Information Research Weblog

For some weeks now, the Guardian newspaper has been running a campaign for the government to free-up commercial use of data collected with the taxpayer's money. It argues that by making the information freely available, businesses will be able to create value-added products and that the sale of these will more than compensate for the loss of any direct revenue.

The current situation was the result of a drive under the Thatcher regime to gain profit from public data by selling back to the public, who had paid for it in the first place - in some areas, e.g., the Ordnance Survey mapping services, this was very successful; in others, not.

Thursday's Technology section contained the latest on the subject; a report of a meeting held in London. For the rest, follow the link to this search output. There's also a Weblog on the topic.