22 January 2010 | Author: D. Warburton Search Copywriter

Web founder launches Data.gov in the UK

A new website created by the inventor of the World Wide Web offers free public access to government data - including information on crime rates, house prices, local services and school Ofsted reports.

Data.gov.uk was developed by Sir Tim Berners-Lee to empower the public with access to non-personal government information. The web founder explained: "Making public data available for re-use is about increasing accountability and transparency and letting people create new, innovative ways of using it. Government data should be a public resource.

"By releasing it, we can unlock new ideas for delivering public services, help communities and society work better, and let talented entrepreneurs and engineers create new businesses and services."

The Press Association reports that around 2,500 sets of data are now available on the UK site, which can be freely used by the public and by businesses. The website was created by Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt from the University of Southampton, following Gordon Brown's appointment of the web founder last June to find ways to open up government data that was otherwise difficult to access.

The US Data.gov site launched last May, but ReadWriteWeb has praised the new UK site which it claims "already has more than three times as much data than the U.S. site offers today."

A number of applications have already been developed making use of the released data, including a school finder that enables parents to find the highest achieving schools in the area and a video detailing motorway traffic congestion over the past decade.