Data.Gov.UK is the UK Government’s official open data portal. The site provides a central “way into the wealth of government data” and aims to make that data “easy to find; easy to license; and easy to re-use.” Data.Gov.UK was launched in closed Beta at the start of October 2009 and entered public beta in January 2010. The project is ongoing at the present time.
Data.Gov.UK has been built on a combination of CKAN and Drupal, the open-source CMS. The Open Knowledge Foundation’s CKAN team have been involved in the development of Data.Gov.UK from its inception. The team helped developed the prototype for the closed beta launch and have been involved in developing and maintaining the project, especially the CKAN aspect, since that point. The Open Knowledge Foundation participation here has been as a subcontractor to the primary contractor – initially the National Archives, and then the Central Office of Information.
Initial requirements for Data.Gov.UK were data catalogue capabilities (entering, editing, listing, and searching datasets) combined with basic CMS features (site content, blog, theming etc). In addition, CKAN has delivered in the following areas:
- Robustness (traffic levels, especially around launch have been substantial)
- Data validation and quality checking
- Editing workflow including moderated edits (the ability to have edits to dataset metadata reviewed before going live)
- Complex search including faceting
- RDF representations of dataset metadata
- Close integration with Drupal
- Support for geospatial metadata especially in relation to INSPIRE requirements for search and discovery
- Automated ‘harvesting’ of metadata and material from 3rd sources within and outside government
- General support and maintenance
The Data.Gov.UK site, including its CKAN component has also undergone penetration testing by UK government security testing consultant.
Outcomes have been very positive. The UK government is continuing to use and develop Data.Gov.UK and the site has a global reputation as a leading exemplar of a government data portal. The system has successfully handled growth from a few dozen datasets to many thousands of datasets and a concomitant growth in site traffic. The site has played a significant enabling role in the UK government’s development of its transparency and open data agenda. Regarding the software itself, Andrew Stott, the then UK Government Director of Transparency & Digital Engagement, who was responsible for launch of data.gov.uk has said: “Using Open Source was the best decision we ever made. A big thumbs up to the Open Knowledge Foundation and CKAN.”
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