Presentation given to Isle of Man BCS about open data, local & global, on Feb 23, 2011

1. Open data
the local & global
perspective
Isle of Man, BCS, February 23, 2011

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. why open data?
Do we still need to answer this question? Yes

7. Our lives are
governed by data...
Mainframe photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cote/54408562/

8. Our lives are
governed by data...
and always have been
Mainframe photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cote/54408562/

9. But now increasingly,
our lives are data

10. The web is
no longer
just about
websites
And in the future
will be primarily
NOT websites

11. 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

12. 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?

13. 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

14. In this world, open
data is the connection
that empowers

15. Open data is...
enfranchisement

16. Democracy Data
Democracy

17. Democracy Data
Democracy
allowing different people
to read the same
arguments, hear the same
speeches, and then take a
different view

18. Democracy Data
Democracy
allowing different people
to read the same allowing different people
arguments, hear the same to look at the same data
speeches, and then take a and come up with a
different view different perspective

19. Open data is...
relevance

20. Open data is...
relevance
Facebook vs the British govt

21. Open data is...
relevance
Facebook vs the British govt
Tesco vs any council

22. Open data is...
relevance
Facebook vs the British govt
Tesco vs any council
BP vs any country

23. Open data is...
relevance
Facebook vs the British govt
Tesco vs any council
BP vs any country
Government is becoming less powerful,
less relevant but by opening its data it
increases its relevance

24. 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

25. OpenlyLocal

26. OpenCorporates

27. So, open data’s a
silver bullet?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eschipul/4160817135/

28. 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

29. Open Data non
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)

30. So where are the
problems?
Why is this still quite hard?

31. 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)

32. 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)

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

34. 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

35. The data is bad

36. The data is bad
Answer: publish it, but clearly
acknowledge the problems
(and the community may help clean it up)

37. The data is complex

38. 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)

39. The data is proprietary
Answer: work with the supplier,
or else go public & make this a
reputational issue for them
(and so warn other potential clients)

40. The data contains
personal info
Answer: use FoI as a benchmark (e.g.
consultants have no protection),
balance the cost/benefit, and protect
vulnerable individuals

41. The data will expose
incompetence
Answer: Get over it, embrace the
increased information & use it to
do a better job (& get media buy-in)

42. The tools are poor and
data literacy in the
community is low
Answer: work with hyperlocal sites,
SMEs, schools and colleges to improve
this and work with the data (and build
closer links with the community)

43. One more thing...

44. One more thing...
open data != linked data

45. One more thing...
open data != linked data
linked
open data open linked data
data

46. TBL’s 5-stars of open data
make your stuff available on the
The essential steps
– do these first
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)
do use URIs to identify things, so
these that people can point at your stuff
later link your data to other data to
provide context

47. Jumping in straight at
the deep end may
seriously damage
your sanity
and cost you money

48. Linking Open Data cloud diagram, by Richard Cyganiak
and Anja Jentzsch. http://lod-cloud.net
Local
Openly
Text
publishing a fair bit of it
And that’s speak as someone

49. We’re
not
building
one of
these
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chartres_1.jpg

50. of these to develop
We’re allowing one
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aknock/5072756231