Sir Tim Berners-Lee is the embodiment of enterprise, if not capitalism. The man who invented what we commonly call the internet should by rights be a billionaire, but he gave away the technology for free.

Today Berners-Lee has unveiled his latest project (presumably he’s getting paid for this one). The website, which was commissioned by the UK government, is called data.gov.uk.

According to the BBC it will offer a world of public sector information ranging from traffic statistics to crime figures, and is for private or commercial use.

"It’s such an untapped resource," said Sir Tim, who was commissioned by prime minister Gordon Brown in 2009 to personally oversee the project.

Speaking to BBC News, he added: "Government data is something we have already spent the money on… and when it is sitting there on a disk in somebody’s office it is wasted."

The site has been live in beta mode since September and a reported 2,400 developers have volunteered to test the site structure and provide feedback.

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