Project Info

1. What is data.gov.uk?
2. What is our approach?
3. How can I get involved?
4. More questions?
5. How can I contact the project?
6. Who is involved in the project?
7. Awards

What is data.gov.uk?

This site seeks to give a way into the wealth of government data. As highlighted by the Power of Information Taskforce, this means it needs to be:

easy to find;
easy to license; and
easy to re-use.

We are drawing on the combined expertise and wisdom of the Transparency Board to publish government data in a way consistent with the Public Data Principles.

What is our approach?

Working with the web;
Keeping things simple: we aim to make the smallest possible changes that will make the web work better;
Working with the grain: we are not looking to rebuild the world. We appreciate that some things take time; others can be done relatively quickly. Everything has it's own time and pace;
Using open standards, open source and open data: these are the core elements of a modular, sustainable system; and
Building communities, and working with and through them (both inside government and outside).

Formally launched in January 2010 the site will continue to develop over the coming months as we continue to incorporate your feedback and thoughts.

How can I get involved?

There are a number of ways of getting involved in the project, dependent on your background or interest. For example:

Ideas: let us know any ideas you would like to see someone build as applications? Tell the community via the Ideas page and someone might just pick up the challenge!
Applications: have you built something cool with our data? Share it with us through the Apps page. You never know who might get excited!
Visualisations: one of the challenges is making data come to life. Have you found a great way of displaying our data? Does it combine with other data to give a new insight? Show us your talent?
Architecture: would you like to help us make this site better? Get in touch!

How can I contact the project?

There are a few ways to get hold of us: Email: Contact page Twitter: http://twitter.com/DirDigEng IRC: #opendata on freenode www.freenode.net

Who is involved in the project?

Data.gov.uk is a key part of the Government's work on Transparency which is being lead by the Transparency Board. Data.gov.uk implementation is being led by the Transparency and Digital Engagement team in the Cabinet Office, working across government departments to ensure that data is released in a timely and accessible way. This work is being supported by Sir Tim-Berners Lee & Professor Nigel Shadbolt. There are a number of technical partners involved in the project to date. These include the Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN): CKAN stores the catalogue behind data.gov.uk and a growing number of open data registries around the world. It is a project created by the Open Knowledge Foundation to provide make it easy to find, share and reuse open content and data. The CKAN software provides its own web interface, programmer's API, feeds notifying of changes, and a browsable history of all changes. The API is available at: catalogue.data.gov.uk