Web founder helps government launch official data website
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the world wide web, has unveiled his latest project for the government, data.gov.uk, which will provide public access to official data.
The new website will enable the public to view official information such as traffic statistics and crime figures and report publems such as pot holes.
Ten applications have also been created for the site including PlanningAlerts, which searches local authority planning websites and e-mails subscribers details of any applications in their area.
Why can’t MPs speak up, and Gordon Brown pipe down?Sir Tim, who was asked by Gordon Brown to supervise the project in June 2009, told BBC News: “It’s just such an untapped resource.
“Government data is something we have already spent the money on … and when it is sitting there on a disk in somebody’s office it is wasted.”
A test version of the site has been working since September, and has been trialled by 2,400 web developers, who provided feedback.
The service is part of a raft of new initiatives by the government that aim to use information in new ways.
A site that shows the location of schools along with scores from their Ofsted reports has already been built, while another service, FillThatHole, enables users to report potholes in their local area.
It follows Barack Obama’s launch of data.gov in America, providing information from the US defence department and NASA, and plans by Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, to publish more than 200 sets of data related to life in the capital online.
www.webserveruk,co.uk
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