Comments on: Show us a better way dot com

By: Brian L. Hazeldine

Brian L. Hazeldine — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:26:22 +0000

I’ve watched with appalled fascination the progress of the ‘Guardian’ technology section’s campaign for publicly funded information to be given away free to those who want to use it for their own benefit. As an ordinary taxpayer, I object strongly to data that I’ve helped pay for being given away free to ‘entrepreneurs’ who want to use it as the basis of products they’ll sell, they hope for large profits, to ordinary taxpayers like myself who’ve funded the data in the first place. Of course, I soon found the ‘Free our data’ campaign was not interested in any views that objected to their proposals, much less criticised their USA derived economic theories about benefit to the economy. I did suggest that the data could be made free to those who would develop products that would be made available free to all UK tax payers, but the main proponents of the campaign don’t seem to like such ideas.

By: Podnosh Blog » Archive » Do you want access to UK Government/public data? Ask and it may be unlock (ed):

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:08:36 +0000

[...] I’m sensing a snowball.Â Moments after the government offered a Â£20,000 fund for re-working gov data they are now asking us what else we want access to: [...]

By: Guvernul ofera 25.000 euro pentru proiectul tau online | Sorin Tudor

Guvernul ofera 25.000 euro pentru proiectul tau online | Sorin Tudor — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 12:25:40 +0000

[...] Proiectul Show Us a Better Way, initiat de parlamentarul britanic Tom Watson, evidentiaza distanta dintre Romania si tarile din vestul Europei (oare mai era nevoie sa spun asta?!): in timp ce politicienii lor ofera premii acelora care ii ajuta sa faca datele guvernamentale mai folositoare pentru cetateni, politicienii nostri cheltuiesc milioane de euro pe site-uri care nu intereseaza pe nimeni sau pentru proiecte copiate. [...]

By: David Wilcox

David Wilcox — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:20:53 +0000

Tom – thanks for the interview at 2gether08. Video is here http://snurl.com/2u28q

By: BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Data are news

BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Data are news — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:55:07 +0000

[...] Tom Loosemore, blogging MP Tom Watson — and others, including the Guardian — have been fighting to get more public data made public in the UK. Now Watson and Loosemore have launched a $40k prize to mashup this data and come out with lots of lemonade. Here’s Paul Bradshaw on the movement. Here are some — as a Brit tweet said — stonking good ideas already. [...]

By: Could this be the tipping point for UK data mashups? | Online Journalism Blog

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:09:06 +0000

[...] The best thing that I took from this week’s 2gether08 event was yesterday’s announcement by blogging MP Tom Watson and Ofcom’s blogging Tom Loosemore of Show Us a Better Way. [...]

By: John Lilburne

John Lilburne — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:11:12 +0000

A better way would be to use the correct TLD for UK govt sites: showusabetterway.gov.uk. Using a generic commercial TLD doesn’t inspire confidence given the amount of phishing happening today.

By: 2gether08: half-way mark quickie « Emma Mulqueeny

2gether08: half-way mark quickie « Emma Mulqueeny — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:19:58 +0000

[...] PS If you think this is all b*ll*cks and nothing will happen in the public sector, meet our latest ‘e-Minister’ Tom Watson MP. He blogs here: http://www.tom-watson.co.uk/?p=2078 Regardless of party political affiliation (I am Buddhist in this regard) the guy we have right now is the one who really gets this stuff. Let’s make hay whilst the sun is shining [...]

By: David Smailes

David Smailes — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:45:24 +0000

Tom. Sent you a Twitter message earlier, am interested in opening up this contest to my students.

By: paul canning

paul canning — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:20:16 +0000

Great stuff Tom. More power to you, etc.