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Does Hong Kong need a third runway? Big data transparency could settle debate

This week's relaunch of a government statistics website is a step in the right direction, but tech insiders tell Elaine Yau the city still has a long way to go in making big data available

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Cyrus Wong (centre)  Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education.
Elaine Yauin Beijing

As the buzz over big data grows ever louder, techies are eagerly harnessing their power to capture and process vast streams of detailed information from different aspects of life to address various needs - including those you never knew you had.

Spoken News is among 70 apps created using data that the government began releasing in 2011. Gathering information on availability of parking, nearby petrol stations and road conditions, its greatest use has been in helping drivers figure out how they can steer clear of traffic jams.

The app has been gaining traction, with 60,000 users signing up since it was released last year, says Will Kwok Yu-ho, an IT lecturer at Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Sha Tin) who developed Spoken News with colleague Roy Lam Wai-lun.

"Using GPS signals [from mobile phones or vehicles] it lets the driver view images captured by Transport Department CCTVs. Updated every two minutes, the [video feed] gives a view of roads within tens of metres of his location," Kwok says. "So he can decide whether to turn into another road to avoid the congestion ahead."

Recognising the potential of big-data analytics, governments around the world have supported initiatives to realise its benefits by making statistics and data generated by different departments available to the public.

Hong Kong took a tiny step forward in this direction three years ago with the launch of data.one.gov.hk the government's information portal. The site provided just two sets of raw data - video feeds of road conditions from the Transport Department and the length of vehicle queues waiting to get into the three cross-harbour tunnels.
This big-data initiative has been given a boost with an overhaul of the site, which relaunched this week as data.gov.hk Name change aside, the portal is not only much bigger (3,000 sets of data under 18 categories covering all policy areas), it is more handy with expanded filtering and search functions.
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