Transcript A World of Open Data

Open Government Data
Andrew Stott
UK Transparency Board
formerly Director, data.gov.uk
Bratislava Plenary
05 Mar 2012
@dirdigeng
[email protected]
A World of Open Data
2
3
Federal Government, USA
4
United Kingdom Government
5
Australia
6
Singapore
7
Spain
8
Moldova
9
Kenya – first in Africa
10
France
11
World Bank
12
London, United Kingdom
13
Vancouver, Canada
14
Rennes, France
15
San Francisco, USA
16
Berlin, Germany
17
Vienna, Austria
18
A World of Open Data
Now over 200 governmental Open Data sites
19
20
How is data.gov.uk being used?
21
Information services to the public
22
Operational efficiency/optimisation
23
Data Mining
24
Social value and cohesion
25
Improving Public Services
26
Holding government accountable
27
Data Journalism
28
Lessons learned
29
Top-level political support essential
“Greater transparency
will enable the public
to hold politicians and
public bodies to
account”
“Public information
does not belong to
Government, it
belongs to the
public.”
30
Strong civil society “demand-side” essential
31
Passionate team important too!
32
Deliver incrementally
33
Ensure clear, common, licensing
34
Don’t accept “no” — work out “how”















It’s held separately by n different organisations, and we can’t join it up
It will make people angry and scared without helping them
It is technically impossible
We do not own the data
The data is just too large to be published and used
Our website cannot hold files this large
We know the data is wrong
We know the data is wrong, and people will tell us where it is wrong
We know the data is wrong, and we will waste valuable resources
inputting the corrections people send us
People will draw superficial conclusions from the data without
understanding the wider picture
People will construct league tables from it
It will generate more Freedom of Information requests
It will cost too much to put it into a standard format
It will distort the market
Our IT suppliers will charge us a fortune to do an ad hoc extract
35
Manage expectations, prepare for mistakes
“We’re making a small start next
week. But eventually, it’s going to
make a big difference.”
“The information we’re publishing
next week won’t be perfect, it won’t
always be in the most convenient
format, and I’m sure there’ll be some
mistakes. But I want to get on with
it.”
UK Prime Minister 29 May 2010
36
Continuously engage with developers
Photos: @memespring,
@MadLabUK, @paul_clarke
37
.. and highlight applications, not data
38
Government is a data user too
39
… and the biggest lesson of all
Overcome obstacles
practically
by doing,
not debating
40
End
41