Open DataNI aims to increase public access to non-personal public information and data produced by Northern Ireland government departments, agencies and non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs). It initially launches utilising relevant health data for locating doctor surgeries and establishing pharmacy out of hours services. Provision of public transport and leisure data will follow.
Speaking at the launch of the OpenDataNI website, Minister Wilson said: “OpenDataNI will improve the way government consults with the public, ensuring that public sector information is made as simple as possible for people to find and use.
“OpenDataNI will demonstrate to other Northern Ireland Civil Service Departments the benefits of allowing publicly available mapping and imagery to be used in conjunction with publicly available data sets to provide useful services to citizens. By presenting data in a highly visual manner, it is anticipated that interaction with information will be far easier than through traditional table-based methods.”
The pilot initiative, which can be found online at Open data ni website
is part of a growing trend of developing methods to harness the public’s ideas for improving products and services, will allow Government to stay at the leading edge of citizen driven service improvement.
The Department of Finance and Personnel is now embarking on an exercise to get NI Departments, Agencies and NDPBs to release non-personal information for publication.
Notes to Editors:
- The OpenDataNI site is now available at the Open data ni website
- Pictures are available on request from the DFP Communications Office on 028 9052 7378.
- Media enquiries to DFP Communications Office on 028 9052 27375. Out of office hours please contact the Duty Press Officer via pager number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.
