Here's something else related I'd like... A collaborative place for buying company house reports.
The idea is that if you want the full accounts or return of a company, instead of going via Companies House, you buy it via a gateway site. The gateway site then stores the copy of the accounts, and gives it not just to you, but also for free to anyone (including Google). OR, to bootstrap it, you let people buy one. If somebody else previously bought it, you make them choose a second company / report, and they have to have that bought, and they get the first one for free, in a chain as long as they like, but they have to buy at least one. When you've got enough, you then release it all for free. Or it buys the full data set (which I believe you can) when a certain trigger point is reached. There are loads of variations on this idea, some of which might make good businesses (you take a cut) and many of which will release lots more info about companies into easy public access. Francis On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 10:22:21AM +0100, Matt Robinson wrote: > The whole site is there because we want the data to be open for groups like > MySociety, LittleSis, and other open projects who can't afford to spend £4k > on a snapshot from Companies House. The reason there are limits at all is > that we can't afford to keep buying the data and we wanted to allow for a > mechanism to fund the purchase of updated datasets. That said, I think having > totally free access to some gradually ageing data is still way better than > having limited access to up-to-date data. How we go about that is completely > up for debate, and I'd really like some ideas. I'm not particularly keen on > the logins because they mess with the API, so they'll probably go away soon. > > As for losing the space - it's looong gone. :) There's tonnes of companies > that sell Companies House appointment reports for a tenner or more. If we > compete at all, it'll be half-heartedly. Profit (or even breaking even) is > definitely not our aim here, we just wanted to get the data out there where > people can do Good Stuff™ with it. > > > On 17 Apr 2010, at 15:53, Francis Irving wrote: > > > Why does it require sign in before you can see the data? > > > > Is it a legal or a business reason? > > > > The big big loss in requiring login, is you will lose any hits from > > search engines for the names of people and companies. If you possibly > > can take it off, I'd advise you to do it now, or someone else will > > later and you'll lose the space. > > > > Well done on making the data that you have available. A really good > > step. > > > > Francis > > > > On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 03:14:16PM +0100, Matt Robinson wrote: > >> Wotcha, > >> > >> Thought that some of you might be interested in > >> http://directors.mapofpower.com/ – we bought the Companies House > >> appointment snapshot and dropped it into a quick little searchable symfony > >> app so you can browse the data - it's the directors and secretaries of > >> every UK company, cross-linked. Quite handy for looking up your PPCs, > >> ex-MPs, etc. Also handy (if you're a childish prat like me) for looking up > >> funny names (see if you can beat Minge Fan, or Arse Plems Kyentu). > >> > >> I was wanting to work on it a bit more before making it public, but we > >> just haven't had time. If anyone wants to help out on it, please get in > >> touch, I'd really appreciate it, especially if you grok RDF. We're > >> particularly keen on getting JSON & RDF output running, making the > >> annotations work (half done), and putting some kind of API-key thing on it > >> so that we can keep it free for good causes (like MySociety, > >> DemocracyClub, etc), while managing to make a little bit of money back > >> from others so we can afford to buy updated data snapshots (they're £4k > >> each, so not insanely expensive, but not exactly free either). > >> > >> By way of introduction - hi, I'm Matt, I've been lurking here for about a > >> year since I started developing WhoKnowsWho at Tui for Channel 4. Myself > >> and a couple of colleagues sort of lurk around, belligerently doing good > >> things. I open-sourced WKW, and am currently working on a UK network for > >> LittleSis.org. A couple of my colleagues designed the London Datastore. > >> > >> -- > >> Matt Robinson > >> http://inanimatt.com/ > >> > > > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Mailing list [email protected] > >> Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: > >> https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public > > > > > > -- > > Help beat party propaganda during this Election - www.democracyclub.org.uk > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Mailing list [email protected] > > Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: > > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public > > > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list [email protected] > Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public > -- Help beat party propaganda during this Election - www.democracyclub.org.uk _______________________________________________ Mailing list [email protected] Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public
