Government Open Data Updates
January 21, 2010 9 Comments
Despite some speed humps, many cities and governments are going full speed ahead with opening their data. One of the biggest is the City of Vancouver’s Open Data Catalogue (note the copy and paste spelling of catalog, those wacky Canadians). Well they’ve launched a new update that simplifies the process of navigating the data. Every time I stop by I see more and more data available in more formats. I think the city should be commended for their embracing open data sharing with citizens.
The other open data update is the data.gov.uk website. The search is less than useful as you can’t perform advanced searches. Sean Gorman did a quick look and didn’t find any specific geo datasets, but I’m sure we’ll start seeing them. One thing that didn’t surprise me was the presence of SPARQL. Why data.gov.uk would put such an annoying query language front and center is beyond me. But with Sir Tim Berners-Lee as and advisor I can only imagine that he pushed hard for its placement. (note I’m not a big fan of RDF so take that as you will). Still it is good to see the UK start working hard at sharing public data with everyone.
I wasn’t in Britain for the announcement of data.gov.uk, but I can only imagine it went something like this….
About James Fee
Toronto also has a site, although not near as much data available yet;
http://www.toronto.ca/open/
The Vancouver site is so refreshing. Simple. Multiple formats. And no IMS-based clip n’ ship bogging it down.
The Australian government has also embraced this concept of openness.
They ran a competition to find the best apps using government data, at http://mashupaustralia.org/
It’s interesting that most of the entries used GIS or a map, even if it wasn’t the main focus.
You can view the winning entries at http://mashupaustralia.org/winners/
Sir, I must protest at the mocking tone you adopt in referring to the sterling efforts of Her Majesty’s loyal Commonwealth subjects to secure access to Her Majesty’s data. Plus your spelling shows suspiciously rebellious ex-colonial features.
Sadly, I must disappoint you in your suggestion that data.gov.uk was launched with royal celebrations and a fly-past of the Royal Air Force’s three remaining jets.
In fact, Her Majesty’s government typically displays the attitude satirised by the late great Douglas Adams, when Arthur Dent is complaining that he never knew about plans to demolish his home:
“`…You hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them had you? I mean like actually telling anyone or anything.’
`But the plans were on display…’
`On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.’
`That’s the display department.’
`With a torch.’
`Ah, well the lights had probably gone.’
`So had the stairs.’
`But look you found the notice didn’t you?’
`Yes,’ said Arthur, `yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying “Beware of The Leopard”.’”
And thsi one is genuine:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/nov/20/ordnance-survey-google-maps
The recent grudging access to UK government data has been pried open in part by the efforts of people like the Free Our Data campaign:
http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/
So I suspect the choice of SPARQL as query language is entirely in keeping with the Adams Leopard principle….
The District of North Vancouver seems to have an open data policy as well. Tons of data on thier website for free. More than any other I’ve seen.
http://www.geoweb.dnv.org/data/
Those wacky Canadians (I’m one) spell in English not American, hence ‘catalogue’ not ‘catalog’ (or ‘centre’ not ‘center’, etc.).
Wacky Brits (I live there) using oddball protocols shoudn’t overshadow the enormous effort it took to pry data from the Crown (a legal, not a ceremonial entity). And there’s a livley community here:
http://groups.google.com/group/uk-government-data-developers/
Keep’on bloggin’
In my opinion the most compelling criticism of the U.S. data.gov site is that it’s very much comprised of geographic data and not data that the average person can absorb. While this is good for GIS folks (depending on your view of the data’s quality) it isn’t very useful for the general public. The UK site on the other hand is almost all data that tries to be public friendly with an eye for accountability.
It will be interesting to see how the U.S. open government initiative changes this in the coming months on data.gov.
“Open is as Open does. As my moma used to say”
I love the idea of the data.gov.uk site I just find it sad that the UK government couldn’t review properly the issue of Postcode data.
Postcode data should form the bedrock of data sharing. Planningalerts.com is a fantastic idea that fits with UK national policies in regards to eGov and ePlanning (its all about more cost effective government services and consultation). Yet it is restricted by lack of access to proper postcode data.
I believe sharing data for non-commercial is the wayforward as more services are provided online.
As a resident of Vancouver, I find it interesting that they’ve released their data after opting out of the ICIS (Integrated Cadastral Information Society) for so long. The ICIS doesn’t exactly provide it’s data free, although you can use a WMS provided through GeoBC to view the cadastral info, but I’m hoping that will change. The availability of cadastral and utility information that the ICIS maintains for all of BC would be fantastic.
Now if only Alberta would start trying to catch up…