Office of Public Sector Information

Posted by: Joe Anderson

Public Sector Information Holder: UK Parliament

Information Asset: Photographs of Lords and MPs

The problem

Wikipedia can't use pictures the British Parliament has of its members as they are not licensed under a free licence (one which allows them to copied, modified, and redistributed, even commercially).

My ideal solution

I would like Parliament to license its photographs under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 UK: Scotland (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/scotland/), Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/) or Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)

What I would do

Upload photographs to Wikipedia, or similar sites, and include them in the relevant pages.

Posted by: Feargal Hogan

Public Sector Information Holder: Ofsted

Information Asset: The School Inspection database

The problem

Ofsted regularly visit (on a cycle of between 2 and 6 years) each school in England and perform an inspection. The results of these inspections are published on the Ofsted website, historically in PDF format, more recently as html and PDF.

There is no published mechanism for creating links to these reports from outside the Ofsted site. Even DirectGov doesn't link directly to the latest Ofsted report from its school information pages. It has a generic link to the Ofsted homepage on every school's page.

Most schools try to make their latest Ofsted report available to visitors to their own website. Sometimes this is as a PDF copy of the report, sometimes as a link to the the Ofsted version. Both have their drawbacks. Local copies always raise an authenticity question. "Is this the full unexpurgated report?" With links, they often break. Ofsted move things around; a new inspection is performed, etc.

My ideal solution

There are 2 possible solutions here:

1) Ofsted develop/build/publish an API to allow external programmatic access to their datasets

Minimum functions required to include:
a) show_latest_report(school_urn) - directlink to webpage for the latest published report for a school
b) show_report_history(school_urn) - returns xml fragment containing details of all inspection reports available for a school (date, grade, type, format, uri, report_id)
c) show_report(report_id) - directlink to webpage for a specific published report

2) Ofsted regularly publish a full list of ALL reports for every school in an accessible format, including date_of_inspection, school_urn, grade/judgement, type, format, uri, report_id

The minimum accessible format would be an excel spreadsheet.

With #2, the private sector would be left to build their own apis to the data.

What I would do

Depending on the format unlocked, every school in England could create a permanent link to its latest Ofsted report. DirectGov could do the same. Third parties could add value by creating geo-mashups showing inspection grades of local schools as well as offering inspection history from school information pages.

It might also enable some interesting analysis on grade improvements.

Posted by: Feargal Hogan

Public Sector Information Holder: Ministry of Justice

Information Asset: Freedom of Information Act 2000: Statistics on implementation in central government

The problem

MoJ publishes quarterly reports on the handling of FoI requests across government. But it only does so in PDF format. I would like to have this information (or at least the source data) available in a more accessible and usable format.

At least one government dept has used the MoJ PDF as an excuse not to publish its own data. http://is.gd/vy4X

My ideal solution

One possibility might be a straight excel tabulation.

A slightly better solution would be for each organisation or department to publish regular updates of their own stats as RSS feeds and for MoJ to combine those feeds quarterly into the PDF publication.

What I would do

Depending on the formats provided, I might use it to analyse performance at my pet departments. Or it might be used by someone like whatdotheyknow.com to provide more information about government.

Posted by: Open Knowledge Conference 2009

Public Sector Information Holder: UK Intellectual Property Office

Information Asset: Patent Data

The problem

The data on patents is kept purposefully difficult to access and interpret. While Google Patents has made some progress in opening up patent data, there is much to be done. First, there are many sources of patents, and an exploration of British and European patents is needed. For example, individual patents themselves are not that interesting - what is more interesting is how patents are made to cover entire technology platforms. In order to understand this, we need data and API level access to patent data.

My ideal solution

UK patent information published in RDF, or made queryable via SPARQL.

What I would do

Develop applications that explore how patents and technologies overlap.

Posted by: Open Knowledge Conference 2009

Public Sector Information Holder: Department for International Development

Information Asset: UK Government Aid Information

The problem

There are a number of projects like AidInfo which aim to make international development aid more effective by introducing greater transparency into aid information. The Department for International Development publish lots of statistics and case studies on their website but not the raw data. For initiatives like AidInfo to work better, the UK government should publish all of its raw data aid information in an easy to re-use XML format on the web.

My ideal solution

DFID should publish the raw data about its funding schemes - i.e. exactly who gets what, for doing what.

What I would do

The information can be used to improve services like AidInfo and help make international aid more effective at improving people's lives.

Posted by: Open Knowledge Conference 2009

Public Sector Information Holder: UK Government

Information Asset: URI addressable resources

The problem

It is one of the principles of the web, that resources (web pages, documents, data) are made addressable. This means assigning resources, URIs. In order to help create a more re-use centric web, the government needs to focus on allowing 'resources' to be addressable, as a first step to exposing its data.

My ideal solution

That when publishing to the web, government departments make the things of most relevance or use to the wider world, directly addressable. The ideas are expressed in the Power of Information Taskforce Report, but government department's don't follow through.

What I would do

This is an essential ingredient for developing the web of data - so key to pretty much any mashup application.

Posted by: Bill Chadwick

Public Sector Information Holder: Ordnance Survey

Information Asset: Open DRM for OS Map Data Consumers

The problem

Currently consumers are unable to buy digital mapping from one OS reseller (e.g. Anquet, MemoryMap, SatMap, Garmin ...) and reuse it with another vendor's software. This is unfair as the map data is expensive and may well have usefulness that outlives the software and computing platform used to display it. This is a situation not unlike that of CDs within the music industry.

My ideal solution

The OS licensing model should enable consumer digital mapping data (1:50k, 1:25k raster + terrain data) to be moved by consumers, amongst computing platforms and storage media that they own and be displayed using any software of their choosing - even that of their own writing.

What I would do

Write and perhaps sell map display software.

Posted by: Colleen Wilson

Public Sector Information Holder: NHS Choices

Information Asset: NHS Choices API

The problem

NHS Choices has a SOAP API, which allows access to the data used for the website. In order to use this information you first have to apply to NHS Choices to use the API. There is no good reason for this. NHS Choices information should be freely and publicly available for re-use, and made available through a REST API, which would be easier to use.

My ideal solution

An open, free, RESTful API for NHS Choices data, that would be much easier for developers to use.

What I would do

Integrate the information from NHS Choices with a community website I am working on, but there are many other uses that NHS Choices information could be put to!

Posted by: Wendy Marshall

Public Sector Information Holder: Companies House

Information Asset: Company Information

The problem

Companies House has information supplied to it by every business in the UK, yet much of this information is then not freely available for re-use. For example, basic details about a Company registration, are available on the Companies House website, but you have to pay if you want to see the list of directors or other more detailed information.

My ideal solution

The information that Companies House collects should be available, free of charge, on the Companies House website. Companies House should design their website, so that there is an easy to reference URI for each company, based on it's company registration number, as shown here: http://www.jenitennison.com/blog/node/100

What I would do

More applications like Companies-Open-House,developed at rewired state.

Posted by: Benjamin Gould

Public Sector Information Holder: Ordnance Survey

Information Asset: Administrative Areas Geographic Data

The problem

I would like free access to administrative geography data held by Ordnance Survey. At the moment you have to pay just to know the extent of local authority boundaries! This information should be free, as proposed by the Power of Information Taskforce.

My ideal solution

The boundary line product should be publicly available, and free to re-use (at least non-commercially) under a simple licence.

What I would do

Create applications, like the excellent "Fix My Street", which depends on knowing who is responsible for what, where.

Posted by: Benjamin Gould

Public Sector Information Holder: Ordnance Survey

Information Asset: OS data on Google Maps

The problem

At the moment it is not possible for Local Authorities and others to use the excellent Google Maps API in conjunction with Ordnance Survey data. This is because Ordnance Survey prohibit the use of any of their information (derived data) on Google Maps, apparently because of Google's terms and conditions.

My ideal solution

Ordnance Survey should reach an accommodation with Google, so public sector information, which often contains derived OS data, can be displayed on Google Maps. OS should update its guidance to Local authorities as soon as possible.

What I would do

Mashups of public sector information, using the excellent, easy and free Google Maps.