Berners-Lee demands countries deliver on open data promises Sir Tim Berners-Lee called on world leaders to "back talk on transparency and accountability with action," the Open Data Institute said ahead of today's Open Government Partnership Summit. Sir Tim claims fighting poverty, accelerating industry and innovation, and reducing corruption can all be assisted through the release of publicly held data to the public and software developers. "It is important that efforts to open up data and information are meaningful and lead to real change," said Sir Tim. Governments and companies must not shy away from publishing contentious datasets if they contain information that could be used to dramatically improve people's lives. He claimed "The open data movement has made a promising start, but many Open Government Data initiatives are presently resting on shallow foundations, at risk of falling backwards if political will or pressure from campaigners subsides." Unveiling a new report, called the Open Data Barometer, Sir Tim said that the UK was the most advanced of the 77 countries surveyed when it came to releasing data. The USA, Sweden, New Zealand, a tied Denmark and Norway made up the rest of the top five, with Kenya the most advanced developing country, ahead overall of Ireland, Italy and Belgium in global comparisons. The Barometer reveals that 55 per cent of countries surveyed have formal open data policies in place, although valuable but potentially controversial datasets, such as company registers and land registers, are among the least likely to be openly released. The report also found that when they are released, government datasets are often issued in inaccessible formats. It seeks to encourage efforts that get entrepreneurs, the public and organisations to use data, rather than simply for governments to publish it.