Nigel Shadbolt named as co-director of UK’s new Open Data Institute

The UK Government has announced up to £10m funding for a new world-leading Open Data Institute to innovate, exploit and research Open Data opportunities. It will be co-directed by Professor Nigel Shadbolt and Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

The new Institute will be based in Shoreditch, the newly designated ‘Tech City UK’ area of London, where there is a huge concentration of Web 2.0 start-ups, and it will involve business and academic institutions.

The Open Data Institute is intended to help demonstrate the commercial value of public data and the impact of open data policies on the realisation of this value. The Institute will also help develop the capability of UK businesses to exploit open data opportunities, with support from University researchers. It will help the public sector use its own data more effectively and it will engage with developers and the private and public sectors to build supply chains and commercial outlets for public data. The Government is to commit up to £10m over five years to support the Open Data Institute through the Technology Strategy Board – in a match-funded collaboration with industry and academic centres.

Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, Public Sector Transparency board member and new director of the ODI, said: “One of the reasons the Web worked was because people reused each other’s content in ways never imagined by those who created it. The same will be true of Open Data. The Institute will allow us to provide the tools, skills and methods to support the creation of new value using Open Government Data.”

Professor Nigel Shadbolt, Founding Partner of Seme4 Ltd, Head of the Web and Internet Science Group at the University of Southampton, Public Sector Transparency board member and new director of the ODI said:

“Data is the new raw material of the 21st century and the UK is world-leading in the release of Open Government Data. Open Government Data not only increases transparency and accountability but also creates economic and social value. The Institute will help business to realise this value and foster a generation of open data entrepreneurs.”

The new Institute is one of a number of measures that the Government announced today as part of a larger initiative to boost UK economic growth.

Nigel Shadbolt interviewed on BBC News about launch of Midata

An interview with Professor Nigel Shadbolt, adviser to the government on the Open Data initiative, on the launch of the Midata scheme, which will allow consumers to have access to personal data held by a range of private sector organisations. 26 companies, including a number of household names such as Google, MasterCard and British Gas, have already signed up to the scheme.

→ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15580059

Nigel Shadbolt at the Open Government Data Camp

Nigel Shadbolt gave a keynote talk on Open Government Data in the U.K. (slides available here) at the Open Government Data Camp.

The event took place in Warsaw on the 20th and 21st of October. It is the world’s largest gathering for discussing Open Data, with approximately 400 people attending from over 40 countries, spanning all continents.

Professor Shadbolt discussed the importance of Open Government Data and the successes and challenges encountered. He also described policy and technology requirements.

Nigel Shadbolt gives keynote speech at Open World Forum

The conference took place form the 22nd to the 24th of September and the talk was entitled “Open Data, the UK experience.”

The Open World Forum (OWF) is a global summit where leading decision-makers, researchers and developers meet to exchange ideas on technological initiatives.

It is an annual event which first took place in 2008 but which has grown fast, with over 160 speakers and 1,400 delegates attending in 2010.

Wendy Hall receives lifetime achievement award

The presentation took place on the 22nd of September at the 10th anniversary Gala of the Oxford Internet Institute.

Professor William Dutton, director of the Oxford Internet Institute, said: “The Lifetime awards are intended to honour individuals who have played a uniquely significant and long-lasting role in shaping the Internet. Professor Hall’s impressive career exemplifies the OII’s philosophy that multi-disciplinary collaboration is essential if we are to fully understand the implications of the Internet and Web.”

Wendy Hall was also a member of the panel at a public plenary session which took place before the awards ceremony. The panel included a number of distinguished guests, including Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist at Google, Professor Eli Noam, Director of the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information in New York and Dame Stephanie Shirley of the Shirley Foundation.

The Oxford Internet Institute is part of the University of Oxford. It carries out research into the social, political, legal and economic aspects of the Internet.

Evaluating Trustworthiness of Web Content using Semantic Web Technologies

Research paper by Pattanaphanchai J., O’Hara K. and Hall W. on a new method for the evaluation of the trustworthiness of Web content which uses Semantic Web technologies. It will be presented at the International Semantic Web Conference from the 23rd to the 27th of October in Bonn, Germany.

→ http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/22768/1/DC%20Proposal_Evaluating%20Trustworthiness%20of%20Web%20Content%20using%20Semantic%20Web%20Technologies.pdf

ESSIR opens with keynote speech by Nigel Shadbolt

The 8th International Summer School on Information Retrieval (ESSIR) took place from the 29th of August to the 2nd of September.

The ESSIR is the only word-wide school for Information Retrieval (IR). It offers a programme of lectures on the management of information on the Internet for a range of people, including students, researchers and people in industry.

In his keynote lecture Professor Shadbolt discussed the challenges of Information Retrieval and Web Science.

Wendy Hall on BBC Radio 4

On the 26th of August Wendy Hall was a panellist on the long running show “Any Questions?” where audience members ask questions on a variety of topics.

The other panellists were the theatre director and Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre, Jude Kelly, the UK Director of Islamic Relief, Jehangir Malik, and columnist Margaret Doyle.

A wide range of topics were discussed, including Libya, obesity, the Brain Drain in the U.K., social networking sites and Big Brother.