Open data

the local & global perspective

Isle of Man, BCS, February 23, 2011

Me: Chris Taggart

• Developer of OpenlyLocal, opening up local government information since 2009. Over 150 councils, 10,000 councillors, 1.5 million payments, all open data.

• Developer of OpenCharities

• Co-founder of OpenCorporates

• Member of Local Public Data Panel

• Member of London Digital Advisory Board

• Member of Open Knowledge Foundation open government working group

• @countculture on Twitter

Me: Chris Taggart

• Developer of OpenlyLocal, opening up local government information since 2009. Over 150 councils, 10,000 councillors, 1.5 million payments, all open data.

• Developer of OpenCharities

• Co-founder of OpenCorporates

• Member of Local Public Data Panel

• Member of London Digital Advisory Board

• Member of Open Knowledge Foundation open government working group

• @countculture on Twitter

Me: Chris Taggart

• Developer of OpenlyLocal, opening up local government information since 2009. Over 150 councils, 10,000 councillors, 1.5 million payments, all open data.

• Developer of OpenCharities

• Co-founder of OpenCorporates

• Member of Local Public Data Panel

• Member of London Digital Advisory Board

• Member of Open Knowledge Foundation open government working group

• @countculture on Twitter

Me: Chris Taggart

• Developer of OpenlyLocal, opening up local government information since 2009. Over 150 councils, 10,000 councillors, 1.5 million payments, all open data.

• Developer of OpenCharities

• Co-founder of OpenCorporates

• Member of Local Public Data Panel

• Member of London Digital Advisory Board

• Member of Open Knowledge Foundation open government working group

• @countculture on Twitter

why open data?

Do we still need to answer this question? Yes

Our lives are governed by data...

Mai

nfra

me

phot

o: h

ttp://

ww

w.fl

ickr

.com

/pho

tos/

cote

/544

0856

2/

Our lives are governed by data... and always have been

Mai

nfra

me

phot

o: h

ttp://

ww

w.fl

ickr

.com

/pho

tos/

cote

/544

0856

2/

But now increasingly, our lives are data

The web is no longer just about websitesAnd in the future will be primarily NOT websites

Information, when we want it, where we want it, how we want it

sensors, apps, api’s, offline...

Photos, from left: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mduchesn/3107504673, http://www.flickr.com/photos/yewenyi/2769658703

The future is global

• How many UK search engines/social networks/auction sites/location services are there?

• How many truly big British companies are there (Dude, where’s my tax base?), and what is a company anyway?

• Where does jurisdiction lie in a massively connected world?

The future is local

• We live locally

• However much we are connected we are intimately affected by local events, the local environment, local crime and local culture

• Location still matters – just look at all the internet business being based on it

• We don’t have just one ‘local’ – home, work, holiday, where we grew up

In this world, open data is the connection that empowers

Open data is... enfranchisement

Democracy Data Democracy

Democracy

allowing different people to read the same

arguments, hear the same speeches, and then take a

different view

Data Democracy

Democracy

allowing different people to read the same

arguments, hear the same speeches, and then take a

different view

Data Democracy

allowing different people to look at the same data

and come up with a different perspective

Open data is... relevance

Open data is... relevance

Facebook vs the British govt

Open data is... relevance

Facebook vs the British govt

Tesco vs any council

Open data is... relevance

Facebook vs the British govt

Tesco vs any council BP vs any country

Open data is... relevance

Government is becoming less powerful, less relevant but by opening its data it

increases its relevance

Facebook vs the British govt

Tesco vs any council BP vs any country

Open data is... new opportunities

Data owners (& not just govt ones) are usually the last people to be able to see its

full potential. Data reusers bring a fresh (and non-public sector) eye to the data

OpenlyLocal

OpenCorporates

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eschipul/4160817135/

So, open data’s a silver bullet?

There are no silver bullets

• If there weren’t problems, we wouldn’t be doing anything interesting

• We’ve now had local councils publishing open data for over a year (kudos to @pezholio and @londondatastore)

• Done some interesting experiments (Open Election Data project)

• Can now identify some real & bogus problems

• What if people misinterpret the data? (c.f. What if people vote the ‘wrong’ way)

• What if nobody uses the data (inevitable for some data, but even this is useful feedback mechanism)

Open Data non problems

So where are the problems?

Why is this still quite hard?

People & organisations see it as a threat (and it is if you are wedded to the status quo, or an intermediary that doesn’t add anything)

People & organisations see it as a threat (and it is if you are wedded to the status quo, or an intermediary that doesn’t add anything)

Answer: the internet routes around blockages; do the same.

Concentrate of getting things done rather than the proper channels (& your citizens & frontline staff will thank you)

The data is messy – e.g. tied up in PDFs, Word documents, or arbitrary web pages

The data is messy – e.g. tied up in PDFs, Word documents, or arbitrary web pages

Answer: Don’t lose too much sleep over it, but fix it for the future

The data is bad

The data is bad

Answer: publish it, but clearly acknowledge the problems

(and the community may help clean it up)

The data is complex

Answer: publish internal explanations/training info, and make available

people who understand it(NB its complexity may be a sign that

the process is flawed, e.g. LAAs)

The data is complex

Answer: work with the supplier, or else go public & make this a

reputational issue for them (and so warn other potential clients)

The data is proprietary

Answer: use FoI as a benchmark (e.g. consultants have no protection),

balance the cost/benefit, and protect vulnerable individuals

The data contains personal info

Answer: Get over it, embrace the increased information & use it to

do a better job (& get media buy-in)

The data will expose incompetence

Answer: work with hyperlocal sites, SMEs, schools and colleges to improve this and work with the data (and build

closer links with the community)

The tools are poor and data literacy in the community is low

One more thing...

open data != linked data

One more thing...

open data != linked data

open data linked datalinkedopen data

One more thing...

make your stuff available on the Web (whatever format) under an open licence

make it available as structured data (e.g., Excel instead of image scan of a table)

use non-proprietary formats (e.g., CSV instead of Excel)

use URIs to identify things, so that people can point at your stuff

link your data to other data to provide context

★★★★★

★★★★

★★★

★★

★

TBL’s 5-stars of open dataTh

e es

sent

ial s

teps

–

do th

ese

first

do these later

Jumping in straight at the deep end may seriously damage your sanity

and cost you money

OpenlyLocal

Text

Link

ing

Ope

n D

ata

clou

d di

agra

m, b

y R

icha

rd C

ygan

iak

and

Anj

a Je

ntzs

ch. h

ttp://

lod-

clou

d.ne

tAnd that’s speak as someone publishing a fair bit of it

We’re not building one of these

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chartres_1.jpg

We’re allowing one of these to develop

http

://w

ww

.flic

kr.c

om/p

hoto

s/ak

nock

/507

2756

231