On 7 June 2011 13:15, TimSC <[email protected]> wrote: > What I think is lacking is information that describes why open data is > important as a policy. This information is readily available for open source > software, in contrast. It is difficult to address the issue of data > generally, as "data" is such a broad term. (And yes there is content out > there, but it fragmented.) >
I agree on this, and think the Government could be more hands on in forcing councils to open data up. But one quick thought... look at it from the perspective of a local authority officer whose department has just suffered the first of several waves of cuts, and who has a busy workload. Why would they take the time and effort to compile and release data? Aren't most open data applications just gimmicky visualisations? Something we in the OSM community can do quite powerfully is to show council officers why it might be beneficial to the council and even why the officer concerned could benefit. Have a look at this project, which is trying to make this case for open data more generally: http://www.madwdata.org.uk/ In my patch (Southwark) the council has done absolutely nothing to open data up, but the GIS team are friendly and sympathetic and have sent me the odd data on street trees and cycle parking, and I've been working on and off with the food & housing teams looking at food growing space data which they lack and we can help crowdsource. Regards, Tom -- http://tom.acrewoods.net http://twitter.com/tom_chance
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