Publishing platform visualizes government data for entrepreneurs

DataPress is a platform that publishes raw data and helps non-technical users analyze and release open data.

Open data is helping to solve common problems for businesses and governments. Initiatives in the UK are starting to democratize the availability of information, but many people still find it hard to access or understand data from governments and local councils.

That’s the problem DataPress is trying to solve. The London-based startup, founded by former developers who worked on the UK Government’s data.gov.uk website, transforms data from local governments into easy-to-use resources for residents and communities. The founders also believe more open data will help encourage startups, with entrepreneurs using data to develop business ideas.

The DataPress cloud-based platform allows government officials to better open up complicated information and statistics. The team at DataPress works with civil servants to build data visualizations for everyday use, and offer training to help turn public data into a public utility.

The company has worked with teams in London and Leeds to improve their use of open source data. The platform also helps users to ‘follow’ data publishers in a similar manner to a blog — the developers describe their idea as a “WordPress for data”.

What types of businesses can benefit from a platform like Datapress?