Gov 2.0 Andrew Stott

Gov 2.0 & Transparency in the UK the story of data.gov.uk Andrew Stott Director for Transparency & Digital Engagement 03 Nov 2010

Power of Information Taskforce 2008-09

The start of work on data.gov.uk
Objectives
increase transparency
improve public services
release new economic and social value and growth
make UK a global hub of skills in the future of the Web
“ So that Government information is accessible and useful for the widest possible group of people, I have asked Sir Tim Berners-Lee who led the creation of the World Wide Web, to help us drive the opening up of access to Government data in the web over the coming months". Gordon Brown, 10 June 2009

Coalition Government’s Commitments
Create a powerful new right to government data, enabling the public to request and receive government datasets
Transforming the culture of the public sector to one that presumes datasets should be open and shared with the public on an ongoing basis.
Publishing data in open and standardised formats
Specific commitments to release data to make all public bodies more transparency

Prime Minister’s letter of 31 May 2010
Set timetable for releasing as open data spending, salaries, organisation, contracts and tenders, and performance data
Directed central government implementation of:
openness in response to requests for data
release data underlying government websites
Established Public Sector Transparency Board

Releasing 24m lines of spending data ….

… interpreted and republished in 48 hours

Local Government spending open to “Armchair Auditors”

From 10 June 2009 to present
established data.gov.uk - available from 30 Sep 09, a fuller ‘beta’ version 21 Jan 2010, regularly extended
formed a developer community of over 2700 people
made nearly 4000 datasets available to them with a new open licence for data re-use
established common transparency for all Departments of salaries, spending, contracts and tenders
nurtured the first few applications
released 37 GB of geographical reference information – maps, postal codes, gazetteers.
learned many of the obstacles and how to overcome them practically

Learning Points along the way
It’s not an IT project

It’s about the data, not the IT Cholera Cases in 19 th Century Soho, London

[ + Linux, Mediawiki, Varnish, Apache, ….]

Establish coherent set of policy principles

Public Data Principles
Public data policy and practice will be clearly driven by the public and businesses who want and use the data, including what data is released when and in what form
Public data will be published in reusable, machine-readable form
Public data will be released under the same open licence which enables free reuse, including commercial reuse
Public data will be available and easy to find through a single easy to use online access point (data.gov.uk)
Public data will be published using open standards , and following relevant recommendations of W3C

Public Data Principles
Public data underlying the Government’s own websites will be published in reusable form for others to use
Public data will be timely and fine grained
Release data quickly , and then re-publish it in linked data form
Public data will be freely available to use in any lawful way
Public bodies should actively encourage the re-use of their public data
Public bodies should maintain and publish inventories of their data holdings

There’s lots of learning about how to do it
Guidance from National Statistician
Administrative Data
Reasonable measures to prevent identification of individuals
Scientific data
Freedom of Information Act
Information Asset Registers
Open Standards community
What others are doing

Don’t be afraid to be rough, but then improve

Data Publishing – Star Quality
 Put your data on the Web (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

Why 5  Linked Data?
National digital infrastructure being built
URIs for schools, roads, bus stops, post codes, admin boundaries...
Some of the data links across and connects other data together
Key data link points exist

Joining up the dots… http://map.psi.enakting.org/how

Joining up the dots – UK Linked Data http://myarea.psi.enakting.org/

It’s about making data more useful

The goal is re-use of public data
It’s not just about releasing previously unpublished data: also need to bring out
Data previously published, but in non-reusable format
Data previously published, but with restricted licence
Data in a myriad of different places – sometimes reflecting the silos of government
Data not easy to find
Data not easy to understand

Engage with those who will use the data

Photo: @paul_clarke

Location, location, location

Every organisation needs to make its journey

Deep-rooted Political backing is essential

Deep-rooted political backing “ Greater transparency across Government is at the heart of our shared commitment 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; and to realise significant economic benefits by enabling businesses and non-profit organisations to build innovative applications and websites using public data.” David Cameron May 2010

Deep-rooted Political backing is essential

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