This document discusses lessons learned from five years of open data initiatives and best practices for achieving success. Some key points include: - Open data can generate new social and economic value by improving public services, increasing government transparency and efficiency. - Studies in Uganda found open health data was associated with a 33% reduction in child mortality and 20% increase in health service utilization. - Open data encourages greater citizen engagement and accountability. It also enables unforeseen innovation when combined with other open datasets. - Common best practices for open data programs are to incrementally release useful high-quality data in open formats with clear terms of use, consider privacy, and engage with users to encourage data requests.

1. Open Data in Practice: Five Years of Lessons Learned and Best Practice in achieving value and success
Andrew Stott
UK Transparency Board
Senior Consultant,
World Bank
Hyderabad, India
04 Sep 2014
@dirdigeng
andrew.stott@dirdigeng.com

2. Lessons Learned
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3. Policy Objectives of Open Data
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New Economic and Social Value
Improved public services
More Transparent Government
More Efficient Government

4. Open Data can help public policy and service delivery
4

5. Greater Citizen Engagement and Social Accountability
5
Uganda/Health
33% reduction in under-5 mortality
20% extra utilisation of out-patient services
Significant improvements in:
Immunization
Waiting times
Absenteeism

6. 6
With OpenStreetMaps
With Google Maps
ICT for Urban Development
Mapping the Kibera slum in Nairobi

7. Additional Value: Reference Data for others
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8. Base for contribution of citizen-sourced data
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9. Additional value: Better use of data in government
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EU INSPIRE: ROI 8:1 in first 4 years within government itself, plus wider benefits

10. Unforeseen Innovation supports other policies
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11. More actors: Open Transport Data
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London
~500 Applications from ~ 25 feeds
~5000 people involved in “app industry”
TFL have stopped making their own apps Madrid: 20 bus apps St Petersburg: 30 bus apps New York: 68 subway apps

12. Combining Data adds new insights
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13. Irene Choge, data journalist, NTV, Kenya.
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14. The Health Assignment: Toilets and Grades
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A58R2yNQtio

15. Opening data means the data is used much more
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16. Case Study: Statistics Germany
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Users: +1800% Downloads: +800%

17. Opening Data means it is used much more
“Where PSBs moved to marginal and zero cost charging, the number of re-users increased by between 1,000% and 10,000%.”
“Lowering charges may attract new types of re-users, in particular SMEs.”
“Once re-use facilitation processes are properly organized … they become embedded in the PSB's public task-funded activities at no extra cost.”
-Deloitte/POPSIS study for EU
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18. What are the Open Data Businesses
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19. Aggregators
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20. Developers
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21. Enrichers
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22. Enablers
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23. Which data is most valuable or most widely valuable?
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24. Census and other detailed statistics
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25. Maps and Geospatial Data
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26. Addresses and Property Data
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27. Government Spending and Procurement
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28. Weather Data

29. Transport Information
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30. 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
30

31. Creating Sustainable Applications
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32. Creating Sustainable Applications
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Individual
Community
National
Daily
Periodic
Occasional
Frequency
of Issue
Proximity
of Issue
Transport
Budget
Which school?
Which hospital?
Crime Maps
FOI Helper

33. Creating Sustainable Applications
Do things that matter to people
Make it quick and easy to do – “while you’re still upset about it”
Use location: input and visualisation
Use simple design
Build in community support, action & stickiness
Sustainable apps come from (social) entrepreneurs – helped by IT people
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34. Open Data does not have to be delivered digitally
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35. Best Practices
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36. Encourage requests for useful data
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37. Deliver Incrementally
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38. Clear, common, terms and conditions
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39. Consider Privacy of Personal Data
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40. Technical Excellence in Open Data delivery
“Open by Design” in upstream systems
Consistent policies, standards & formats
Multiple access methods: bulk, API, etc
Rich meta-data
Ensure Open, machine readable, formats
Use common identifiers
Help build the “Semantic Web”
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41. Already happening in Indian Rural Development
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42. Already happening in Indian Rural Development
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43. 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 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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Ease of reuse

44. But look in more detail at the download!
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45. 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 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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Ease of reuse

46. SERP Mother Nutrition Data
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Criterion
Assessment
Data Exists?

In Digital Form?

Publicly Available?

Free of Charge?

Available Online?

Machine Readable?

Available in Bulk?

Openly Licenced?

Up To Date?

Easily Fixed!

47. Build and Leverage Open Data Ecosystem
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48. Government needs to play multiple roles
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49. Government as Supplier
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50. Government as Leader
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51. Government as Catalyst
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52. Government as User
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53. Thank You
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