Open Data in Participatory Design & Governance

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Today I am going to talk about Data & Visualisation and why it is important; give an overview of how Fingal has used data & visualisation; give an overview of Open Data; share our experience with Fingal Open Data; give an overview of eGovernment and its role in civic governance

Some background about Fingal

Map illustrates population density in the County 239,813 citizens 4 th largest Local Authority 22.2% population growth 2002-2006 Fastest growing & Youngest county Population is concentrated in the South and East of the County 3 main population centres of Blanchardstown, Swords and Balbriggan North-West is rural farmland

To cope with our phenomenal growth we made extensive use of data & visualisation for service planning.

The Fingal Data Hub was created by the Fingal Development Board in 2009. It was a collaboration between 9 partner agencies. It was designed for sharing of anonymised data between partner agencies, to enable interagency cooperation and service planning.

Gives us the ability to profile a place Population, Age, Social Class, Deprivation, Unemployment, Social Housing, School goers To plan a place you must know a place

So, we have seen the importance of demographic and administrative data in the Fingal Data Hub; spatial data in the Development Plan; physical infrastructure and services data in the Greater Blanchardstown Initiative In the summer of 2010, Fingal County Council became aware of the Open Data movement Open Data is …

Open Formats Available in non-proprietary formats e.g. CSV, XML, KML, RDF, open APIs

Participation To increase citizen engagement with Government. If Government and Citizens are to cooperate, then Government can’t be the only ones with the information

This video is available on TED.com http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/tim_berners_lee_the_year_open_data_went_worldwide.html

In the United States, Barak Obama promised Open Government during his election campaign. This website, data.gov was created in 2009 to share US Government data. This is the seen as the main catalyst that has driven the Open Data movement The site now contains 4,717 datasets

In the United Kingdom, Tim Berners-Lee persuaded Prime Minister Gordon Brown that the UK should pursue an Open Data policy. This website, data.gov.uk was created in 2010 to share UK Government data. David Cameron’s Government has continued this policy The site now contains 8,751 datasets

In fact, the EU were ahead of the game The 2003 EU Reuse of Public Sector Information Directive was designed to allow European companies to exploit the potential of Public Sector Data and to contribute to economic growth and job creation. In a 2009 report, the EU cited the value of EU Public sector data at an estimated €27B. However, the PSI directive was primarily about requesting or ‘pulling’ data from Government rather than the publishing or ‘push’ model of Open Data

In the two and a half years since the launch of data.gov, Open Data sites have sprung up around the world, mainly in Canada, USA, Europe, Australia and New Zealand 2010 – UK Government, London, United Nations, World Bank

What about Ireland? Up to November 2010 there were no Open Data websites in this country.

Fingal County Council launched the first Open Data website in the country in November 2010 Fingal Open Data evolved from the principles of the Fingal Data Hub and the Open Data movement. In Summer 2010 we were preparing a report with data about all Local Authorities which was difficult to find and only available in PDF We discovered the Open Data movement and felt that this was a better way We decided to take the initiative with the backing of the County Manager and Fingal Open Data was born It is available at data.fingal.ie The website, which you can see on screen, provides public access to source data from Council systems.

There are currently over 120 datasets organised into 12 categories Detailed information is provided about each dataset, including description, date published and available formats.

We have added a new facility to request data We will check if we have the data and whether it can be released If we can, we will publish it to the site

The site has a Featured Apps section to showcase uses that Fingal Open Data has been put to

There is a blog where we post updates on Fingal Open Data and Open Data in Ireland

The About section gives general information about Fingal Open Data and a link to the licence governing the use of the data

The data is subject to the Irish PSI Licence, drawn up by the Department of Finance, which allows for fair use of the data.

www.dublinked.ie

Datastore 200 datasets (557 files) Data from 4 Dublin Councils and OSI data in research zone (thanks to OSI for being the first) National datasets (Hazardous & Transfrontier Waste Shipments; National Public Transport Nodes; NIAH) Regional Datasets Themes focussed for first release of data were Land Use, Transport & Environmental Zones – Open and Research (Members) – O & M Data criteria for Members zone – Legal issues, Technical (e.g. streaming/live data (samples); binary (Traffic)), Commercial (high-value) Formats – open & non-proprietary where possible; can be onerous to convert – working towards this goal; go ugly early; respond to feedback Metadata for each dataset – Dublinked ‘lite’ standard developed in partnership with Dept. Environment, NUI Galway, Dept. Marine & Natural Resources; compliant with international standards

Membership Section

Past Events Planning Technology Future Events Spatial Water Visualisation Transport Innovation & Commercialisation

Dublinked is first and foremost an Innovation Network Dublinked organises regular themed events to facilitate networking and re-use of data

The Public Service Reform Plan was published in November 2011

The eGovernment Action plan contains 3 specific actions relating to Open Data All public bodies will publish Open Data Data published in reports should also be published in parallel in open formats Public bodies will identify data holdings and release by default

In the 2012 Budget the Irish Government announced it’s intention to apply to join the Open Government Partnership

For Open Data to be of value, it must be put to some use The most common use is through web or mobile Apps To encourage the creation of Apps we organised a competition

This video is available on TED.com http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/tim_berners_lee_the_year_open_data_went_worldwide.html

In order to encourage the reuse of data published on Fingal Open Data and Dublinked, Fingal County Council organised the Apps4Fingal competition The competition ran from 9 th November 2011 to 9 th January 2012 There was a prize fund of €11,500 thanks to the generosity of our sponsors

23 Apps were submitted

The Apps4Fingal section of Fingal Open Data contains all the information about the competition including details of and links to the competition entries, rules, judging criteria and the shortlisted entries I am going to give a quick run-through of the winning Apps

Winner of the Ideas Category was Fingal Deals The Fingal Deals App idea is intended to encourage people to shop locally in Fingal and give local businesses a boost. The app would showcase current special offers and discounts offered by a wide variety of businesses, and could be refined into business type categories to facilitate searches.

Winner of the Student Apps Category was Fingal Day Tripper Fingal Day Tripper is a Web App that allows day trippers to select the type of activities they prefer, as well as if they would like to stop for a coffee. They can also specify whether they are travelling with children or disabled passengers. The app will then suggest a day trip in the local area, showing locations of interest on the map. It also provides the option of getting the route and driving directions for the trip and details of each attraction.

Winner of the Community Apps Category was Fingal Traffic View Fingal Traffic View is an Android Mobile App which provides information about traffic cameras, parking zones, disabled parking, train stations and Garda safety zones. These are displayed on a map and users can also view images from the traffic cameras. The App also incorporates a live feed of twitter accounts related to Dublin Traffic.

Winner of the Enterprise Apps Category was mypp.ie Mypp.ie is a Web App which uses Planning Application data from all 4 Dublin local authorities. These are displayed on a map allowing users to easily check planning applications in an area. Features include a notification service, a 3D interactive house showing what works need planning permission, a professional directory and planning-related news feed. Planning applications are colour coded by status and more info can be displayed.

Winner of the Overall & Tourism Apps Categories was Discover Fingal Discover Fingal is a Mobile Web App in which users are encouraged to discover historical and cultural sites in Fingal through a Find and Reward Facebook App and Mobile Website. Detailed information is provided about each site. If a user checks into three cultural sites they are rewarded with a voucher for a free cup of tea or coffee which can be redeemed at Skerries Mills.

All winners and runners up of the Apps4Fingal competition

For Open Data to be of value, it must be put to some use The most common use is through web or mobile Apps To encourage the creation of Apps we organised a competition

Hit The Road is a startup using Public Transport data as the basis for its journey planner app

Parkya is a startup which has created an app to help people with parking

While the apps4fingal concentrated on Fingal services, many of the Apps incorporate data from other services and across the whole of the Dublin region. In addition, most could scale up to National or International services. One App that has been developed since the competition and which makes use of Open Data is KidsMaps. This takes the playground data from the Fingal Open Data site, but also includes playground data sourced from most of the Local Authorities in Ireland. This is a great example of how Apps based on Open Data can be scalable.

Open Data plays an important role in Open Government

The full movie is 1 hour long and free to view online. http://watch.usnowfilm.com/

Government 2.0 or Open Government is the use of Social Media by Government to enable innovation in the way Government engages with citizens and delivers services

Communicate Government can use Social Media as another broadcast communication channel Here Fingal County Council’s is using Twitter to inform citizens of events and service outages

Share We can share information such as images, data and video Dublin City Libraries share video via YouTube

Dialogue Government can engage in two-way conversations with citizens Here is an example of South Dublin County Council responding to a citizen’s enquiry on Facebook about their water supply

Participate Social Media can be used to facilitate participation Kilkenny County Council use Blogs to enable citizens to provide feedback on proposed Plans for their area

Collaborate Ultimately, Government 2.0 is about enabling a new approach to citizens and Government working together in a collaborative manner on matters of mutual concern Ideally, collaboration should be capable of being initiated by either Government or Citizen This is an example from North Sydney Council, Australia in which citizens can participate in determining budget priorities The citizen can choose to increase, decrease or not alter spending under the budget headings Their selections are totalled interactively so that they can see whether they are over or under budget and if over budget what the implications are for rates Citizens inputs are compiled into a report which feeds into the Councils decision-making process

Collaborate This example is from Melbourne, Australia Here the draft City Development Plan is published as a Wiki and the public can directly edit the Plan There is also a discussion page relating to each section of the plan where suggestions can be outlined or changes justified All versions are retained to enable comparison between versions of the Plan Once the public consultation phase is complete, the Council deliberates on the contributions to organise, refine and incorporate ideas in the most practical way

Last 3 Development Plans produced with GIS Started using in 1997 – 1999, 2006 & 2011 Plans 2006 Plan live in Council Chamber – interactive visualisation (inc. Aerial Photography) eliminated interpretation of data – concentrate on decision-making 2011 Plan – Online Submissions; mapping of submissions & motions A large quantity of spatial data to make up the Development Plan

Fingal County Council provided an online submissions facility as part of the consultation process for our last Development Plan

The Parterre Project which includes participants from Northern Ireland, is working on a similar tool for participatory spatial planning It has also developed a toolset for Electronic Town Meetings

The SOWIT project involving researchers from UCC, TCD, Kilkenny County Council in partnership with Fingal County Council will provide an online environment for citizen discussions and citizen participation in consultations

Open Data plays an important role in Open Government

For Open Data to be of value, it must be put to some use The most common use is through web or mobile Apps To encourage the creation of Apps we organised a competition

www.dublinked.ie

CSO collect large volumes of Census data Previously difficult to access Small Area Population website makes it easier to access Demographics for each of 3,409 Electoral Divisions

Census 2011 data is also available at the new Small Area level of geoography 18,488 Small Areas Hugely valuable and mineable dataset if released en bloc Usage restrictions at present (non-commercial)

Open Data plays an important role in Open Government

FixYourStreet is an open transparent tool for reporting problems to Local Government It also has an Open Data dimension, as the data is exposed for developers to write programs that comsume the data behind the site – location, details and resolution of Reported issues

These programs could be Apps, Visualisations, alternative interfaces, etc HeyGov! is an example of the type of development that could be done with FixYourStreet data

The FixYourStreet approach has been taken a step further As well as allowing people to let ue know where there are problems, why not let them suggest where servcies should be located Fixcity.org Bike Racks website evolved from New York City looking at how it could maximise the value of its CRM investment The website enables citizens to identify a location where they believe bike racks should be provided, to include a photo of the location and to outline their reasons for the suggested location Other citizens can vote on the suggestions Citizens can also check whether their suggested location meets Bike Rack Location Guidelines to see racks provided sooner

Open Data is nothing new in the G.I.S. world One of the best examples of Open Data is OpenStreetMap This is collaborative spatial data made openly available

U.K. Department of Transport made NAPTAN bus stop dataset available to OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap volunteers check, edit and verify the data via the NOVAM viewer Improved data quality of public dataset Potential for the same approach to be used here with Government datasets

Greater Blanchardstown Initiative – a bottom-up approach to Urban Planning. What is the lived experience for citizens? How readily can citizens access local services? What is the walkability or permeability of an area? When making decisions to locate services and facilities how can we select the optimum location?

We captured them like this

And this is a photo of one of these high-difficulty desire lines People climb this wall, using a shopping trolley as a form of improvised stile Another indicator is capping missing from the top of walls – dislodged by repeated climbing of the wall

This gave us a complete route network for the area giving all the possible means by which the public move

With our network in place we can now carry out walkability or permeability analysis This map indicates the local and regional services areas in Blanchardstown (locations of shops, doctors, etc.)

We use a walkability measure of 700m. When calculated by a straight line method (as the crow flies) this indicated that the majority of the households were within a 700m catchment of services

However, people don’t walk as the crow flies – they need to use roads and paths When the calculation is run across the route network, the catchment area shrinks dramatically

When we run an analysis of households against the newly calculated catchment area, we find that 52% of households fall outside a 700m permeability catchment – meaning that they are more likely to use a car rather than walk to their service centres

This is an example of the kind of interventions that people make to overcome problems they encounter with permeability In this case signs used to advertise housing are put to use to cross a ditch This would have started out as a small gap in the hedgerow which grew larger as more people used this shortcut

This is a map indicating an informal route that people were taking (the long straight yellow line) Beside it is a proposed solution to provide a formal alternative

This photo shows the desire line The vegetation has been worn away by people walking to this wall and fence which they then climb over Unfortunately, it was not possible to implement the formal alternative

When we revisited the area, we discovered that someone had actually cut away the bars in the fence to make it easier to take this shortcut

Walkonomics website Rates the walkability of streets based on data for each street relating to street width, crime, gradients and traffic levels

In addition, members of the public can rate the streets to improve the accuracy of the rating

Copenhagen Wheel Rear bicycle wheel which attaches to normal bikes Captures energy when cycling and provides power when needed Includes environmental sensors Use smartphone to lock and unlock bike and change gears

Map of pollution levels captured from Copenhagen Wheel bikes

Engaging Cities tracks how Social Media technologies (Web 2.0) will impact our cities, especially the urban planning process What will “Planning 2.0” look like, and how will it be used to create more livable places?

OpenPlans.org Using technology to change the way that cities and citizens interact 19 projects showcased

Thefuntheory.com Change people’s behaviour through fun Environment, Driving, etc.

Open Data plays an important role in Open Government

The Irish Open Data Community has existed online since October 2010 In October 2012 it organised its first real-world meetup 3 meetups to date Hackathon planned for International Open Data Day

This is the Google Group for the Irish Open Data community – sign up to keep up to date

Contact details for Fingal Open Data and Dublinked

To conclude Data is a fundamental requirement for evidence-based decision making - in this case in the planning and design processes Visualisation and mapping allows us and the public to engage with and understand complex data; and to understand places Open Data is a platform for opening up the decision-making processes It enables Open Government which allows for increased citizen participation Open Data and technology developments including Social Media and the proliferation of location aware mobile devices enable new approaches to design and civic governance In particular, I would strongly urge that any design mapping produced is captured digitally in a manner that facilitates reuse by others – in GIS systems, Google Maps, Bing Maps, Apps, etc. – and published as Open Data where possible As I mentioned earlier, Fingal Open Data is available at data.fingal.ie And you can also follow us on Twitter at fingalopendata

In line with the theme, this presentation is licenced for sharing under a Creative Commons licence It is available for viewing and downloading on slideshare Thank you.

Harriet Paterson
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