By their very nature users of open data are hard to track down. Looking at the most viewed and downloaded datasets for data.gov.uk raises more interesting questions that it answers. There are a few interesting signs, such as the …
Do you remember when Twitter lost $8 billion in just a few hours earlier this year? It was because of a web scraper, a tool companies use—as do many data reporters. A web scraper is simply a computer program that …
SUMMARY: The government has set up a commission to review the relevance of freedom of information requests – but open data doesn’t make them redundant. A government funded organisation that was founded by the inventor of the World Wide Web, …
ODI urges government not to use open data as an excuse to clamp down on FOIs Read more »
ODI Policy Lead Ellen Broad explains that open data is an important transparency mechanism but open data will never make FOI laws redundant Recently the UK Government announced a new Commission on Freedom of Information, to ensure freedom of information …
Appeal to the FOI Commission: don’t confuse open data with FOI Read more »
As politicians promise more and more open data to solve our problems, there is one big gap in our understanding: who is really using it? By their very nature users of open data are hard to track down. Looking at …
Last week the UK updated its laws that shape how government data can be accessed and used. Since 2005, how public bodies in the UK provide access to their content and data, and the extent to which their content and …
Updates to UK government information laws: has anything changed? Read more »
On Friday, the UK Government announced a new commission to review the Freedom of Information Act. The announcement cited the UK’s first place ranking in our Open Data Barometer to justify the commission’s mandate to review, and allegedly limit, the …
Why is the UK’s review of the Freedom of Information Act a cause for concern? Read more »
On Friday of last week, the Government announced a new commission on Freedom of Information. Here, Ben Worthy offers his response to the announcement, arguing that the objections to the scope and usage of FOI that have been raised are nothing …
On Friday, the UK Government announced a review of the Freedom of Information Act, citing the UK’s first-place ranking in our Open Data Barometer. Our CEO, Anne Jellema, responded by urging the UK Government not to use the UK’s ranking …
UK to review Freedom of Information Act – Web Foundation responds Read more »
Last week, the UK Gov announced an Independent Commission on Freedom of Information (written statement) to consider: whether there is an appropriate public interest balance between transparency, accountability and the need for sensitive information to have robust protection whether the …