“Devoid of its standards, open
data is not open,” says Dermot Joyce, CEO of Liberata, in a fascinating
analysis of the opportunities standards could bring to government.
Joyce says the cost of integrating data across disparate sources accounts for as much as 12.5 percent of the cost of any big ICT program. The UK government has more than 200 projects up for renewal by 2016, totaling some £26 billion. “By reusing and mapping code lists, the time and money spent on data integration can be cut by 20% – or 2.5 percentage points of the whole job. They are as essential as the data itself.” That's £650m in immediate savings – savings for free.
Joyce notes that the UK government makes over 9,000 datasets and 1,200 code lists public, but no data standard. I think governments owe the taxpayer a standard.
For a fact-filled study of how data standards can help in government applications, take a look at the Listpoint slide show at http://www.scribd.com/doc/132404337/How-to-create-more-value-from-government-open-data
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