This document discusses the value of open data. It provides examples showing that open data can increase business activity and GDP, with ROI from open data ranging from 500% to benefits being reused 10-100x more than charged-for data. National mapping and weather data in various countries supports billions in economic activity. Open data has also created hundreds of companies and jobs. The document advocates for government to release high-value open data about services to increase transparency, accountability and engagement with citizens. It discusses best practices for open data such as using open formats and unique identifiers, as well as linking to other open data.

1. The Value of Open Data
Andrew Stott
UK Transparency Board
formerly Director, data.gov.uk
Senior Consultant, World Bank
Montevideo
26 June 2013 0.2.1
@dirdigeng
andrew.stott@dirdigeng.com

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estate
agents/
realtors
Financial
services
builders and
other local
services

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18. 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 (0.7% of GDP)
 Australian study found ROI of ~500% from open
data
 Deloitte/POPSIS found open data was reused
10x-100x more than charged-for data
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All economic analysis and case studies
point the same way

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20. 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
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21. Government can be an Open Data user too
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23. Performance of individual schools
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24. Performance of individual hospitals
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12+ Weeks
MRSA-free
Good C-Diff
recordLow
Mortality
2 recent
MRSA
Blood
clots
Patient
ratings

25. Performance of local police and courts
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26. Open Data used to drive Citizen Engagement
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Local team
Telephone, website, Facebook and Youtube ….
Local police
Twitter feed
How YOU
can get
involved
It’s very local
Accessible data on crime
Attract Inform Engage Action

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

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31. Where does my money go?
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32. Transparent and Accountable Government
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33. Is My Money Being Spent Well?
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35. What contracts are being granted to who?
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Links to the
documents

36. Organisational Transparency
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Where the person
is in the structure
Pay
Responsibil
Contact details

37. Do officials turn off their lights at night?
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38. OpenlyLocal: a dashboard for each City
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39. The Emergence of Data Journalism
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40. Lessons Learned
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41. Leadership throughout the Organisation
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42. Everyone thinks that they are an exception
 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
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43. Focus on things that people care about
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44. Release data people want
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46. Findability
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47. Open Data Ecosystem
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48. Creating Sustainable Applications
 Sustainable apps come from social
entrepreneurs – helped by geeks
 Do things that matter to people
 Make it quick and easy to do – “while you’re still
upset about it”
 Make effective use of email
 Use location: input and visualisation
 Build in community support, action & stickiness
 Use simple design 48

49. Creating Sustainable Applications
49IndividualCommunityNational
Daily
Periodic
Occasional
Frequency
of Issue
Proximity
of Issue
Transport
Budget
Which school?
Which hospital?
Crime Maps
FOI Helper

50. Common standard for common things
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51. 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
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Easeofreuse

52. Make Open Mean Open
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53. When Open is not Open
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“You shall not use the data made
available through the GC Open Data
Portal in any way which, in the opinion
of Canada, may bring disrepute to or
prejudice the reputation of Canada.”

54. Make Open mean Re-usable
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55. PDFs are not (very) reusable
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56. Open => No cost
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57. Privacy
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58. Measure conformance with standards
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59. Measure achievement
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60. Discussion?
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61. End
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