Content Type
Blog Posts
From journalists to interpreters - is data changing the way we work?
Posted almost 16 years ago
“We will unleash a tsunami of data”. So said our Downing Street contact in the weeks after the election. And so it’s proven to be, from the numbers of civil servants and what they get paid (http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/jun/18/civil-service-statistics-headcount) to the salaries of Westminster advisors (http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/jun/13/government-special-advisers-list). Those would have been enough to keep us happy, but then we got COINS – the...
Economic benefits of data release
Posted almost 16 years ago
The new coalition government’s commitment to transparency heralds an exciting time for the possibilities of open data. The data release movement is relatively new and it’s difficult to predict its full economic impact in advance. The US leads the way in encouraging and financially incentivising the software community to develop new apps based on publicly available data. The first round...
The Story so far.........
Posted almost 16 years ago
It’s been six months since the launch of the Datastore, and during this time we have sourced and released over 260 datasets. The current top five popular datasets are: TfL Live Traffic Cameras• Borough Council Election Results 2010 Begging Incidents Recorded by British Transport Police• Average House Price• Oyster Ticket Stop Locations In return, you’ve created some stunning visualisations and...
Tube Feed Update
Posted almost 16 years ago
Owing to overwhelming demand by apps that use the service, the London Underground feed has had to be temporarily suspended. We hope to restore the service as soon as possible but this may take some days. We will keep everyone informed of progress towards a resolution.
Boost for London's Software Developer Community and SMEs as TfL lifts all restrictions on commercial reuse of its data
Posted almost 16 years ago
Today’s announcement by TfL that they have lifted all restrictions on the commercial reuse of their data will come as good news to the developer community. There is no doubt that this will provide a welcome economic boost to London’s SMEs and individual developers. And according to Chris MacLeod, Director of Group Marketing at TfL, it’s just the beginning: “I...
Visualisation for Everyone
Posted about 16 years ago
“Every day, every hour, maybe even every minute, we’re looking [at] and absorbing information via the web. We’re steeped in it. Maybe even lost in it. So perhaps what we need are well-designed, colourful and – hopefully useful charts to help us navigate” – David McCandless Author of Information is Beautiful, 2009. London’s datastore is home to a huge vault...
The Possibilities of Real Time Data
Posted about 16 years ago
We are looking forward to hosting our seminar The Possibilities of Real Time Data on Monday 19 April and still have some tickets left if anyone wants to attend. Its free so just email mailto:lisa.price@london.gov.uk if you want to come along. Paul Clarke will be moderating the Twitter Feed on the morning and anyone interested in joining the conversation can...
Accessible London - TfL Releases its data on London Underground Station Accessibility
Posted about 16 years ago
The 2012 Games provide a useful opportunity to get people thinking about how accessible/inaccessible London is going to be in time for the games. So the release of TfL Data around the accessibility of stations is extremely timely. Collected by London Underground and represented in 17 different spreadsheets (currently being worked on for upload by Gareth Baker) they should contain...
Redbridge Raise the Bar
Posted about 16 years ago
When people in the public sector talk about open data there can be quite a variance in definition. So it was an eye opening experience to meet with Redbridge Council last week to discuss their approach to data and their proposed participation in London’s Datastore. Chief Executive Roger Hampson is a member of the Local Government Data Panel and as...
Data, Data, Everywhere. Now let’s make a difference with it.
Posted over 16 years ago
“Everywhere you look, the quantity of information in the world is soaring… Merely keeping up with this flood, and storing the bits that might be useful, is difficult enough. Analysing it, to spot patterns and extract useful information is harder still. Even so, the data deluge is already starting to transform business, government, science and everyday life. It has great...