Data.gov reaches across the pond

The British have launched their own public version of Data.gov, making a wide range of national statistics available and increasing government transparency, modeled on the U.S. version.

White House Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra lauded the move, saying that he is "pleased to see that other governments share the administration's philosophy that data availability will help change how government operates and empower citizens to participate in making government services more effective, accessible and transparent."

The site, Data.gov.uk, provides datasets, design specifications, a forum and a wiki that allow developers to create mixtures of the data, or applications, for their own purposes. There already are several hundred applications available on the site. Mouseprice, for example, provides free access to Land Registry price-paid data that is matched with estate agency data.

There also is a crime map for Northern Ireland, health maps of Wales, obesity data, and a forum to post new ideas. Some of the recent ideas include making crime statistics available from local police for searching and creating a database of charitable trusts.

The U.S. site, Data.gov, provides some open source data to the public, but it's not as technically polished as the site the UK has created.

For more on Britain's foray into government openness:
- see this Los Angeles Times blog
- see the UK site
- also see this TechNewsWorld article

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