Shoreditch To House UK Open Data Institute
Shoreditch is rapidly becoming a focus for technological advancement in recent times. What with the newly designated Tech City being located within the borough, and the wealth of Web 2.0 start-ups that already reside there.
This burgeoning hub of technology will be adding another web based interest to its impressive portfolio of residence. ECS professors Nigel Shadbolt and Sir Tim Berners-Lee will be co-directing the establishment of the world leading Open Data Institute.
Established by the UK Government to ‘innovate, exploit and research Open Data opportunities’, the Open Data Institute seeks to demonstrate the commercial viability of public data and how current open data policies effect said viability.
Though primarily an academic and research facility the Institute will also be working hand in hand with UK businesses to exploit open data opportunities, as well as the public sector.
Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, Public Sector Transparency board member and new director of the ODI, would further elaborate on the primary value of open data saying:
“One of the reasons the Web worked was because people reused each other’s content in ways never imagined by those who created it. The same will be true of Open Data. The Institute will allow us to provide the tools, skills and methods to support the creation of new value using Open Government Data.”
Co-director Nigel Shadbolt would further add:
“Data is the new raw material of the 21st century and the UK is world-leading in the release of Open Government Data. Open Government Data not only increases transparency and accountability but also creates economic and social value. The Institute will help business to realise this value and foster a generation of open data entrepreneurs.”
The new Institute is one of a number of measures that the Government announced as part of a larger initiative to boost UK economic growth, which requires them to invest £10m over five years to support the Open Data Institute through the Technology Strategy Board – in a match-funded collaboration with industry and academic centres.
