Over the last couple of weeks we have continued enhancing the usability of data.gov.uk, based on the feedback you have been sending us. In particular you can now view the range of datasets available on the site (now over 3,000) via a tag cloud at data.gov.uk/data; allowing you to quickly see the variety of subject areas available.
You may have noted some of the new applications listed on the site, a number of which have been in the news lately.
Of particular note is the ASBOrometer which is a mobile application (iPhone and Android) that measures levels of anti-social behaviour at your current location (within England and Wales) and gives you access to key local ASB statistics. This app was number one in the top free UK iTunes app store last week.
Blog design We are continuing to enhance the site design of data.gov.uk and make improvements to the site’s usability. In particular you should notice a difference to the presentation of this blog post and the main blog page where the …
Our blog so far has been about the significant drive to open up national public data and reference datasets on data.gov.uk. As well as this, lots of work is also underway to provide access to data from bodies outside central government. A range of organisations including the NHS, schools and councils currently collect large amount of data which can be opened up. As part of the Putting the Frontline First: Smarter Government paper the Prime Minister said
Now that we have launched our developers are settling into a more regular release schedule. A lot of the work that they are doing is on the back-end – making things more stable, making it easier to build on, etc. However, we are keen to keep improving the experience you get, so we have been sneaking in some extra items so the site doesn't get stale and responds to your feedback – either on the site, via e-mail or on Twitter. One of the areas we were most concerned with was accessibility and compatibility – we want to offer everyone the same high quality service.
...members. Once registered, community members can: Submit contributions to the site discussion forum Create, edit and save new pages on the project wiki Submit comments across the site on blog...
Many thanks to everyone who has taken the time to give us early feedback and comments on the data.gov.uk public beta site. We've been heartened by the many messages of support, but you have also pointed to where we could make improvements.
Our developers have put in a number of quick improvements which we are releasing today. These include:
Hello and welcome to the public beta of data.gov.uk.
Data.gov.uk acts as an online point of access for government-held non-personal data. This is to enable people like you to take it, re-use it and make interesting things with.
This site has been some months in the making with a developer preview back in September. We made the site available to members of the development community to test it, use it and provide feedback on where we should be headed.
You may have noticed that today was the launch of a new Government White Paper – Putting the Frontline First: Smarter Government. The Digital Engagement blog has the details but it has enabled us to announce some Open Data Principles we have been working on in the team:
Public data will be published in reusable, machine-readable form
We’re conscious that a number of suggestions have been made about how to develop the front end site and we have been working on some of the smaller items, and are now considering the next phase of wider developments. The …
Recent Comments