I’m sensing a snowball.  Moments after the government offered a £20,000 fund for re-working gov data they are now asking us what else we want access to:

Public Sector Information Unlocking Service (beta)

What’s it about?

As the regulator for public sector information re-use, we know that people can encounter problems from time to time getting hold of the information they need in the formats they want. Difficulties can include problems with charging, licensing or the data standards that public sector information is provided in.

Not access (covered by Freedom of Information), but re-use

These problems aren’t about access (which is dealt with under Freedom of Information legislation), but all the other issues which can occur when you want to do something with public sector information – copy it, remix it with other data or add value and republish it. If you are trying to re-use some public sector information, but the data you need is locked-up, this service is for you.

How it works

1. You describe the public sector information asset you want unlocked for re-use, and post a request to the service. We’ll check through your request and if it’s OK (e.g. not a Freedom of Information request) we’ll post it here.
2. Others can see your request and support it, either by adding a comment or by voting. The more support a request has, the better the chances of unlocking the information you want to re-use.
3. We’ll contact the public sector information holder and see what can be done to unlock the information for re-use. To keep things simple, if the problem relates to an issue specifically covered by the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations or the Information Fair Trader Scheme, we’ll treat it accordingly – so you won’t need to make a separate complaint. We’ll post back our findings here.

I’ve been waiting for a chance to use this pic taken at the launch of The Big Picture earlier this year.  It’s an Arts Council project being run by Audiences Central, with some big support from the BBC – TV, Radio, as well as sponsorship from Jessops and support from Travel West Midlands (You may have seen the simple ads as you stood waiting for the bus driver to let you off.)
Well a couple of days ago  this massive public arts project declared a record breaking 110,000 photos gathered for what should be the worlds biggest photo montage to be assembled in August.

Hat Tip Pete Millington and of course BiNS.

Earlier today I accepted and cheerfully reciprocrated an approach from Artsfest on Twitter.  A few hours later Stef Lewandowski messaged me to ask If I thought it was right for this icon of the Birmingham arts scene to be using an invite bot to find friends on twitter

The short answer is no.  If that’s what Artsfest is doing then they’ve received some appaling advice.  The social web is about human connections – real networks of real relationships.  Using a software robot to make social connections is anti-social. It’s spam.

So like Chris Unitt I am gonna regretfully block Artsfest.  If a human being reads this blog post and can assure me that you’re not spamming please do so in the usual way – using the comments section below.