Making data more transparent will be key to achieving the government's vision of the Big Society. The document outlines two approaches to data transparency and discusses examples of "smart data" in recent proposals, such as publishing local authority spending data and giving patients access to health outcomes data. It raises questions about whether the public is equipped to understand and interpret the data, who should decide what data is available, and whether a targeted or open approach is more realistic.

1. Smart Data: Fuelling the Big Society Adrian Brown, Institute for Government Beyond 2010 conference, 20th October, 2010

2. Two approaches to data transparency

3. Change usually requires a combination of people, funding and assets EXAMPLE: ORGANISING A FOOTBALL MATCH Two football teams (and ideally a referee) Expenses to cover travel, kit, and oranges at half-time People Funding Assets Who needs access to what data for this kind of change to happen? A football pitch and a ball

5. Define and identify success

6. Engage the public

8. Define minimum standards

9. Establish inspection / regulation functions

12. Commission for outcomes

13. Build skills and capacity in the system

15. Boards / mandated individuals

16. Market mechanisms

18. Will open up a vast swathe of information about the way that money flows locally

19. Allows voluntary, community and social enterprise sector organisations, and SMEs greater access to competitively important information

20. Opportunity to design new services / processes at lower cost and / or achieving better outcomes

21. Will spending data be enough for organisations to understand where they can add value?

22. Should process data also be made available?

24. Aims to give people access to comprehensive, trustworthy and easy to understand information from a range of sources on health outcomes, process indicators and patient feedback

25. Patients can then choose where to go for treatment would drive up standards of care

26. Are patients equipped to understand and interpret the data they are presented with?

27. What is the role of intermediaries (e.g., Dr Foster) in supporting this process?

28. Who should decide (e.g., commissioners, providers, government) what data is made available?Strengthen direct accountability

30. Who gets to decide what information is made available to whom?

31. How well equipped is the public to understand the information? Does it matter?