Open Data

Since 1st April 2010 when the OS released its Opendata many other bodies have been ploughing their data sets into the free data area. 
Anyone who has explored the open data in the the UK will soon find the variation in the quality and usefulness of a lot of the data is huge.  Previously the data was only really available through data streams requiring web skills to get the most out of the data, this is currently changing with many of the data sets being made available as standalone datasets. 
This is all great but I think there needs to be greater promotion of this data to ensure the uptake and utilisation of the data as it is still something that people are aware of and that they know how to get it.  It’s not the geospatial geeks that need to be informed it’s the public and industry in general, if you get use from outside the geospatial nerdosphere then thats when the real benefits will be seen.
Searching for the available datsets can be hit and miss through www.data.gov.uk  it is now a huge repository of data, offering nearly twice as many data sets for general use than its counterpart in the US.

Once you have found the data set you need it may still take you through to other portals to actually download the data set, this needs to be tightened up as it can be easy to get lost when following the links through.  If you are not familiar with the data set then help may be needed to extract and the best from it.

These are all small moans and niggles, compared to where we were a year ago the quality and breadth of data freely available is amazing.  This resource should be being used immeasurably more than it currently is.  To this end education of whats there and how to use it should be the next focus.  No point it being there if its not being used.  This education is now starting to happen, although on a limited basis http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/datablog/2010/oct/13/free-data-nottingham-classes

It is a paradigm shift for a lot of people in the industry to have all this data freely available, methodologies need to change, if that happens then this data will make a huge difference to many areas of industry in the UK