Tom Watson MP has identified the listing of Government job vacancies as an interesting area which might benefit from a Power of Information approach. He has written an article on his blog identifying a range of government job vacancies web pages and seeks comments on this subject.
Entries from June 2008
June 27, 2008
Australian Licensing Examples
There are some interesting examples of public data licensing practice from Australia. The first is for spatial data where a comprehensive policy for access and pricing was adopted in 2001. This has a very clear statement of objectives: The Policy on Spatial Data Access and Pricing (‘Policy’)… sought to maximise benefits to the community from [...]
June 25, 2008
Trading funds
The Shareholder Executive and HM Treasury are undertaking a review of the trading fund model. The terms of reference have been published today. As the review will be including the areas that Tom and Ed suggested, the Taskforce will be assisting with this review, particularly looking at the value of the data held by the [...]
June 24, 2008
Opening Up Legislative Bodies
There are a number of projects around the world aimed at opening up the legislative process through creative re-use of the records produced by parliaments, congresses etc. It is worth looking at some of these power of information exemplars. UK – TheyWorkForYou.com US – OpenCongress.org EU – IPPR-MEP.eu (How MEPs Work) Australia – OpenAustralia.org There [...]
June 24, 2008
Open Tech 2008 – Saturday July 5th
UKUUG and friends are organising what should be a very interesting event called Open Tech 2008 on Saturday July 5th. This event is described as …an informal, low cost one-day conference on technology, society and low-carbon living, featuring Open Source ways of working and technologies that anyone can have a go at. Previous events by [...]
June 20, 2008
BBC Debate on Common Platform
The ongoing debate about public service media in the UK is also stimulating thought and discussion around how best to present public data. Steve Bowbrick has written about an idea he calls a Common Platform. And this will be discussed in a BBC debate next week.
June 19, 2008
More Architecture
Some diagrams to stimulate further thought and discussion on what needs to be done architecturally to realise the power of public information. Diagram 1 – the ‘traditional approach’ The emphasis of much web development to date has been on the presentation of the data to the public. The assumption was that a particular website would [...]
June 18, 2008
Crime Mapping – proof of concept
The Taskforce has been investigating what an ideal crime map might look like. Rather than a ‘fear of crime map’ how could one show the trends in crime in someone’s area and on the same screen provide information about police priorities in your neighbourhood and a one click connection to local police. That is providing [...]
June 18, 2008
Social Media Guidance
Tom Watson MP announced the publication of social media guidance for civil servants at Cabinet Office questions in Parliament today. This is an important step in creating the conditions for effective engagement by public servants at the interaction layer. Any feedback on these guidelines would be of great interest to the Task Force. RIchard Allan, [...]
June 16, 2008
Interaction Layer
Thinking more about the work programme for the Task Force and the layered model I described earlier, there is a need for an additional layer above the Presentation Layer. INTERACTION LAYER – the methods used for engaging with people interested in the data being presented, including both reactive, e.g. accepting comments, and proactive, e.g. introducing [...]
