January 21, 2010

It's the best sort of policy story

By Alison Loat
Here's a line you don't read too often: "it's the best sort of policy story: one where the policy works, the good guys win, and the public interest is served."

The line is from what looks to be a great story behind the story of how the British government made its data freely available online. Written by Prospect Magazine's James Crabtree, it's about how Tim Berners-Lee, one of the founders of the world wide web, managed to break through the closed culture of government to make these data public.

According to the Guardian's Charles Arthur, Berners-Lee's motive was two-fold. First, the data are really the public's anyway, since the public "own the government." Second, he believes it will help companies and individuals to find out more about their surroundings and operate more effectively as a result.

It's hard to argue with that. Back here in Canada, there are many smart people pushing for more open data, and have some early success to point to. But according to at least one of these smart people, we still lag far behind not only the British, but the Americans and Aussies too.

P.S. Full disclosure: James and I were graduate students at the same place about the same time.

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Samara

October 3, 2010 23:11 PM

Samara's top 10 blogs this year (so far)

Samara's top 10 blogs this year (so far)

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