Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information

Today, Professor David Rhind spoke on the re-use of public sector information for the benefit of services to the public at the Intellect Identity & Information conference. The conference was well attended by approximately 100 delegates from the private organisations such as Cable&Wireless, Consult Hyperion, Siemans IT Solutions and Getronics, as well as government departments and agencies.  The opening keynote presentation was given by Christopher Graham, Information Commissioner who talked about the challenge of the Information Commissioner's Office in delivering a balance between information security and information rights.

Christopher Graham was followed by Professor David Rhind’s talk about the importance of re-using information to stimulate innovation and drive the knowledge economy. He said that the benefits of PSI re-use

• Underpins democratic accountability (e.g. Government meeting PSA targets, local authority and CLA outcomes, NHS Trusts meeting 4 hour/18 week, MRSA targets, etc)
• Raises awareness of citizens’ rights and responsibilities
• Facilitates community activity
• Can be used to enhance efficiency e.g. tune services, allocate resources to meet real needs
• Can underpin innovation and hence create jobs and provide choice in services

Professor also asserted that an interest in making PSI more readily available has grown hugely in recent months, particularly as a result of the Making Public Data Public initiative led by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt.  Despite the optimism and drive in this area, he said there are still factors that block the effective exploitation of PSI. Drawing on APPSI’s recent advice to the Shareholder Executive, Tim Berners-Lee and the Cabinet Office, he set out the recommendations for information ‘prospecting and harvesting’ in the short term and the long-term strategy to create/refine a national information infrastructure, as well as the policy changes and actions needed to facilitate successful re-use of PSI.  See David-Rhind-presentation.pdf (1.05 MB) and the Conference-Agenda.pdf (82.42 KB)

On 20 October 2009 Professor David Rhind chaired the PSI in Action Conference hosted by Civil Service World in conjunction with the Office of Public Sector Information, part of The National Archives. The conference was well attended (approximately 70 participants from public and private sector bodies as well as the PSI policy leads in New Zealand and the Victoria State).  Professor Rhind's introduction positively captured the wider interest and activity in PSI in the last 18 months driven by important reports and initiatives, most notably the Power of Information Report, the Shareholder Executive's review of Trading Funds, the launch of Ordnance Survey's new business strategy, the INSPIRE Directive, and the more recently the Making Public Data Public Policy. Below you will find the conference delegate pack and the presentations given by the speakers:

PSI-in-Action-delegate-pack.pdf (3.1 MB)

Nicholas-Gruen-Towards-a-more-Felicitous-Economy.pdf (748.13 KB)

William-Perrin-PSI-Lifeblood-of-Communities.pdf (3.66 MB)

Ian-Trenholm-Public-Service-Delivery-How-can-we-Raise-the-Bar.pdf (443.19 KB)

Andrew-Stott-Beyond-PSI-Extending-Digital-Engagement.pdf (1.98 MB)

Chris-Jenkins-Knowledge-Sharing-Session-Competition-and-Discrimination.pdf (144.55 KB)

Jim-Wretham-Knowledge-Sharing-Session-Opening-up-Access-to-Information.pdf (61.83 KB)

Martin-Ferguson-Public-Service-Delivery-How-can-we-Raise-the-Bar.pdf (1 MB)

Patricia-Seex-Knowledge-Sharing-Session-The-Price-of-Information.pdf (86.31 KB)

Nigel-Shadbolt-Public-Information-Delivery.pdf (4 MB)

The Prime Minister has tasked Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt with making much more Public Sector Information (PSI) easily accessible over the web. In parallel, the Shareholder Executive has been studying how best to make available information from Trading Funds in a sustainable way. Both organisations have asked the government's Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information (APPSI) for suggestions on how to facilitate their work. Since the two tasks interact and success will need both short and long term actions, APPSI has produced a paper entitled Exploiting government's information assets for the public good which sets out a consolidated view by the Panel of how best to proceed.

APPSI's key points are:

• The value of PSI to citizens and businesses alike is now widely recognised. The factors which block realisation of this value are no longer technological but rather cultural, policy, institutional and financial ones. We therefore warmly welcome the Making Public Data Public initiative;
• We identify areas where information 'prospecting and harvesting' would be beneficial in the short term. But we also urge that a longer term and prioritised information garnering strategy should be put in place;
• In particular, we identify some 'Core Reference Geographies' which would underpin many activities of the state, its organisations (e.g. emergency services) and businesses and urge that these are made freely available and maintained as a key part of a national information infrastructure;
• We identify some policy changes and other actions which would considerably facilitate successful re-use of PSI;
• We note that the growing use of the new technologies has major ramifications for current government policies and practice applied to Trading Funds, notably in the practicability of some forms of end user licenses.

See Exploiting-government-information-assets-for-public-good.pdf (247.54 KB)