What is the open data project and how can people get involved?

Have you ever heard about open data? It will make government and local authorities more accountable and our lives easier. At least, that’s the promise. It sounds fantastic but what, precisely, is open data?

The idea behind it is to make all manner of information available to anyone. The information being released covers everything from healthcare to transport – and it’s being driven by the Government.

With loads of new data now freely available, organisations and individuals are discovering many interesting and exciting ways in which to use it. In this article we will explain exactly how open data works and show you how you can get involved.

What is open data?
Open data, simply put, is data anyone is able to access and use – and in any way they choose. The UK Government has been taking steps to make the non-personal data that it holds available to all-comers.

Armed with this data, interested parties can build useful applications or analyse how government policy is being implemented.

The data that is being made available comes from various government departments, such as the Department for Transport, the Cabinet Office and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Excluding personal and sensitive information, all data that is created by public-sector bodies such as those above is, in principle, available to the public.

The information is released in a format that makes it easy to re-use and analyse with further efforts being made to make it even more accessible and digestible.

Where to find open data
But where can you find this data and how can you get involved? The main website for the Government's open data project was officially launched in January 2010. At the time it had 2,500 datasets (collections of information) from various government departments. Since then, the service has increased in size and there are now nearly 7,000 sources of information, called ‘datasets’ available.

With this volume of data, finding what you want may seem daunting, but it is easier than you might think: just click the Data tab on the data.gov.uk website and start browsing.

Information is tagged and categorised and there are several ways to search through it to see what is on offer. If the information you are seeking is not yet available, it is possible to make a request for its release (see ‘Get involved with open data’ at the end of this article).

Accessing open data
Most datasets released via the data.gov.uk website are supplied as comma-separated value, or CSV, files. These files should open in any spreadsheet application, such as Microsoft Excel or Openoffice Calc, to display the data in a neat and structured way. This information can then be turned into graphs or analysed to uncover trends.

However, the raw data varies hugely in make-up and complexity. Some of the datasets will be small, well laid-out and easy to understand, but others will appear as a sea of meaningless figures and abbreviations.