UK

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A Right to Data: Fulfilling the Promise of Open Public Data in the UK

Chris Yiu and Tim Kelsey | Policy Exchange | March 6, 2012

A Right to Data says that all non-personal data held by the public sector should be made available to the public for free. The report says that ending the practice of reselling key datasets like maps and postcodes would cost the government around £50 million a year in lost fees and charges. Read More »

Crowdfunding For Innovation And Sustainability

Matthew Yeomans | The Guardian | November 22, 2012

Kickstarter has just hit the UK, but there are now a host of crowdfunding startups that focus on business creation and innovation Read More »

Do We Have a Right to Open Public Data?

Glyn Moody | Computerworld UK | March 8, 2012

The progress made by the open data movement is pretty extraordinary. A few years ago, data was something that only statisticians cared about, but today it is one of the most vibrant areas of exploration and innovation. I think that's in part because of open source's example of how opening things up allows people to experiment and make progress faster than keeping everything locked down. Read More »

Europe Joins UK Open-access Bid

Richard Van Noorden | Nature | July 17, 2012

Being the first to try something new is nerve-wracking — so it is always a relief to see someone else follow your lead. When the UK government announced on 16 July that it would require much of the country’s taxpayer-funded research to be open-access from April 2013, it was not immediately clear whether the move would set a trend or prove to be an isolated gamble... Read More »

European Cancer Researchers Failing to Use Research Tools

Janet Fricker | Ecancer | March 10, 2011

A survey of European cancer researchers undertaken by the European Association for Cancer Research shows a widespread lack of use of caBIG research orientated tools in Europe. The cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG) was launched in 2003 by the US National Cancer Institute with the aim of connecting research teams through the use of shared infrastructure and software to collect, anal Read More »

European Commission Embraces Open Access

Richard Van Noorden | Nature | July 17, 2012

The European Commission has announced its intention to make open access all research findings funded by Horizon 2020, its enormous, €80-billion (US$98-billion) research-funding programme for 2014–20. And it is urging member states to follow its lead. Read More »

Free Access to British Scientific Research within Two Years

Ian Sample | The Guardian | July 15, 2012

The government is to unveil controversial plans to make publicly funded scientific research immediately available for anyone to read for free by 2014, in the most radical shakeup of academic publishing since the invention of the internet. Read More »

Great Ormond Street Hospital Transfers Patient's Records Using 'Medical Facebook'

Sade Laja | The Guardian | September 16, 2011

Gastroenterology department uses online tool Patients Know Best to transfer a patient's medical history to another hospital

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HANDI Update – Three Months Old Today

Ewan Davis | HANDI | June 21, 2012

HANDI has just completed three initial launch events and is three months old today so this seem a good time to update you on progress and future plans. We have now got just under 550 people registered with HANDI of which about 210 attended one of our workshops. Read More »

How Social Media Could Raise British Gas's Sustainability Drive to Another Level

Matthew Yeomans | The Guardian | February 24, 2012

Once in a while you come across a company initiative that makes you think: "Here's a firm that's putting sustainability into action." That was my reaction (and that of many others) this week when British Gas announced a new incentive to help the most vulnerable members of society cut their energy bills through free loft and cavity wall insulation.

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Implant Danger Extends to All Medical Devices [UK]

Jeremy Laurance | The Independent | January 18, 2012

There were 113 alerts issued by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) about medical devices last year, ranging from hip joints to surgical instruments, but the agency has no power to check devices until a failure is reported. Read More »

LibreOffice Is One

Simon Phipps | Computer World UK | October 4, 2011

Once in the mists of time, I was the head of open source at Sun Microsystems. One of my chief delights in that role was the OpenOffice.org project. I attended the Open Source Convention (OSCON) in Monterey, California in 2000 where the project was created out of a product Sun had acquired the previous year, StarOffice. I watched as it grew in polish and capability. Read More »

Looking for geeks who love the NHS

Dick Vinegar | The Guardian | June 6, 2012

The NHS Hack Day was a eureka moment in the history of IT in the NHS. I am delighted that follow-up hack days will happen in Liverpool and Oxford. I am delighted that the establishment types on the judging panel have seen the light. They will ensure that the hack day will not just become another NHS pilot, which will fade away and be forgotten. Read More »

NHS Hack Day brings open source to UK Health Service

DJ Walker-Morgan | The H (h-online.com) | May 31, 2012

The first NHS Hack Day has highlighted applications which could help the UK's National Health Service provide better, more customisable services for people. The event was won by a group who developed an electronic patient task list for doctors... Read More »

Open access and the Academic Spring continues to blossom in the U.K.

Edward Fullbrook | Real-World Economics Review Blog | July 17, 2012

The Academic Spring has seen four major developments in the last 32 hours. Read More »