The Big Society jumps on COINS data

The Treasury has taken a major step forward in demonstrating openness and transparency by releasing data from its COINS (Combined On-line Information System) database containing details of public spending across Whitehall.

As this bulletin highlighted last month, the move towards opening up data in governments and institutions is gaining momentum across the world and it is encouraging to see the UK leading the way.

The data from the COINS database is immensely complicated. A BBC journalist had prior requests for the information denied by the previous Government on the grounds of "impenetrability of the information to a lay user". The previous Government had argued that the potential for misinterpretation of 23 million lines of raw and unvalidated data could lead to a high volume of follow-up enquiries disrupting the Treasury's work.

In contrast, the new coalition has signalled its commitment to open up public data – the Prime Minister making this explicit in a public letter published earlier this month.

The release of the data has highlighted the power of the Big Society; the database being made accessible and searchable not by Government but by civil society organisations like the Open Knowledge Foundation which has already developed a user's guide to the data.

The Guardian also opened a page on its data-blog to post live updates and mash-ups of the data to make it more usable for the public.

The release of this key dataset and its successful reception by civil society shows how the Big Society can work. In resource strapped times, it demonstrates the ways in which government can harness the power and expertise of a self-organising citizens and civil society.