Open data: Under the hood

Stuart HarrisonLichfield District Council

Hikaru Kazushime

Lichfi eld District

Small district north of BirminghamTwo urban centres (Burntwood and Lichfield)Mainly older population, but younger in urban centres Technically savvy, with a lively blogging scene

NickBrickett

Ratemyplace

Food Safety scores websiteBuilt completely in houseOpen data? Why not!Simple RESTful API

Food Safety scores website

Widgets too!

Next steps

Lots of information on our websiteWhy not expose all this?Added geographical information too

Next steps (2)

Heard about Openly LocalFelt the pain of scrapingWhy don't I just give you our data?

What are the barriers?

Lack of awareness

Lack of technical knowledge in web teamsLack of interest from suppliersFear, Uncertainty and Doubt

AdobeMac

Open Elections Project

Aims to overcome some of these barriersStandards-basedMinimal technological knowledgeMinimal costMinimal technological knowledge

Also built a Jadu module

Ordnance Survey

Data created on OS maps (even points) OS derivedCan't easily be reused by third partiesMassive issue with Google MapsOngoing discussion with Cabinet Office

A consumer as well!

My AreaInspired by BCC DIYUses data from:

Openly LocalPlanning AlertsData.gov.ukPolice APINHS ChoicesEtc, etc

http://www.lichfielddc.gov.uk/myarea

Why open data?

Allows us to engage with different audienceMakes engagement a 'many to many' arrangement'Failure for free'It's going to happen anyway

coccu

What next?

Deeper integration with systemsMore useful data (performance data, geographic data)Standards, standards, standards

Don Solo

Thank you

Stuart Harrisonstuart.harrison@lichfielddc.gov.uk01543 308779www.twitter.com/pezholio

www.lichfielddc.gov.ukwww.pezholio.co.uk

1

Open data: Under the hood

Stuart HarrisonLichfield District Council

Hikaru Kazushime

2

Lichfi eld District

Small district north of BirminghamTwo urban centres (Burntwood and Lichfield)Mainly older population, but younger in urban centres Technically savvy, with a lively blogging scene

NickBrickett

The internet, whilst being accessible to people is mainly a system for presenting information.

While machines know what type of information is on a web page, they don't necessarily know what the information is

Open data essentially makes web based information accessible to machines, as well as people.

3

Ratemyplace

Food Safety scores websiteBuilt completely in houseOpen data? Why not!Simple RESTful API

Food Safety scores website

Widgets too!

Here's a standard web page

As I mentioned before, machines know how to present the data, but they can't tell the difference between what is an address (for example) and what is a political party or telephone number.

This makes it very difficult to get the data from a web page to any other system (without a lot of work from developers)

4

Next steps

Lots of information on our websiteWhy not expose all this?Added geographical information too

This is the same information presented as XML

It's standardised, so machines can read it very easily and there is less work involved on the part of developers.

5

Next steps (2)

Heard about Openly LocalFelt the pain of scrapingWhy don't I just give you our data?

Data can then be reused as in this example – openly local

Information is shown in a simple, clear format, with other council's information in the same format – much of it gained through screen scraping.

6

What are the barriers?

Lack of awareness

Lack of technical knowledge in web teamsLack of interest from suppliersFear, Uncertainty and Doubt

AdobeMac

However, there are some barriers, licensing is one, sometimes we can't share all the data we want to because of licensing restrictions.

There's also a lack of awareness amongst senior management, which means there's noone pushing for data to be opened

There's also a lot of fear about open data, it's a brave new world and a lot of people are used to 'data hugging' – keeping their data close and using it as power

Suppliers don't seem to have got on the open data train yet, there's currently no offering that allows online systems to be opened easily

Some web teams don't have a technical resource, and without suppliers offering systems, they just don't have the knowledge

7

Open Elections Project

Aims to overcome some of these barriersStandards-basedMinimal technological knowledgeMinimal costMinimal technological knowledge

Also built a Jadu module

Twitterplan uses data provided in a standard format by PlanningAlerts

Sends a direct message on Twitter to users whenever a planning application is lodged in their area

Because it uses standard data, which is easy to work with, it took me two days to build – if I had to get the data from council websites myself it would take a lot longer

However, due to the actions of the Royal Mail, this service is currently suspended.

8

Ordnance Survey

Data created on OS maps (even points) OS derivedCan't easily be reused by third partiesMassive issue with Google MapsOngoing discussion with Cabinet Office

Twitterplan uses data provided in a standard format by PlanningAlerts

Sends a direct message on Twitter to users whenever a planning application is lodged in their area

Because it uses standard data, which is easy to work with, it took me two days to build – if I had to get the data from council websites myself it would take a lot longer

However, due to the actions of the Royal Mail, this service is currently suspended.

9

A consumer as well!

My AreaInspired by BCC DIYUses data from:

Openly LocalPlanning AlertsData.gov.ukPolice APINHS ChoicesEtc, etc

http://www.lichfielddc.gov.uk/myarea

At LDC, I was inspired by the work of dedicated volunteers, and wanted to open up our data

We've taken a 'steady as she goes' approach, releasing data in a piecemeal fashion, working with developers in the community and finding out what they want

We've also been identifying quick wins, if someone wants a new system, we make sure open data is built in. Also if there's data that's easy to open, such as leisure centre or park locations (as KML files), that goes in too

10

Why open data?

Allows us to engage with different audienceMakes engagement a 'many to many' arrangement'Failure for free'It's going to happen anyway

coccu

I've gone through the hows, but what about the whys? Why should we lofty public sector folk give our data to the public?

For a start, it allows us to engage with a different type of audience, opening data gives us access to a typically younger, digitally switched on audience, not just the curtain twitching nimby type

Also, when we release data, communities build up around data, making engagement a many to many arrangement – good example is BCCDIY

It gives people the opportunity to build cool stuff with our data – stuff we either wouldn't have thought of or don't have time to do. And if it doesn't work, we've lost nothing – to paraphrase Clay Skirky, we get 'Failure for Free'

11

What next?

Deeper integration with systemsMore useful data (performance data, geographic data)Standards, standards, standards

Don Solo

I've gone through the hows, but what about the whys? Why should we lofty public sector folk give our data to the public?

For a start, it allows us to engage with a different type of audience, opening data gives us access to a typically younger, digitally switched on audience, not just the curtain twitching nimby type

Also, when we release data, communities build up around data, making engagement a many to many arrangement – good example is BCCDIY

It gives people the opportunity to build cool stuff with our data – stuff we either wouldn't have thought of or don't have time to do. And if it doesn't work, we've lost nothing – to paraphrase Clay Skirky, we get 'Failure for Free'

12

Thank you

Stuart Harrisonstuart.harrison@lichfielddc.gov.uk01543 308779www.twitter.com/pezholio

www.lichfielddc.gov.ukwww.pezholio.co.uk