Protein idol, Tim Berners-Lee opened up the UK Governement's data.gov.uk site to the public yesterday. It might not seen like big news to most of you, but we've been tracking the site for some time as it marks a big step in creating a truly open source public data service. While taking a page from the US with the launch of its own public data hub, the UK data portal offers almost three times the number of data sets available on the US site. Speaking at the launch, TBL explained, "Data underpins our economy and our society - data about how much is being spent and where, data about how schools, hospitals and police are performing, data about where things are and data about the weather. Yet until recently not many non-technical people concerned themselves with data and how it could be used better." Expect some interesting things to popping up shortly and if you've got an idea, then submit it here.