On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 01:51:53PM +0100, Matt Ford wrote:
> Isn't that a bit of a roundabout route to opening up the data?
Yes. Lots of good sites are roundabout ways of opening up data -
obvious big example is WhatDoTheyKnow.
I think it would be well worth doing.
> Surely the only reason that companies house charges is to cover
> their costs? If you bypass their method of covering their costs then
> they will have to get more funding from government - or increase
> their charges. Might as well just ask the government to cover their
> costs now and open up the data properly?
Companies House turns out to be really easy to do in a directly
revenue neutral way (compared to, say, Ordnance Survey). You increase
entry update charges, remove charges for viewing the data, and costs
are covered:
"As with the Land Registry they are already deriving the bulk of their
revenue from update charges. Moving to marginal (zero) cost for their
digital bulk data products will only result in a small reduction in
income so this can be made up by a small increase in charges for
updates."
http://www.rufuspollock.org/economics/papers/psi-funding-options/
There's more details in some of the reports Rufus Pollock helped write
that are linked to from that post.
I suspect one of the reasons Companies House still charges is that
people are scared of the consequences of the change. Most obviously,
it is scary as it reveals lots of people's addresses (which although
already public, don't appear in Google searches). More darkly, it will
make it easier for people to trace what a company is doing, which
perhaps some don't like.
I'm hoping that Labour will go for opening up this data as a policy.
It fits well with the left (much as releasing detailed public sector
finance data fits well as a policy for the right).
Francis
> Francis Irving wrote:
> >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
>
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