

UK Launches Open Data Site; Puts Data.gov to Shame - vijayr
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/uk_launches_open_data_site_puts_datagov_to_shame.php

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wooster
Um, no.

Some of these "datasets" are links to web sites:
<http://data.gov.uk/dataset/england-national-crime-mapping>

Some are applications based on UK data which are run by non-governmental
organizations or individuals: <http://data.gov.uk/apps/post-box-finder-0>

It's unfortunate RWW chose to take a confrontational and disparaging tone
about US open data efforts. The US provides a vast amount of open, public
domain, datasets.

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coderdude
I wanted to look at some traffic-related dataset and the download link linked
back to the homepage. The site is poorly put together as far as I can tell.

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vijayr
<http://data.gov.uk/>

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vijayr
Looks like some of the data sets are in PDF :-(

Is there any standard, to publish these data sets? If yes, why can't the
governments, municipal corporations etc agree on publishing the data in that
format? It would be much easier to build apps ...

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kevindication
A "Standard" to rule them all is probably a bad idea here, but I agree that
PDF is really not appropriate for any data you'd like to process further.

The datasets can really vary in terms of characteristics, so while XML might
make sense for one, CSV might be completely appropriate for another. And
that's perfectly OK with me, so long as they document the fields and how to
parse it.

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kevindication
After we built StimulusWatch, we waited patiently for data.gov to arrive, and
quite honestly it was shameful from day one. No other site is needed to shame
data.gov. :-/

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tumult
We should be putting our foot down more often and flagging these linkbait
articles. I did.

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Jim_Neath
It's based on Drupal.

Nice to see the UK being innovative. _sigh_

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revorad
What's your point?

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redwax
I believe Sir Berners-Lee's personal website is powered by Drupal and he has
endorsed it in writing before this - so this is no suprise.

I am glad to see a government project capitalising on Open Source and owning
the software they use rather than the usual UK debacle of Microsoft
Consultancies and non-ownership of poorly customised and badly broken foriegn
owned closed source code.

Finally an ounce of sanity.

