Presentation by Wilbert Kraan at University of Edinburgh Open Knowledge Network event, 28th April 2017

1. Open Data at the University
of Edinburgh
Wilbert Kraan, Data Architect, IS apps

2. What open data?
• Operational data
• OER and research data have their own initiatives
• E.g.
• Degree programme information, timetables, and other non-personal course
data.
• Information about public lectures and bookable events.
• Data about sharable research equipment and facilities
• The location of University buildings and facilities, such as libraries, cafes,
green spaces, car parks and bicycle parking spaces.
• Raw statistics about waste, energy consumption, water usage, room bookings
and usage, computer use, cafés, travel, procurement and supply chains etc.
(where not commercially or personally sensitive)

3. Why open data?
• Data quality improvement
• many eyes make bugs shallow
• Transparency & accountability
• Cost saving
• FOIA requests
• Scholarly practice
• provide evidence for your conclusions/actions
• University mission
• the creation, dissemination and curation of knowledge.
• Community mission
• Making a significant, sustainable and socially responsible contribution to the common good
• Drive innovation
• Let someone else figure out the best use of our data
• Letting our students work with, and learn from, real data about their lives

4. What does success in opening data look like?
• And how do we measure it?
• Numbers of datasets released
• Or:
• Numbers of times our datasets have been re-used
• Number of apps built by students or 3d parties (and how widely they are
used)
• Number of assessments that involve open data sets
• Numbers of issues filed or pull requests sent

5. What do we need to make University of
Edinburgh open data happen?
• A policy- yes, but also:
• Data catalogue?
• Inventory of initiatives / maturity model?
• A standing working group?
• A dedicated support or training team?
• A process for catching and recording data requests?
• Regular hack events?