Guardian Technology's Free Our Data campaign has been invited by the government to help set up a channel through which the public can say what public data they want to access, and how.
The invitation, which marks significant ministerial recognition for the case being made by the campaign, came from Michael Wills, the new minister for information, who personally convened a meeting with Guardian Technology.
In it he described the campaign's case for making public sector data available for free as compelling: "The whole issue of data is, I think, tremendously exciting ... it's part of the infrastructure now of our society and our economy, and it's going to become more so with what's happening with data-mashing. The extraordinary intellectual and creative energy that's being unleashed is something that, as a government, we have to respond to."
Wills, who is a close political confidante of prime minister Gordon Brown, set up the meeting within days of being appointed to his new role as part of Brown's reshuffle. "Personally I'm very excited about this area. I asked to do this as part of my portfolio," he said.
Wills said that it was time to re-examine the trading fund model used by organisations such as Ordnance Survey, the UK Hydrographic Agency and others, under which they receive no direct tax funding but cover costs by charging for data and services. "The world has changed dramatically since the 1970s [when trading funds were first set up; Ordnance Survey became a trading fund in 1999] and we have to re-examine it, that's absolutely clear."
Clearly defined tasks
An independent study commissioned by the government will report to Wills by December on the effectiveness and efficiency of the trading fund model, which will be used to decide whether it should still be applied to various public-sector organisations. Among the findings that Wills expects is a clear definition of the public task of Ordnance Survey: "[I hope] we do get clarity of purpose from the OS. It's important if we want these [commercial] markets to flourish, and we do, and we want creativity and innovation to flourish, we have to know what the rules of the game are."
The comment is significant because both private-sector and public-sector organisations have complained that OS's licensing and royalties model makes it difficult for them to generate and share data. Intelligent Addressing complained last year to the Office of Public Sector Information, while the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) complained that OS's rules "can constrain our ability to share this information" in a submission to the select committee investigating OS's role (publications.parliament.uk).
The meeting came less than 18 months after Guardian Technology launched its campaign, which argues that impersonal public-sector data collected by the government should be made available for unlimited free reuse and resale, because it would spur the creation of information businesses that would generate tax revenues, offseting lost revenues from charging for data at source. Examples include the Global Positioning System, provided for free by the US government and used for satellite navigation around the world, which generates millions of pounds of business in the UK alone.
"It's a compelling pitch," Wills said of the campaign. "As a broad approach, we are very sympathetic to that." He cautioned, though, that government would not leap to a decision: "We have to be sure that what we do is going to work, is going to be effective, is going to be cost-effective."
The decision on how to fund public sector data organisations was essential to get right, Wills emphasised. This left the impression that he is excited by the potential that free reuse of data offers to entrepreneurial organisations - he compared it to the explosion of independent TV production companies in the 1980s and 1990s, which he was directly involved in, following the deregulation of the TV sector - but that he is also understandably wary of being the minister who approves a change that in the worst case might turn out to have destroyed the huge value that resides in organisations like Ordnance Survey. "We have to be very clear that we're setting up a model that is going to be sustainable," he said.
"The worst thing that we could do right now would be to set up a model that we would have to tear up and do again in two years because that doesn't provide the stability. If we're looking at economic benefit, the one crucial thing is that the model has to be sustainable. Otherwise you won't get the investment, you won't get the energy; people are, investors particularly, always wondering if this [business] is going to be sustainable. As we know from other areas in this world, if you get creative risk-taking venture capital involved then that is a crucial fact in unleashing creativity, so we have to have a sustainable model, and that means we have to take Whitehall as a whole with us."
Getting involved
OPSI is now setting up a web-based channel to gather and assess requests for public-sector information, Wills said: "And we would like you [at Guardian Technology] to become involved in shaping how we develop that."
This puts the ball into our court: we welcome your input on what public data that is not already available should be, and by what channels you think it should be provided - such as a constantly updated XML feed, PDF document or web page. Less important is the potential use of the data. As Wills notes: "The presumption is that you let people follow their own instincts, let them make some money; if it works, great. That's the way you're going to get the creativity and the energy. If you start saying what should happen, you won't get something wonderful."
· Join the debate at the Free Our Data blog: freeourdata.org.uk/blog
· If you'd like to comment on any aspect of Technology Guardian, send your emails to tech@guardian.co.uk