The NSW Government has called on the state's tech sector to help unlock the potential of data collected by its agencies.
As part of the Premier’s Innovation Initiative, the Government has opened an expression of interest phase and is calling on the non-government sectors to come forward with new and creative ways to reuse or reinterpret information.
Finance and services minister, Dominic Perrottet, said the Government was specifically asking for ideas on what could be done with potential data sets and also how it could fast track the release of open data.
“The private sector is much better placed than we are to come up with these solutions – that’s why we’re tapping into the power of the crowd," he said.
He said NSW Government had already made good progress in releasing datasets to the public.
“Large amounts of data have already been made available online through our NSW Open Data Portal, however we want to explore other uses for our data and what de-identified datasets can be fast-tracked for release to developers," he said.
“Greater transparency and an accelerated release of data could help with the creation of new products and apps that could provide wider benefits for the whole community.
He said he saw the initiative as a fantastic opportunity to help improve the delivery of frontline services, such as health, emergency services, education and transport.
“Over the last few years we’ve seen tremendous successes through our app development and Apps4NSW programs, with apps like TripView and NSW Seniors Card having been downloaded thousands, even millions of times,” he said.
“Currently our data is accessed more than 40 million times per month; we can expect this to increase as more industries start to harness and customise uses for de-identified government data.”
Expressions of interest for the Premier’s Innovation Initiative Open Data challenge can be lodged until October 13, on the NSW Government’s eTendering website, tenders.nsw.gov.au, or via the data.nsw.gov.au website.
