The Management Consulting Group

A new website launched by the government will now enable people to freely access the huge amounts of official data in the public sector.

Developed under the aegis of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the ‘inventor of the web’, the project went on floor in mid-2009. The project was aimed at allowing free access to the information gathered by the government authorities with respect to varied aspects of the public sector including traffic statistics. Last September witnessed the launch of a beta version of the website that was tested by a number of developers, who responded with their feedback.

The data can be used in a number of contexts including display of school locations on the basis of their Ofsted ratings, a mechanism for reporting road risks such as potholes and PlanningAlerts applications that would enable people to register and get details of all the planning applications in a particular area.

The website, data.gov.uk came up as a solution to the problem of unused information that has been collected by the authorities but has never been put up for access by the public. Speaking to BBC, Sir Tim pointed out that it is more important to disburse government information as expenses on the same have already been incurred.

According to Professor Nigel Shadbolt of Southampton University, a key participant in the development of the website commented that if the data can be made available to the public under a Freedom of Information request, it can very well be published online. He also pointed out that the site is all set to experience growth with the addition of more data and newer applications for the usage of such data, and turn into a good public resource.

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