Free Our Data debate

Published : 13 February 2009

SONA founder Shane O'Neill, speaking as a member of the Government's Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information (APPSI) participated in the Policy Exchange's popularly attended Westminster Free Our Data debate this week.

Here is an extract from the Guardian's coverage of the debate:

"Speaking on Tuesday at a conference on government data policy, the shadow minister for innovation and skills, Adam Afriyie, said: "In today's economic climate, we must ensure government data policies help rather than hinder economic growth."

The Free Our Data campaign is now gaining cross-party support, with the cabinet minister Tom Watson and other ministers pushing for closer investigation of the benefits of making government-collected data available for wider use.

"The campaign is an important one, all the most so at a time when our economy is in deep recession," Afriyie said.

The Conservatives believe that public-sector data need to be opened up to wider use, Afriyie said. Non-trading-fund data such as raw data for crime maps, school league tables or the location of accident black spots "lie unpublished, unavailable and untapped in government vaults".

On data held by trading funds, such as Ordnance Survey, Met Office, the UK Hydrographic Office and Land Registry, Afriyie noted: "We see nothing intrinsically wrong with asking users to pay for a service ... but we are instinctively cautious of government monopolies." While he could see the case for the government having responsibility (through OS) for mapping the nation, "with growing opportunities in the digital economy, it's not so obvious that the government should also run map shops".

Afriyie was scornful of the government's response until now in examining the benefits and costs of a free-data model. "So far there have been at least five government reports [on trading funds]. And some - like the long-delayed trading funds assessment - have been announced with great fanfare, only to fade with a whimper."

He called on the government to publish the assessment: "Let us have the debate."

Also speaking at the conference in London, organised by the thinktank Policy Exchange, were Charles Arthur, the Guardian's Technology editor, who is a co-founder of the Free Our Data campaign; Ed Parsons, formerly the chief technology officer at OS and now a geospatial technologist at Google; Steven Feldman, a freelance geospecialist and Shane O'Neill, a consultant who is a member of the government's advisory panel on public sector information (APPSI)."