Guest Blog: The “great prize” on offer from embracing open data | Open Data Institute

"These are exciting times for open data. We are on the brink of using it to power and fuel a genuine, permanent transformation in how public services are designed and provided. This really matters to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).  We are pushing forward with new policies which shift decision-making power from central government to local councils, their residents and local communities. The Department wants to put communities in charge of planning, increase local accountability, and help citizens to see how their money is being spent in the local area.  Open data is an essential ingredient of success here. It will provide the information people need to understand, compare and contrast local public services, and get involved in shaping and directing local priorities.  Making progress: ...work to date ... We want to get to a world where all data is available by default, in a fully open and accessible form. Our users want to quickly and easily find and re-use DCLG’s outputs.  It should also be possible for them to automatically join up our data with related sources, over the web:  for instance, to bring together local and national sources about a particular locality. Like all other public-sector organisations, the challenge for DCLG is to unlock data in myriad of different formats and IT systems. Just visit our website, and you’ll find a mountain of spreadsheets that are largely disconnected, and so quite difficult to bring together and re-use. First steps ..."