Web creator to help unveil British government data
The man who created the World Wide Web is to spearhead a move to make it easier to get British government data online. Tim Berners-Lee (pictured) is taking on the role as part of a government response to scandals over expenses claims by British politicians.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today told the U.K. parliament that “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.”
The Guardian reports that in a March speech, Berners-Lee had complained that many government departments were keeping data confidential not out of secrecy, but rather to allow time to build it into an attractive Web site. He argued that it was more important to get “unadulterated data” online first and worry about building a “beautiful Web site” later.
The project is one of several steps the government is taking to improve transparency after public outrage over expenses claimed by politicians. Some officials had unsuccessfully attempted to exempt the claims from freedom of information laws, and the official publication of the claims had been expected to be done in a way that still left some individual details under wraps. However, a national newspaper received a leaked copy of the unedited documents in advance and published details daily for several weeks.
Berners-Lee has given several interviews this week about the Web itself. In an interview with New Scientist about his efforts to increase assessment and validation of online scientific information, he noted that the Web now has roughly as many pages as the brain has neurons – and that we rely on both without really understanding them.
Meanwhile in a speech in New York he noted that the vast quantity of data available online can lead to unexpected breakthroughs when people spot connections between two apparently separate pieces of information. He said this could help produce more understanding of issues such as diseases or climate change.
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