"Closed Data Now" SOCITM does a "Times"

As we rush towards the "Raw Data Now" door, but it seems few are aware that a tranche of historically open data is quietly slipping behind a paywall.

If my memory serves me well the e-Gov Register (eGR) hosted by Brent has been showing every IT supplier sortable by product type, supplier, local government type and even on maps for about 6 or 7 years (some links below if you hurry up).

I am aware that there are problems with this data, in my own past employer I know that some of the data is out of date.

But it is there, it is useful and informative and it is OPEN to all, even SMEs like me researching on niche markets in local government.

The latest move by SOCITM (and presumably with the knowledge of the LGA and the IDeA) means all that data is going to go behind the SOCITM paywall.

Just about every council in the UK has little option but to pay SOCITM hundreds of pounds annually to join their club to find out the exact details of how their website is being ranked. 

That is public money, our taxes - and has always enraged me.

And now they just found another way of ramping up their bills, and creating themselves another revenue stream - by hijacking what is already openly available data and reselling it back to us.  Here is the explanation hosted on the Brent site;

"The Socitm Applications Register will be created from a merger of data from the eGovernment Register and the Socitm Application Software Index.

The eGov Register will cease to provide Supplier, Product and Usage information as from 28 June 2010.

The new Socitm Application Register service will be available from July 2010.

The key difference between the two systems is that the new service will be available on a subscription basis. It will be free for public sector users who contribute data but other users will need to subscribe in order to gain access. "

I wonder does this mean that you have to be a paying SOCITM local government subscriber to be able to access this information, much like they only let you access "Better Connected" details if you are a fully paid up member?

Anyhow, bad news for any other small businesses out there, likely bad news if your council is not a paid up member and bad news if you are a council employee not lucky enough to have been given the privilege of a SOCITM account - or gasp, are not even aware of SOCITM, nor the e-Gov Register and were wondering what systems your neighbouring council were running.

Wizard worker on your councils GIS system? Fancied a move northerly, wondered which councils ran the same systems?  Out of luck now I am afraid!

Take a look at some sample eGR pages, they won't be there for long.

eGR Product types

eGR Financial Products, market share by supplier

"Free our data now" am I the only one to find this laughable hypocrisy taken from an article in elReg just too much to bear?

Jos Creese, the newly elected president of Socitm and head of IT at Hampshire County Council, said: "The momentum behind the 'open data' movement is gathering, and councils that get involved now, with this elections project, will put themselves at the cutting edge of this movement."

Won't it be great when all the Linked Open Finance Data is finally out there and we "armchair auditors" can see exactly how much each council pays to SOCITM?

(download)

Update 6th September 2010 The eGov Register is now the subject of an OPSI unlocking request - please add your name and support the handing of this data back to the public where it belongs.

Tagged egr socitm
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