ogp west balkans dialogue: uk open data experience

How data.gov.uk was made

Andrew Stott

UK Transparency Board

formerly Director, data.gov.uk

Tirana, Albania

10 September 2015 v0.4

@dirdigeng

[email protected]

Policy Objectives of Open Data

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New Economic and Social Value

Improved public services

More Transparent Government

More Efficient Government


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Service

Providers Service

Users

“National Information Infrastructure”

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Public Transport Information

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Pharmaceuticals

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Innovation in Logistics

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Innovation in Insurance

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Innovation in Real Estate

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UK Government Transparency Data

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For every central Ministry

and municipal council:-

Expenditure

Senior staff salaries

Expenses

Official credit cards

Contracts

Tenders

Organisation charts

Local service &

performance data

Meetings

Is Money Being Spent Well?

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What contracts are being granted to who?

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Links to the

documents

Innovation from Transparency Data!

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Performance of individual schools

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Performance of local police and courts

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Performance of individual hospitals

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12+ Weeks

MRSA-free

Good C-Diff

record Low

Mortality

2 recent

MRSA

Blood

clots

Patient

ratings

Improving cleanliness in English hospitals

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Weekly per-hospital open data starts

Source: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130107105354/http://mediacentre.dh.gov.uk/files/2012/01/Graph.jpg

OpenlyLocal: a dashboard for each City

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Government is a data user too

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Lessons learned

Top-level political leadership essential

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Important to have strong “demand-side”

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Release data about things people care about

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Release data people request

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Clear, common, licensing approach

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Incremental Delivery

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Identify datasets not yet released

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It’s not just about new data

Scope for “Open Data” also includes data

previously “published” but …

in non-reusable format

with restricted licence

only aimed at specialist groups

only for payment

only in response to requests

difficult to find

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data.gov.uk contains some data which

nobody knew was already published

Help solve problems & manage risks

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

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Continuously engage with data users

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Photos: @memespring,

@MadLabUK, @paul_clarke

Continuously engage with developers

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Task agencies to help people use their data

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Focus on applications not just data

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Encourage data-driven journalism

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Standards

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Measure delivery and conformance

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Measure achievement

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Conclusion

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Government as Supplier

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Government as Leader

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Government as Catalyst

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Government as User

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… and the biggest lesson of all

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Overcome obstacles

practically

by doing,

not debating

Discussion

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End

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ogp west balkans dialogue: uk open data experience

Government & Nonprofit