

UK Government opens APIs, offers prizes for best mashups - danw
http://www.showusabetterway.com/

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goodkarma
Direct links to some of the APIs/data files:

Neighborhood Statistics API:
[http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/Info.do...](http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/Info.do?page=nde.htm)

NHS Choices API: <http://www.nhs.uk/nhscwebservices/Pages/Webservices.aspx>

EduBase School Data: <http://www.opsi.gov.uk/advice/poi/edubase300608.zip>

XML data file of "official notices":
<http://www.londongazette.co.uk/mashup/gazettesrdf.htm>

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vikram
In some ways this announcement is typical of the UK government. All spin
little substance.

All transport information cost lots of money (GBP 50,000 for Train info),
can't even get a free copy to prototype with.

None of the Land registry information is available. E.g. Houseprices, etc.

The map data released by UK Ordnance Survey is no different than what the
other 1/2 dozen map providers have released in the past two years. They again
charge thousands of pounds for detailed information like road location, etc.

If one wanted to do Everyblock in the UK. It would cost you 100,000 gbp+ to
get started.

I think it's a good start, but it doesn't go far enough.

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simonw
The group behind this, the "Power of Information" taskforce, are trying to fix
this. They need people to build things against the existing limited set of
APIs that demonstrate how important this data is, so they can use that as an
argument in getting better data made available under friendlier terms.

~~~
vikram
Simon, I like the work that you guys have been doing. I hope something comes
of this. Part of what is disappointing is that until they don't release
reasonable amount of data. Forget innovation, nothing will come of it.

Case in point is that I'm interested in finding out good schools that my
daughter can go to.

I've had a look at EduBase. I can't tell if a school is any good or not. Or if
they would admit my child or not. I can get more information from
<http://www.dcsf.gov.uk> or go to the local council website and download the
admissions criteria.

Every school has a different admission criteria. Some care about how close you
live to the school, some about where you worship or how christian you are. So
if you have a child who is close to school going age and you want to work out
what is the best school to send him/her to, you need to do lots of leg work. I
thought about building such an app.

I don't understand what you can do with the address, name of school, pupil age
and head teacher name. Isn't it easier to write a crawler for
<http://www.dcsf.gov.uk>

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ulf
Is the UK Government the first to take that step? I think they are to expect
huge benefits, at least after the first hype -if any- slows down and people
start to develop serious applications. Bold move.

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dhotson
A while back I wanted to make a train trip planner app for my local public
transport system in Melbourne.

Rather than scrape their website I decided to do the right thing and ask
permission to use their data. It turns out I needed to get written approval
from the state public transport minister to get access to the data.

I thought it would be a good idea if they offered an API or web service, so
that they can maintain ownership of their data. But also, so that people like
me can still access it to make cool apps.

Anyway.. I'm getting off topic... I think making this kind of data available
could lead to all kinds of cool stuff.

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steveplace
On a similar note, what I would love to see is full, free access to pure,
unadulterated historical data from all facets of government.

In the U.S. for example, try finding the correlation between GDP growth and
number of border arrests. Or domestic oil consumption versus domestic
production versus unused land leased to oil companies.

Just a simple directory that would pull data from CIA, BLS, DHS, Treasury,
etc. And you can download them in whatever format you chose.

I'll put that on my conversation list when Barack comes over to my house for
hamburgers. He really likes my recipe.

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louislouis
RateMyPrison - <http://visits.sicamp.org/> \- Brilliant Stuff!

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billroberts
The UK Ordnance Survey (government mapping organisation) opening up its data
is a big step - and not before time. Until now they've been very precious with
releasing any of their tax-payer owned information.

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danw
Related article on how governments should open up their data and become
platforms: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=198512>

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auston
Can U.S. citizens enter? Nothing in the rules that says no.

~~~
danw
I believe in the faq it says anyone can enter. The only caveat is Civil
Servants can't receive a monetary prize and instead will be given a gift, such
as a macbook air.

~~~
omnipath
I am a civil servant/not in the UK can I enter?

All ideas must affect and be implemented in the UK, but other than that the
more ideas the merrier! The only caveat if you are a civil servant is that you
will not be eligible to win financial elements of the prize. We are arranging
for an alternative prize that can be awarded - something like a Macbook Air.

I'm not sure, but I think that's saying you have to be in the UK. It's not
very clear.

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dangrover
Neat. Strange that it's a .com though.

~~~
goodkarma
I found direct links to several of the APIs and data files and they all have
.uk extensions.

I was confused by the .com web site as well, not quite sure whether or not
they are affiliated with the UK government..?

~~~
fendale
Probably not officially otherwise they would have a .gov.uk domain, but I
imagine they must be at least loosely affiliated with the government to be
pushing this sort of idea.

