Open government data has the potential to improve transparency, increase economic and social value, and enhance public services. When governments release data as open data, it allows anyone to freely use, reuse, and redistribute the data. This empowers citizens and journalists to hold governments more accountable. It also creates new economic opportunities as businesses utilize open data to build products and services. Open data can help auditors by leveraging public engagement to help set priorities and using crowd-sourced analysis to supplement audit work. However, governments must ensure open data is in a reusable format and improves the quality of internal data collection and management.

1. Open Government Data: Implications
for Auditors
Andrew Stott
UK Transparency Board
formerly Director, data.gov.uk
@dirdigeng
The Hague andrew.stott@dirdigeng.com
21 Jan 2013 1.0

2. What is Open Data?
Open data is
data
that can be
freely
used,
reused
and redistributed
by anyone
for any purpose.
2

3. 3

4. A World of Open Data
Now over 260 governmental Open Data sites
4

5. Why are Governments Opening
Data

6. Governments collect and use a lot of data
6

7. By releasing it as Open Data
More Transparent Government
Triple Objectives
Improved public services
New Economic and Social Value
7

8. Open Data and Auditors: Some Topics
 The crowd as part of the system of control
 Maximising value from the information assets
 Data creating citizen pressure to improve
services
 Assessing the “Open Government” loop
 Government as a Platform
 Quality of internal information systems and
sourcing of data
 Open Auditing?
8

9. The crowd as part of the system
of control
9

10. UK Coalition Government Transparency
 Expenditure
 Senior staff salaries
 Expenses
 Contracts
 Tenders
 Organisation charts
 Local service &
performance data
 Meetings with lobbyists
 Meetings with press
owners
10

11. Financial Transparency: Macro Level
11

12. The emergence of data-driven journalism
12

13. Holding government accountable
13

14. Transparent and Accountable Government
14

15. Financial Transparency: Transaction level
15

16. Pressure to justify and restrain costs
16

17. Pressure to justify and restrain costs
17

18. Contracts: A great example from Slovakia
“Rate this Fair-Play
Alliance
contract”
Key details
and links
Original text
of contract
from Gov
website
18
http://www.otvorenezmluvy.sk/

19. Transparency promoting sustainability
19

20. Maximising value from the
information assets
20

21. Economic Value of Open Data
21

22. Economic Value of Open Data
 Open Gov Data in EU would increase
business activity by up to €40 Bn/year, with
total benefits up to
€140 Bn/year
 Spanish study found ~€600m of business from
open data with >5000 jobs
 Australian study found ROI of ~500% from
open data
 Deloitte found open data was reused 10x-100x
more than charged-for data
22

23. National Information Infrastructure
23

24. National Information Infrastructure
The data a government collects can provide the
“National Information Infrastructure”
 Global Positioning System data now has
$122bn/yr benefits to US economy alone
 UK National Mapping Agency data supports
£100bn/yr of GDP activity
 Open Weather Data in US has created 400
companies employing 4000 people
 Open addressing data in Denmark now gives
€14m/yr benefits and 70:1 ROI
24

25. Emerging Open Data Business Models
 Cleansing and organising data
 Information services to the public
 Data mining
 Operational efficiency/optimisation
 Financial products
 Customer attraction and retention
 Data broking
 Value-added services back to Government

26. Cleansing and organising data
Business Intelligence from item-level
purchasing data 26

27. Information services to the public
27

28. Enabling others to mine data to improve
public outcomes
 Prescription data
 Patient outcome
data
 Longitudinal health
records
 Pupil-level
education records
28

29. Saving money on medical prescriptions
29

30. Operational efficiency/optimisation
Real time info on road delays and roadworks allows
logistics efficiency 30

31. Financial Products
Weather Risk
Management
industry in
North America:
$ 4billion annual
contract value

32. Data Broking
 Most complete
Directory of French
Data
 14,000 datasets
 Scope:
 French National and
Regional
(+ some European)
 Public & private
 Open & charged
 Search
 News
 Contacts for specialists
32

33. Government is a data user too
Sharing Open Data within public
agencies in Manchester saves €10m/yr 33

34. 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
data.gov.uk contains a lot of data which
nobody knew was already published 34

35. Challenge charging for government data
 Economically sub-
optimal
 Licensing inhibits
innovation
 Hidden Costs –
marketing, payment
collection, enforcement
 Barriers to entry suit
existing customers
 No real pressure for
efficiency
35

36. Data creating citizen pressure to
improve services
36

37. Performance of Schools

38. Crime Data and Police/Court Performance
38

39. Hospital and Clinic Performance
Patient 12+ Weeks
ratings MRSA-free
Blood
clots
2 recent
MRSA
Good C-Diff
Low record
Mortality
39

40. Is there data on things people care about?
40

41. Assessing the “Open
Government” loop
41

42. How effective is “consultation” really?
42

43. Crowd-sourcing efficiency cuts
43

44. Crowd-sourcing regulatory reform
40% of comments rated useful by agency
50% of regulations will be scrapped/changed 44

45. Crime: Data Engagement Accessible data on crime
It’s very local
Local team
How YOU
can get
involved
Local police
Twitter feed
Telephone, website, Facebook and Youtube ….
Attract Inform Engage Action 45

46. Also ask …. is the government listening?
46

47. Government as a Platform
47

48. Better Information services to the public
Transport, public
facilities and crime data
among most downloaded
Smartphone Apps 48

49. Civil Society front-end to public services
49

50. Engage with developers
Photos: @memespring, 50
@MadLabUK, @paul_clarke

51. Licensing
51

52. Standards
52

53. Quality of internal information
systems and sourcing of data
53

54. Data Quality
 Release of data
will reveal issues
of data quality
 Celebrate greater
checking of data!
 Use as stimulus to
 Measure
 Prioritise
 Improve
54

55. Using citizens to help improve data
55

56. Citizen-sourced data
#uksnow TN13 4/10 56

57. Data Publishing – Star Quality
 Put your data on the Web (any
format)
 Make it available as structured data
Ease of reuse
(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
Benefits of linked data within Government also
57

58. Measure conformance with standards
58

59. Open Auditing?
59

60. Open Auditing?
 Open Data as part of audit intelligence
 Public Engagement on Priority setting
 Transparency of process
 “Audit as a platform”
‒ Leverage crowdsourcing for audit effectiveness
‒ Results available for re-use and extension
Audit 2.0?
60

61. Open Data and Auditors
 The crowd as part of the system of control
 Maximising value from the information assets
 Data creating citizen pressure to improve
services
 Assessing the “Open Government” loop
 Government as a Platform
 Quality of internal information systems and
sourcing of data
 Open Auditing?!
61

62. End
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