Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Wednesday 10 June 2009, 2:46 PM
PM calls on Berners-Lee in open-government drive
Gordon Brown is bringing in the inventor of the web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, to help open up government data.
Brown made the announcement in Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, during a speech on constitutional reform.
"So that Government information is accessible and useful for the widest possible group of people, I have asked Sir Tim Berners-Lee who led the creation of the World Wide Web, to help us drive the opening up of access to Government data in the web over the coming month," Brown said in his speech.
Berners-Lee is a strong proponent of citizens having secure control over their own data, and has criticised the UK government for seemingly condoning the use by ISPs of techniques such as deep-packet inspection.
Brown made the announcement in Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, during a speech on constitutional reform.
"So that Government information is accessible and useful for the widest possible group of people, I have asked Sir Tim Berners-Lee who led the creation of the World Wide Web, to help us drive the opening up of access to Government data in the web over the coming month," Brown said in his speech.
Berners-Lee is a strong proponent of citizens having secure control over their own data, and has criticised the UK government for seemingly condoning the use by ISPs of techniques such as deep-packet inspection.
PreviousComments on this post
It's an interesting move, but I fear it will do little more than catch headlines. The problem within Whitehall is not technical, but cultural. While Berners-Lee is an expert in information systems and linked data, I doubt his skills of persuasion are as finely honed. We don't need someone to help overcome problems of how to get government data published — we need a change in attitude to a presumption of publication, rather than of secrecy.
