About

1. What is data.gov.uk?
2. What is our approach?
3. How can I get involved?
4. More questions?
5. How can I contact the project?

What is data.gov.uk?

This site seeks to give a way into the wealth of government data. As highlighted by the Power of Information Taskforce, this means it needs to be:

easy to find;
easy to license; and
easy to re-use.

We are drawing on the expertise and wisdom of Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt to publish government data as RDF – enabling data to be linked together.

What is our approach?

Working with the web;
Keeping things simple: we aim to make the smallest possible
changes that will make the web work better;
Working with the grain: we are not looking to rebuild the world. We
appreciate that some things take time; others can be done relatively
quickly. Everything has it's own time and pace;
Using open standards, open source and open data: these are the core
elements of a modular, sustainable system; and
Building communities, and working with and through them (both inside
government and outside).

Over the coming months the site will be developing further as we
incorporate your feedback and thoughts.

How can I get involved?

There are a number of ways of getting involved in the project, dependent on your background or interest.

For example:

Ideas: let us know any ideas you would like to see someone build as applications? Tell the community via the Ideas page and someone might just pick up the challenge!
Applications: have you built something cool with our data? Share it with us through the Apps page. You never know who might get excited!
Visualisations: one of the challenges is making data come to life. Have you found a great way of displaying our data? Does it combine with other data to give a new insight? Show us your talent?
Architecture: would you like to help us make this site better? Get in touch!