An example of open data

Open data has many uses. As well as being able to analyse data, it can be used to create online/offline apps and can help enhance existing websites.

Open data has many uses. As well as being able to analyse data, it can be used to create online/offline apps and can help enhance existing websites.

The Global News Hub has over 8,000 individual topics – these are the words at the bottom of articles that help to categorise content. Many of these topics are organisation names too.

By using open data, the Global News Hub can search for organisation names and pull in available data. So in this proof-of-concept experiment we have chosen some of the top co-operatives in the UK and pulled in existing data.

There are examples of the Co-operative Group, John Lewis Partnership, Midlands Co-operative and Midcounties Co-operative. Co-operative rankings, sector and turnover are from Co-operatives UK, while OpenCorporates provides the co-op's address and other information gleaned from registry entries, such as the FSA Mutuals Register or Companies House.

With more data on co-operatives freely available more features such as this can be built. 

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