Open Knowledge Conference

Keynote: The Power, Promise and Perils of Open Government Data

The past two years have seen the emergence of a powerful new force in e-government – the arrival of Open Government Data (OGD) initiatives. Nation states, regional authorities and cities are all setting up OGD programmes. The reasons are numerous and compelling; transparency and accountability, the drive to improve public services, efficiency and the creation of social and economic value are all advanced as reasons to publish public sector information. In June 2009 we began the process of setting up data.gov.uk – in the subsequent two years the UK has put thousands of datasets online. These range from geography to spending, crime to transport data. Not only has this work produced significant and tangible benefits for the UK it has also pioneered the use of linked data approaches to OGD – a next stage in the development of the Web. This talk will examine the lessons learnt, the future for such efforts around the world and consider how these developments fit into a wider open data context. It will also consider the challenges and difficulties we are likely to encounter as conitnue this exciting work.

by Nigel Shadbolt on June, 30th at 14:00 in Track I

Professor Nigel Shadbolt is Deputy Head (Research) of the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. He is a Director of the Web Science Trust, and of the Web Foundation – organisations that seek to advance our understanding of the Web and promote the Web’s positive impact on society.

In June 2009 together with Sir Tim Berners-Lee he was appointed a Government Information Advisor to help transform public access to Government information – work which resulted in the data.gov.uk site. In May 2010 the Coalition Government appointed him to the Public Sector Transparency Board that oversees public data release. He is also Chair of the Local Public Data Panel within the Department of Communities and Local Government – this seeks to coordinate and promote local open data.

Nigel has researched and published over a wide range of topics; ranging from cognitive psychology to computational neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence to the Semantic Web. He was one of the originators of Web Science – this calls for a systems level approach to the Web that recognises the social and technical factors that shape its development. He has also been heavily involved with the commercial exploitation of research. Recent companies he has helped found include Garlik, Tacit Connexions and Seme4. More details of his research and other activities can be found at http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/nrs/