Open Data accessible to us all and for free. Here is a video snippet from Data.gov.uk’s and Southampton University’s Nigel Shadbolt.  Discussing the atent power of government data and the drive to open it up for us all.

Data collected and paid for in the tax payers name is prime territory for making this a reality.  

• The UK Open Data  initiatives are happening, beginning to work, delivering results  and we are following closely to make data not only for the historic past but the future accessible to us all.
• There are many applications for open data and with Nigel’s reference back to Epidemiology and The Cholera Maps you can see some of the art of the possible…
• This is a huge subject but this  short presentation and the links below at least give an introduction and a thinking point or two as to why ‘open and liked data’ will be increasingly important and a wonderful opportunity for historians, not just the academics…
• Democratising data, making it accessible and breaking down the doors of Ivory towers sounds like fun to us…

 

Some further links and ideas resources to follow but just to get strated:

1. Open Data at Southampton University 
2. Data Gov UK Government Beta Site
3. Tim Berners Lee Notes on future of the web 2007 see related posts and themes to follow related to Tim’s pioneering work and in particular posts on other Linked Data Subjects.