Forum:To free up the discussion, first free our data

(This is a draft for posting to the current Defra wiki.)

Maybe the level of contribution to this Defra wiki is inlfuenced by the extent to which potential contributors have trust in the whole process of dialogue between government and citizens?

It seems a reasonable assumption that for there to be democratic discussion of any issue, it's good to be able to refer to, talk about and use factual information or data to inform the debate.

There's a current campaign called: Free Our Data: Make taxpayers' data available to them. If ordinary citizens and community groups don't feel sufficiently empowered to freely and easily use what they might see as 'their' data (having paid through taxes to create it) how can they have confidence in effectively participating in any democratic debate?

This original version of this comment was first published on the Sustainable Community Action wiki.

Philralph 03:41, 17 October 2006 (PDT)