this from 2008
http://www.kingscrossenvironment.com/2008/02/not-blinded-by.html
The London Data store is also a goldmine of useful information that you can handle with basic excel skills that are present in most small business for instance. See this rather grim league table that took tne minutes with a spreadsheet
http://www.kingscrossenvironment.com/2010/01/arson-incidents-in-islington-1.html
Whilst in one dimension you can only go so far before the 'middle ware' level of processing is needed, there is a huge amount that can be done at a more simple level by people with basic math skills who just need to know that the data it there.
The real potential for the UK and any other country is to build use of open data into social science studies in further and higher education. Simple exercises could easily be set for older school children studying economics, politics or geography and there is no limit to the potential for undergraduates.
Can google perhaps help with this?
cheers
william
Rosslyn Analytics, a London-based technology company that specialises in spend analysis, is passionate about making the government’s public sector expenditure data available to the public (and public sector employees) with easy-to-view and use web-based reports. People simply need to visit RA.Pid Gateway at https://hmrc.rapidintel.com.
ReplyDelete