The Power of Information review (see previous post) looked at how non-personal public sector information can be re-used and reinvigorated outside of government to generate public and economic value. Responding to one of its recommendations, OPSI have set up a discussion forum to to gather and assess PSI re-use requests.

At issue is not what information should be published by government, but how it should be published and licensed. From the review:

87. It is relatively easy to suggest changes that would give citizens and organisations better access to information held by government. These include:

• republishing information in open standards or as web services;
• changing when information is published to suit the needs of those requesting it;
• rewriting licences in situations where they currently prevent innovative re-use; and
• presenting databases in ways that suit the needs of re-users.

123. Consequently, this review recommends that government should publish regulatory information on the internet in a format that consumers find easy to understand and that citizens and organisations can easily re-use and re-combine with other information.

The OPSI discussion forum is a place for you to suggest how the publishing of PSI should change to meet your requirements. What do you want to do with it and what changes in presentation etc would make this easier for you?