1. Obstacles to Open Data Andrew Stott UK Transparency Board formerly Director, data.gov.uk Rome 10 Dec 2012 @dirdigeng andrew.stott@dirdigeng.com

2. The first 2½ years of data.gov.uk 2 Over 8600 datasets 37 GB of geo data Public Data Principles Open Government Licence Transparency of salaries, spending, contracts and tenders Four site versions, each in response to user feedback

3. UK Government Transparency Data 3 For every central Ministry and regional/city council:- Expenditure Senior staff salaries Expenses Official credit cards Contracts Tenders Organisation charts Local service & performance data Meetings

4. Some of the usual excuses 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 4

5. What’s really going on? 5

6. For the data producer it seems all pain and no gain 6

7. Top-level political and official leadership essential 7 “Public information does not belong to Government, it belongs to the public.” “Greater transparency will enable the public to hold politicians and public bodies to account”

8. Measure conformance 8

9. Use Open Data to engage with your customers 9 Local team Telephone, website, Facebook and Youtube …. Local police Twitter feed How YOU can get involved It’s very local Accessible data on crime AttractInformEngageAction

10. Internal Return on Investment 10 Easier sharing Lower transaction costs Faster access to data Reduced admin costs Improved decisions More “joined up” working DataGM: Inter-agency benefits alone greatly exceed all open data costs

11. Ensure some financial re-cycling 11

12. Pause 12

13. How to promote effective re-use of data Andrew Stott UK Transparency Board formerly Director, data.gov.uk Rome 10 Dec 2012 @dirdigeng andrew.stott@dirdigeng.com

14. Release interesting & useful data 14

15. and data on things that people care about 15

16. Encourage requests for more data 16

17. Photos: @memespring, @MadLabUK, @paul_clarke Encourage and support developers 17

18. Encourage young people to use data 18

19. Make the information findable 19

20. Make Open Mean Open 20

21. Measure reusability as well as accessibility 21

22. Data Publishing – Star Quality  Put your data on the Web with an Open Licence (any format)  Make it available as structured data (e.g. Excel, CSV, instead of PDF)  Use open, standard formats (e.g. XML, RDF)  Use URLs to identify things (so people and machines can point at your data)  Link your data to other people’s data 22 Ease of reuse Automatic rating tools becoming available

23. Recognise success 23

24. UK Open Data Institute Develop capability of UK businesses to exploit value of Open Data Engage developers/small businesses to build Open Data supply chains and commercial outlets Help public sector use its own data more effectively Ensure academic research in Open Data technologies 24

25. Promoting more effective re-use Release the data people want Let them find it Make sure that it is really open Make sure that it is really re-usable Support and encourage developers and other users 25

26. End 26