Tim Almond

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/freegovdata/ 

I’ve set up an e-petition with regards to government data. In essence, I’m petitioning for that data which has already been produced by and for the government to be made freely available. So, where the government currently sells information such as the electoral role, DVLA information and postcodes, the information will be available on an FTP site, freely available.

Why? Well, because we’ve all already paid for it once, and being forced to pay for it again isn’t right. It also acts as an unnecessary tax on businesses that want to do things like show their nearest branches, or to get vehicle information. At one time, in the pre-internet days, it was understandable that there was a high cost. Data had to be sent, magnetic tapes had to be produced and so on. The duplication cost of this data via the internet is almost nil, and businesses and individuals across the country would gain from having this information made available for free.

Tags: Ideas //