Those Coalition cuts, in full

[nmg]

From here, summarising BIS contributions to the announced GBP6Bn cuts package:

£18 million by stopping low priority projects like the Semantic web and the SME Adjudicator

That's either data.gov.uk or the funding for the Web Science Institute scuppered (or possibly both), then.

Comments

[quercus.livejournal.com]

It was good enough for H-P 8-(

[pinguthegreek.livejournal.com]

Is this something you expected or is it a shock ?

[nmg.livejournal.com]

Feared, but not unexpected.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

shit! Wendy has clout tho as does tbl of course..

[thegreatgonzo.livejournal.com]

Definitely the Institute of Web Science

[nmg.livejournal.com]

Fuck. Thanks for the pointer.

[gnommi.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere that N.S. was being "retained" by the gov for data.gov.uk or similar though... what that means, however!?!

[(Anonymous)]

How incredibly, incredibly short-sighted. Having spent a small amount of time working in the government contracting field (UK and now over here in the US), the amount needed for IWS could be saved pretty much instantly by simply tightening up the contracting procurement procedure. Even just a little tiny teeny little bit. The thing is surely this: if we (the UK/Soton/whatever) don't do IWS, someone else will, and soon.

Yup,

[ah-see-argh.livejournal.com]

I can't go into details, but it wasn't so long ago that I had the pleasure of witnessing a nice juicy consortium burning resources for breakfast.

Just to leave you well and truly galled, this comes within days of the Reading freakshow fussing about another contrived RFID scenario.

[mikej-uk.livejournal.com]

Lameness :( Somehow the 'big data project' sounds like it'll be 'ask us for data, and we'll send you CSV files'.

[theno23.livejournal.com]

While it sucks very, very deeply, I can see how it's a non-contraversial way to save a chunk of money.

[nmg.livejournal.com]

True - just a little closer to home than usual.

[theno23.livejournal.com]

Indeed, and as a semi-impartial observer, I think it's a bad move.

[nmg.livejournal.com]

Well, duh! ;)

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

But not as close to home as the BIS cuts are to me...

[jorune.livejournal.com]

I hope that you are not too badly affected.

[easterbunny.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear that. :/