Osborne announces open data push to create jobs and growth

"Chancellor George Osborne has announced a raft of measures in his Autumn Statement, including the establishment of an Open Data Institute, to make public sector data more freely available. Information relating to healthcare, travel, weather forecasting and house prices will be among the first to be freed up in a move designed to create growth and jobs in UK industry. The Cabinet Office is creating a Data Strategy Board made up of data users, which will be responsible for public sector contracts with the Public Data Group. It will also have up to £7m over the next three years to spend on making more data freely available. Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, world wide web inventor, and Professor Nigel Shadbolt of Southampton University will jointly head the Open Data Institute in London’s Silicon Roundabout. The Institute will “innovate, exploit and research open data opportunities with business and academia”. ..."