Government 3.0 coming to a browser near you?

Last week, the Prime Minister in his speech, Building Britain's Digital Future, announced the government's plan to help in making the semantic web (commonly called Web 3.0) a reality for citizens in the UK. There are three strands to this plan:

1. The roll out a 'superfast' broadband network network to all of the UK (funded in part by the 50p levy on landlines)

2. The creation a new Institute of Web Science, hosted by Oxford and Southampton universities, to lead on research into the next generation web.

3. Making government's non-personal data available to us to use without restriction.

In his speech, the PM responded to the invitation issued by Sir Tim Berners- Lee in February 2009 at the TED conference for help in making the semantic web a reality. Berners-Lee asked TED delegates to give him their "raw data now" to enable this data to be linked and shared openly across the web

How is Gordon Brown going to provide raw data now? His answer in the speech was this:

"I can confirm that from 1st April, we will be making a substantial package of information held by ordnance survey freely available to the public, without restrictions on re-use. And I can also tell you today that in the autumn the Government will publish online an inventory of all non-personal datasets held by departments and arms-length bodies - a “domesday book” for the 21st century. he new domesday book will for the first time allow the public to access in one place information on each set of data including its size, source, format, content, timeliness, cost and quality. And there will be an expectation that departments will release each of these datasets, or account publicly for why they are not doing so."

Wow! We, you and me, will have open access to government data to use as we will on websites and in apps. The government's first tentative steps towards this can be seen on the data.gov website. This site features several apps that have been already developed by IT developers. My current favourite is the Facebook-based Crime Statistics quiz (partly because as a young systems analyst my first project was helping to develop the South Yorkshire Police Crime Statistics system).

It's easy to get carried away thinking about the move from Web 1.0 through Web 2.0 and now to the web of linked data, or Web 3.0, from a technical perspective. Any organisational, governmental or social change that is driven by technological advance is open to the criticism of technological determinism.

Nicholas Carr makes the case for a more holistic approach to change. It is too simplistic to suggest that a 'good' new technology will necessarily lead to an improved organisation, government or society:

"the impact of any new technology, even an extremely powerful one like the Internet, is filtered through existing geopolitical, economic, social, and cultural structures and norms. "

The blogger, the Public Strategist, considering the impact of Web 3.0 on governments, echoes this sentiment:

"Governments are not websites or software releases. They change in slow and sometimes mysterious ways."

That may be the case. If the PM's digital domesday book is going to take off, it will require strong leadership and cultural change to remove the potential barriers that might prevent the data sets being shared inside and outside of government 'silos'. The change might not happen at the speed that technologists might wish, there may be blockages and laggardly behaviour by some politicians and government officers, but for those of us chomping at the bit to 'hack' government data sets and present them in new ways, it will still be fun on the way!

The free digital content debate goes on - draft

Libby Perves, writing in a recent edition of The Times (12 Oct 2009), argues that "the internet generation has grown up believing it can enjoy other people's hard work for nothing." She suggests that this must stop. She points to the 'backlash' that is underway in the music and newspaper industries. This backlash has been documented over recent weeks in The Times newspaper.

A major move in this direction was the plan announced by the Government to strengthen the measures outlined in the Digital Britain report to reduce illegal file-sharing. Creative industry chief executives backed this plan (The Times 1 Sept 2009), stressing the economic implications (just like Purves):

" as our film, television, publishing, music, sports and entertainment retail businesses go digital, their ability to invest in creating high quality content that millions can enjoy is fatally undermined by illegal filesharing. This has a direct impact on current and future employment opportunities for the British creative workforce, the promotion of emerging talent and on innovation in new digital content services."

Musicians, such as James Blunt and Lilly Allen sent letters to The Times supporting the proposals:

Musician James Blunt wrote a letter to the editor of the Times offering support to this viewpoint (The Times, 21st Sept 2009):

"I want to put my hand up in support of Lily Allen (Thunderer, Sept 16). She's asking British musicians to galvanise over a serious crime: the death of a great British industry - our music business.

The world over, people are stealing music in its millions in the form of illegal file-sharing. It's easy to do, and has become accepted by many, but people need to know that it is destroying people's livelihoods and suffocating emerging British artists."

Let us examine their argument. File sharing is rampant. As a consequence it is destroying the music scene and stifling innovation. Musician Tom Robinson (The Times 16 October 2009) counters both of these assertions. He feels it is 'derailing the gravy train' of the record companies, but songwriters "operate in a far more favourable environment...."

Is there evidence of innovation and creativity in the digital free economy? He thinks so. "You now need little more than a laptop and a good pair of ears to produce high-quality recordings at home...distribution on iTunes [costs] £30 ....Best of all, music and visuals can be 'broadcast' worldwide on Myspace and Youtube at no cost at all. You'll no longer make afortune but you'll certainly earn a living."