“It’s not “unethical” to scrape the web in order to create and analyze data-sets. That’s just “a search engine””
Yesterday, 100k hits to mapit.mysociety.org by “Mac” “Chrome” (50k of them 5:30-6am). 72,831 IP addresses. Blocked at 8:20am.
It’s not unethical in theory. It is unethical in practice.
Simultaneously to the public and policy conversation about the importance of re-usable information and data to AI and other contemporary technologies, there is the question of whether the owners and authors of digital information and data are receiving a just and sustainable return in the age of algorithmic reproduction, and if not, how they might. The OGL is closely aligned to Creative Commons CC-BY licence, a centrepiece of the open knowledge and culture movement. However, in June 2025 Creative Commons launched CC Signals, a proposal for a different model 'as to how machines (and the humans controlling them) should contribute back to the commons when they reuse and benefit from using the content'. The proposal noted that AI's usage of data has fundamentally changed the web, and the 'social contract' that underpinned machine use of it. The public sector is, in many ways, no different. Digital information and data are unusual goods, in that they cost a lot to create, but carry the expectation that they will be made available for re-use for little (or nothing) given the marginal costs of their dissemination. But whereas private and commercial creators and rightsholders can withdraw their content from the web, or restrict its usage via technological and legal means, the public sector is obligated to make much of its information and data available to the public who paid for it via taxation in the first place, and benefits from information about public sector activities and policies being disseminated and re-used widely.
Help us improve Government Licensing guidance www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blogs/digita...
UK Government preparing the ground to deprecate the Open Government Licence?
The link to CC Signals is disingenuous – that proposal advises *against* more restrictive licensing
#opendata #opengov #datapolicy
Update: have been to the supermarket and stocked up on raspberries. Can't be too careful.
I've passed the first step of my Coaching & Mentoring certification, and will now do partially supervised coaching/mentoring within my organisation.
If you are a Civil Servant at any grade – especially at HMRC/DWP – and interested in being a coachee/mentee, please reach out.
A group of people are smiling and interacting - a laptop shows computer code
A woman looks over at a laptop screen of her colleague
Two women are talking to each other and smiling
A woman is talking expressively as she presents whilst a man smiles in the background
A group of volunteers have been running @nhshackday.com since 2012. In a crazy world, it is all about coming together with common purpose to solve problems in our health service. Please reshare this post about #30 in Cardiff Mar 21/22. We would love to have you join us. ti.to/nhshackday/3...
Being chased by zombies and escaping using bus rides that cost 5 raspberries. Got to love a fever dream 🧟♀️🚌
🚨 Come to our Power and participation in public tech conference in Manchester on 6th March! 🚨
There'll be inspiration and lessons from practitioners, reformers and activists, as well as time to connect and discuss the topics you care about with peers.
Sign up at connectedbydata.org/events/2026-...
For anyone at #ukgc26 today usually based in Sheffield: the next 'X-Gov Sheffield meetup' is on 27 Jan!
We're doing breakfast and lunch meetups in the cafe of Union St Co-working space / If you'd like to come along for either, or both, find out more and sign up 👇
forms.office.com/Pages/Respon...
“Defence against the Dark Arts” how do you deal with people bringing you the solution? @publicdigital.bsky.social facilitating an open discussion at #ukgc26
And that's a wrap! Thank you to everyone who took part in #ukgc26 and made it such a success!
Write ups of the sessions can be found at ukgovcamp.com/grid.
All the till next year! 👋
Thank you for adapting in the moment and being so generous in donating the space and time to exploring test and learn 🙌
#ukgc26 where even the doors are enthusiastic 🙌
I can vouch for Ian being a good egg 🥚 😊
Old beard guy that's not Jukesie
If it's your first time at #ukgc26 and it's a bit overwhelming, I'm Ian, come and say hello, I'm the old beardy guy that's not @jukes.ie 😁
PSA for those heading from London to Birmingham for @ukgovcamp.com - all trains from Euston currently cancelled, head to St Pancras and change at Leicester... #govcamp
Sorry to miss you, was hoping to bump into you
Unconferencing tomorrow so thought I'd pop in here and give a 👋 to anyone coming along to #ukgovcamp #ukgc26 in Brum
What an amazing week though 🙌
London, you were at your best today. Thank you to the passers by who stopped to pick me up off the floor, offer help and make sure I was ok. In a gloomy world it is lovely to be reminded of the goodness of strangers and to be made to feel safe when I was at my most vulnerable ❤️
Alas the local train network had other ideas 🫠
On my way! See you in a bit, la 🙌
Heading to Liverpool for DataBites. Say hi if you're about 👋
You did an amazing job today - thanks for hosting such great conversations 🙌
I used to spend longer thinking about doing it than actually doing it, so doing it early means I get more brain space 🙃
Yeeeesssss!
Come on Austria
Latvia and Austria top 1 & 2 for me as well. Which means they are doomed ☠️
My (always controversial and non-winning) favourites:
Latvia 12 points
Austria 10 points
Lithuania 8 points
My money is on Sweden.
I was getting worried they might not have let them out this year.
