Making Transparency work for you – seminar and workshop Go Compare: … not just linked data but also linkable data Paul Davidson, The Local e-Government Standards Body (LeGSB) London, 5 th March 2013, Bristol 12 th March 2013, Leeds 21 st March 2013

Mission –To promote eStandards that support Efficiency, Transformation, and Transparency of Local Services –Syntax, Semantics, Quality, Rights, Authentication, Transport, Governance Funded by sponsorship from –Cabinet-Office –Driving the work of the Information Domain –Information Standards to support the Infrastructure initiatives from the government ICT Strategy –DWP –Universal Credits, ATLAS message formats –Communities and Local Government –Transparency, Comparable Financial Data Governance –Originally an ODPM National Project –A part of the iNetwork –Accountable body is Tameside Council Executive Steering Board –LGA, SOCITM, DWP, CLG, C.O., Health, Education, Intellect, Information Commissioner’s Office Representing to –CTO Delivery Group –UK Location Council –Knowledge Council –EC, ISA European Interoperability Architecture Working Groups Local eGovernment Standards Body (LeGSB)

Why Standards for Open Data? Data Publishing - Public Open Data –Transparency and Scrutiny –for example, expenditure, councillor expenses, senior employee salaries –Enabling innovators to create apps, and therefore save costs in not developing facilities themselves –for example, roadworks.org –Big Data from Small Data –Engaging local people in local decision making, and ‘open public services’ –for example, community budgets, public building and land, forward planning. –Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of local services –for example, multi-agency shared operational data, and insight Multiple Agencies in Complex Environments –E.g. Troubled Families, Dementia –What works?

Code of recommended practice … Publication should be in open and machine-readable formats. The recommended 5 step journey to a fully open format is: –* Available on the web (whatever format) but with an open license –** As for one star plus available as machine-readable structured data (e.g. Excel instead of image scan of a table) –*** As for two star plus use a non-proprietary format (e.g. CSV and XML) –**** All the above plus use open standards from the World Wide Web Consortium (such as RDF and SPARQL) and –***** All the above plus link your data to other people’s data to provide context.

Car Parks Linking for Comparability –Type of Income / Expenditure –Type or Service –Metrics, Parking Charges - authorities should publish: revenue from off-street parking charges; revenue from on-street parking charges; the number of off-street parking places; the number of on-street parking places; the revenue from parking fines; and the number of free parking spaces available Consultation on the Code of Recommended Practice …

Information Contents OPERATIONAL - Data about real people and places, with real needs and circumstances, using real services, i.e. case work STATISTICAL - Aggregated operational data – organised using common classifications and segmentations ANALYTICAL - The conclusions drawn from an analysis of statistical data POLITICAL - The decisions taken to shape services, e.g. budgets, strategies, priorities, targets etc.

Information Contexts – Car Parks ContextInsight / ServiceData Operational Where are Car Parks? What spaces are free now? GIS and real-time monitoring. Statistical Average number of free spaces at locations and times of the day/week. Income and Expenditure on Car Parks. Locations, Time. Budgets, Outturn Analytical Capacity of car parks to meet retail and employment needs, and forecast. Correlation to City Centre shopping and employment data PoliticalCar Parking StrategyDecisions on future capacity, charges, ‘park and ride’ initiatives.

Comparability requires … Comparability is based on finding the ‘joins’ between data. The linking mechanisms that can be used to support comparability include: –using consistent definitions of the meaning of the values in the data; –using common reference schemes to refer to common items.

Joining it up?

Legsb The Local e-Government Standards Body