How Open is Public Data?

Dr Gesche SchmidHead of Geographic Information PolicyGesche.Schmid@local.gov.uk

Presented at:

Coalition Government:Data Transparency

• To enable the public to hold politicians and public bodies to account

• To reduce the deficit and deliver better value for money in public spending

• To realize significant economic benefits by enabling businesses and non-profit organisations to build innovative applications and websites using public data.

What is Open Public Data?

• "Public Data" is the objective, factual, non-personal data on which public services run and are assessed, on which policy decisions are based, or which is collected or generated in the course of public service delivery.

(Transparency Board, http://data.gov.uk/blog/new-public-sector-transparency-board-and-public-data-transparency-principles

)

• Open data is data which can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone.

(Open knowledge foundation, www.opendefinition.org/government )

Transparency Board: Public data principles

• Public data will be – published in reusable, machine-readable form– released under the same open licence which enables free reuse– available and easy to find through a single easy to use online

access point (data.gov.uk)– published using open standards and in reusable form for others to

use – timely and fine grained

• Public bodies should– actively encourage the re-use of their public data– maintain and publish inventories of their data holdings– release data quickly, and then re-publish it in linked data form

Nigel ShadboltTim Berners-Lee Rufus PollockTom Steinberg

Open Data consultation

• The Open Data consultation paper sets out Government’s proposed approach for Transparency and Open Data Strategy, which is aimed at establishing a culture of openness and transparency in public services.

• We want to hear from everyone – citizens, businesses, public services themselves, and other interest groups – on how we can best embed a culture of openness and transparency in our public services.  The consultation closes on 27 October 2011. 

Data Transparency: Why open public data?

• Improve local accountability

• Lead to greater choice and informed choice

• Power economic growth

• Give users more power to self serve (social growth)

• Improve productivity through better consistent and comparable data (better quality)

Legislation and Policies: What should/can be released and how

• Access to data: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Environmental Information Regulation (EIR), Data Protection Act (DPA),

• Reuse of data: Reuse of Public Sector Information Regulation (RPSI)

• Technical standards framework for location data (INSPIRE) to facilitate the access and sharing of data.

• Data transparency (Making open data real, Code of practice on transparency, Data policy for a public data corporation)

Open Data consultation on

• Enhance the Right to data to reuse (FOI, EIR)• Set transparency standards (machine readable

and linked data as the goal)• Hold bodies to account for delivering open data • Ensure collection and publication of the most

useful data (meaningful data), standards set by central government

• Make the working of public sector more open• Stimulate enterprise and market making in the

use of open data (innovation)

Open Public Data

Examples of Open Data Use

Birmingham Gritting routes based on OSM http://mappa-mercia.org/gritting-map.shtml

Examples: Use of Open data

• Mapping of England riots against poverty indicator (deprivation index):

Guardian data blog, Simon Rogers: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/aug/16/riots-poverty-map-suspects

London Bike App

How to make data really open

1. Make it open• No T&Cs about not using the data for commercial use,

no restrictions on access. 2. Make it readable for computers• The data needs to be in a format that any computer can

use 3. Make it granular• Publish the full, disaggregated data to gather the true

local picture of local spending. 4. Make it quick• Just get the stuff out there. We'd rather have it as it is -

and then get it revised later than have to wait months for it to be finalised.

5. Make it easy to find• There's no point hiding this stuff away. It should be easy

to discover and simple to access. (open knowledge foundation http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/jul/07/local-government-data)

Local Government Open Data

• Barrow Borugh Council (57)• Warwickshire Borrow Council (54)• Sunderland City Council (43)• Bristol City Council (27)• Lichfield District Council (19)• East Staffordshire Borough Council (12)• East Sussex County Council (12)

What people say about Open Data

Not a question of how much data to make open

but how to make it open

What is the return on investment?

There has been little interest in OpenData

from our citizen

Are the opening up of data enough to meet the need of

transparency and accountability? Datasets are inherently dull

and are they understood by the local citizen?

Just open data or meaningful open data

• Establish inventories of data so people know what is available and where to find it

• Follow Open standards so that data can be combined and compared?

• Requires some data quality (currency, accuracy, validity)– Else: Health Warning!

Open to Linked Data

Adapted from Ian Painter Snowflake by Local Government Group

Meeting INSPIRE Compliance: From discovery to mapping

Barrow Borough Council using INSPIRE compliant Open Source Web Mapping Service

Use of Open Data

• Open, Linkable and Linked data: enables connections of data through the web

• Mobile Technology: Access to location based information anywhere.

• Apps: linking location data to local authority records such as environmental health, ratings of restaurants, recording incidences.

Open kent

Licences regulates the use of data

• UK Government Licence Framework (UKGLF) defines a licensing framework for the use of public data.

• Open Government Licence: free commercial reuse of data with limited exceptions

• Creative commons: set of licenses that permit the sharing of copyright largely for non-commercial use http://creativecommons.org/

• Other licensing: operational guidance on data sharing (http://location.defra.gov.uk/2011/08/data-sharing-operational-guidance-updated/

Other licences

• Third party licences define the use of data• Example Public Sector Mapping Agreement

(PSMA) license: licences the use of Ordnance Survey data across the public sector– free-to-use: created independent of OS datasets and

does not include OS attribute data.– Derived data: contains one or more feature contained

in an OS dataset– End User License for contractors and community

groups– Exemption process for derived data

Limitations on open public data

Data Privacy

• Transparency and privacy complement each other. A successful transparency programme is build on confidence of the public that their privacy is protected

• De-anonymisation of large scale datasets may be possible

• O’Hara argues in Transparent Government, Not Transparent Citizens for a case by case assessment of privacy

Affordability: Data is not costless

• Cost:– Collection (as part of services)– Prepare data for publication (extract, convert, check for

personal data)– Sign post (metadata on data.gov.uk)– Dissemination (publishing)

• 5 stages of publishing• Meeting INSPIRE compliance requires additional

webmapping services• Charging

– Freely reusable (raw data)– Marginal cost pricing (to cover costs)– Commercial rate (value add)

Conclusions

• Government is opening up public data: many examples of uses• Data becomes more reusable (license, standards)

but far from consistent; start of a journey!• Opening of data is not costless!!• INSPIRE adds usability of data but also costs• Who is benefitting from open data?

– My granny versus geek?!• Who should fund the opening of public data?

– Taxpayer? – Private sector sponsor? – Users?

• Who should provide open data?– Government in form of public data?– Crowd sourced open data (OSM)?

• What data should be opened up?• Have your say in the Open Data Consultation!• http://www.local.gov.uk/open-data-consultation