The importance of maintaining a sound physical infrastructure; roads, railways, utilities, etc; is well-recognised. Government has accepted this and a national physical infrastructure plan now exists. Professor Dieter Helm has estimated that the cost of Government's physical infrastructure plans is about £500bn over the next decade. Alongside investing in physical infrastructure, however, developing an information infrastructure offers a relatively inexpensive additional way of growing the economy, and helping society.
Government has made major steps in easing access to the wealth of public sector information (PSI) through the Open Data initiative. Various studies have projected large economic and social benefits from easier access to such information and the exploitation of new technology in mining it to provide new or better services. To date, however, the approach has not been as strategic as that followed for the national physical infrastructure.
APPSI has been considering the strategic dimension to PSI re-use since 2010. It has now summarised its views on what should be done in a paper entitled A National Information Framework for Public Sector Information and Open Data (see: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/nif-and-open-data.pdf . The purpose of this paper is to seek comments on the proposal so as to help APPSI carry out its advisory role.
If you have comments on the ideas and proposals contained in this paper, please email them to secretariat@appsi.gsi.gov.uk .
About APPSI
Government's Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information (APPSI) is an independent UK-wide Non-Departmental Public Body of the Ministry of Justice. APPSI advises Ministers and the Director of the Office of Public Sector Information (The National Archives) on matters relating to Public Sector information re-use. Its members are drawn from the business and entrepreneurial, economic, academic, ICT, legal and public sector communities, also including local government and health sector experience and representing all three Devolved Administrations. Members have operated at senior level in numerous different organisations, acquiring many years of relevant experience. Members give their time for free.