Data Gov UK – a challenge to the private sector

Published : 21 April 2010

The number of databases now liisted at www.data.gov.uk (the Making Public Data Public initiative flagship portal) now totals over 3,240.  An astonishing achievement, considering that it was launched only several weeks ago.

Data.gov.uk ‘s early  success is down to a number of factors – the ‘wow’ factor of Tim Berners Lee’s involvement and campaign; Prime Ministerial  sponsorship; and the enthusiasm of the civil servants and developers who have populated the site.  Here is available already a vast range of public sector information (PSI)  -  from OS OpenData’s  API developer interface to (albeit restricted) mapping data, to direct downloads of Excel spreadsheet data, to at least direct contact with data holders willing and committed to opening up re-use.  Heartening evidence of policy achievement and of Government as Enabler rather than Deliverer.

The question now is – can the private sector, many of whom have hollered in vain (and for years) for such a denouement,  step up to the plate and justify the faith of the policymakers?

Yes, we are seeing small innovations and exercises in local democracy, but what about scale business opportunities arising out of PSI?

Up to now it has been difficult to point to great success stories.  Where access to PSI has been straightforward and relatively liberal (such as PSI from Companies House, the Electoral Roll and ONS statistics), then it has helped boost the forecasting, ratings and research information industries. But otherwise, scale examples of successful companies built on PSI have been hard to identify.

Companies such as Landmark and Dr Foster Intelligence have been exceptions in that their entrepreneurial founders identified needs in their target market workflows (respectively an environmental due diligence requirement and a need to have meaningful and independent healthcare performance stats) and they became close enough to the public sector sources of information to get the information released.  Once their market position was achieved, they were able to enjoy, and still enjoy, the advantage of the market duopolies which restrictive PSI release seems to encourage.

That now is changing. Datasets relating to  companies, environment and pollution, prescription patterns, health care and healthcare economics (to name random subject areas searched on data gov uk ) are all becoming much more readily available.

By itself, PSI does not make a product or a service – but as part of an intelligent mix of data, supporting a workflow application which resolves real customer needs, it can help innovative publishers to extend their business models. But only if  innovative publishers respond to the challenge!

And though this column will continue to draw attention to inconsistencies and unfulfilled promises in Government’s rhetoric, it enthusiastically concedes that the Walls of Jericho  do indeed appear to be falling down.  And the burden of responisbility to exploit public sector information is shifting from the public to the private sector.