Free data is on the rise

Back in 2009 the Government launched a website containing free UK government data for use by the general public. This data is non-personal and non-sensitive – information like lists of schools achievements by borough, local area crime rates, or the performance of your council, industry earnings, manufacturing turnover, geographical labour force statistics, transport info and plenty more.

As is often the case with Government initiatives, it wasn't well publicised, and has taken time to take off. Until recently. Open Data is now being touted as one of the big trends of 2015, and the amount of sources and datasets available to work with are constantly increasing:

Source	Number of Datasets
Data.gov (US)	132,826
Data.gov.uk (UK)	24,407
Office for National Statistics (ONS)	18,807

Accountants, for example could use some of the economic data (Tax related data) to explain the various tax implications to their clients. Estate agents can use House Price Index data to create an app that would give an estimated value to a property, and data can be used in conjunction with Google Maps to overlay geographical statistics. The possibilities are vast.

But it's not all about educating your site visitors, this data can be used to help you target potential customers. For example a company specialising in home security can use the latest crime stats to look at areas where people may want to improve their home security. Private tutors can use the data to look at geographical areas where exam results are down, and if you operate a fleet of vehicles why not take advantage of the publication of petrol and diesel prices or data on planned roadworks?

Some great examples of apps and sites using Open Data include:

Name	Link
Check that bike - Find out if a bike is stolen	Visit Site
FoodTrade.Menu - Allergen law compliance tool for the food industry	Visit Site
Skills Route - Helping students and parents understand the range of education options	Visit Site