Data.gov

The Coalition government is so transparent it's see through. Nick Clegg can barely get out of bed without failing to hide something. Data. gov then, inspired by an American government website, has been set up under the aegis of the Public Sector Transparency Board "to give a way into the wealth of government data." Although created under the watch of the previous administration, the most translucent Cameron and Co have embraced the idea, informing us on the site's homepage that "transparency is at the heart of this Government." Is that clear enough for you? 

OPEN TO SUGGESTION 

Data.gov, which draws upon Transparency Board member Tim Berners-Lee's ideas about "the semantic web, is "open about its openness, using "open standards, open source and open data" to make information "easy to find", "easy to license," and "easy to re-use."  

The site is its Beta stage at present, and, given this government obsession with getting the public to do its work for it, will change over the next few months as it incorporates our ideas free of charge. 

For a site about making information accessible, it's odd that it should be quite difficult to find that information. You can browse data by UK nation or publisher, but the data has not been organised into categories, although you can find a list of "popular tags" in the Apps channel. 

Data.gov has the feel of a real work in progress and, whatever the government might believe about its openness, this website is only likely to appeal at present to hardcore geeks who live for code. 

13 September 2010