UK statistics and open data: MPs’ inquiry report published Owen Boswarva.
From the post:
This morning the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC), a cross-party group of MPs chaired by Bernard Jenkin, published its report on Statistics and Open Data.
This report is the product of an inquiry launched in July 2013. Witnesses gave oral evidence in three sessions; you can read the transcripts and written evidence as well.
Useful if you are looking for rhetoric and examples of use of government data.
Ironic that just last week the news broke that Google has given British security the power to censor “unsavory” (but legal) content from Youtube. UK gov wants to censor legal but “unsavoury” YouTube content by Lisa Vaas.
Lisa writes:
Last week, the Financial Times revealed that Google has given British security the power to quickly yank terrorist content offline.
The UK government doesn’t want to stop there, though – what it really wants is the power to pull “unsavoury” content, regardless of whether it’s actually illegal – in other words, it wants censorship power.
The news outlet quoted UK’s security and immigration minister, James Brokenshire, who said that the government must do more to deal with material “that may not be illegal but certainly is unsavoury and may not be the sort of material that people would want to see or receive.”
I’m not sure why the UK government wants to block content that people don’t want to see or receive. They simply won’t look at it. Yes?
But, intellectual coherence has never been a strong point of most governments and the UK in particular of late.
Is this more evidence for my contention that “open data” for government means only the data government wants you to have?