This document discusses open data and its benefits. It defines open data as being complete, primary, timely, accessible, machine readable, non-discriminatory, non-proprietary and license free. Open data can help solve problems by engaging the community. When combined with evidence-based policy and tools, open data can help design policy, support advocacy efforts, and track measurable changes. Several examples of open data applications and business models are provided. Engaging the community is important to determine what data they want and increasing data literacy.

1. by Sandra Moscoso for the Data Quality Campaign
Photo Credit: Hernán Piñera, Flickr
Open Data Opens Doors

2. Intro: By Day…
Institutional Data Pusher

3. Intro: By Night…
Local data consumer

5. Open Data is Not About Data
• It’s about solving problems; it’s about getting help from the broader
community to get to the solutions; it’s about helping ourselves
• Citizen engagement means nothing without transparency; need to
include ‘open’ components as part of design of government, NGO,
community, development, etc.
It’s not about open data…

6. What is Open Data?
8 Principles (December 2007)
• Complete (except when subject to privacy, security, privilege)
• Primary (raw/granular)
• Timely
• Accessible
• Machine readable (re-usable)
• Non-discriminatory
• Non-proprietary
• License Free
A necessary resource with a terrible name

7. NOT Open Data
Data privacy is critical to ALL data efforts….
Student academic
records
Student-level standardized test
records
Individual student health data
Individual student transportation
data (i.e. -DC1 free transportation program)
Student-level attendance data
Student-level discipline data

8. • Advocacy
• School selection, career choice
• Resource sharing among
educators
• Data literacy
• Budget/procurement transparency
• Policy design
• Policy implementation
• Student-level education
comparisons and analytics*
o Privacy constraints
• School and system-level
administration*
Community
• Policy design
• Policy implementation
• Budget/procurement transparency
• Student-level education
comparisons and analytics*
o Privacy constraints
• School and system-level
administration*
• Resource sharing among
educators
• Data literacy
• School selection, career choice
• Advocacy
Government/System
Benefits in Education

9. Applied Open Data

10. Raw Data
+

11. Evidence-Based Policy
• Build tools and
analyses used by DC
Council, agencies, and
NGOs to provide
services for children
and make policy
decisions
• Organize a team of
volunteers to create
maps and
visualizations that
support advocacy
efforts for NGOs and
community
organizations
http://www.dcactionforc
hildren.org/
DC Action for Children

12. Policy Design and Engagement
• Citizen and stakeholder
engagement to support city-
wide policy change
• Map by Washington Post
reflects changes to student
assignment
• Our DC Schools
o 50 pages of policy
translated into a 7
question survey
o 400 participants reached
via face to face session;
4000 participants reached
via ourdcschools.org
o All data collected (except
that which compromised
privacy) was published as
open data then analyzed
by others
http://ourdcschools.org/
DC’s Boundary
Review Process

13. Activity: Our DC Schools App
http://ourdcschools.org/

14. Advocacy for Policy Change
• Map of funds allocated to
schools, updated annually
during budget season
• City has been sharing the
data with local education
advocates since 2014
• http://dcpsbudget.ourdcschoo
ls.org/ /
At-Risk Funds

15. Advocacy for Policy Change… 2.0
• ”Same” funding data
combined with “same”
performance data
• https://twitter.com/betsyjwolf
Same data, with
school-level nuance

16. Track policy and Measurable Change
• Shows student
performance and
educational attainment
data by neighborhood
• Help community track
measurable change
• https://usc.connect.soc
rata.com
USC – Neighborhood
Data for Social Change

17. Innovation

18. Finding the Right School
• Boston (US): http://www.discoverbps.org/
• Washington, DC (US): http://school-chooser.herokuapp.com/
• Tanzania: http://www.shule.info/
• Chicago (US): http://cpstiers.opencityapps.org/
• Spain:
http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/educacion/vscripts/centros/index.asp
UK: http://www.skillsroute.com/
• Moldova: http://afla.md/
• New York City (US): http://nyc-high-schools.findthebest.com/
School-comparison
apps

19. Activity: Charter School Deserts
https://edexcellence.net/charter-school-deserts

20. Open Data Business Models
• Suppliers: publish their data, free -> increase customer
loyalty
• Aggregators: collect data, analyze, charge for the
insights or otherwise
• Developers: design and build apps (web-based, tablet,
smartphone)
• Enrichers: established businesses enhance their
products and services
• Enablers: charge companies to make it easier for them to
use open data
Slide Credit – Alla Morrison, World Bank Group

21. Public Data “Trusts”
• Philladelphia open data
https://www.opendataphilly.org/
• Swim Guide
https://www.theswimguide.org/
You don’t have to go at it on your own…

23. - Thank you -
sandra@sandra-moscoso.com
@sandramoscoso

24. Activity: Zillow
https://www.zillow.com/

25. How do you do it?

26. How to Open Data
• What is involved?
• What does cost?
• Who else has done it?
• One more thing… engagement
FAQs

27. What is Involved?
• Governance/Administration: Policy, policy, policy (See
Sunlight Foundation for best practices and examples from
the US and beyond)
• Set Up and Tech: Cloud (Saas); Open source; Build your
own
• Skills Development and Community Engagement
• In and out of government
• Partnerships; data literacy; tactical efforts to increase
data use
• Sustainability: Maintenance; keeping the trains running
*Source: GovEx- https://govex.jhu.edu/wiki/open-data-how-much-does-it-cost/
Common Elements of Open Data*

28. What are the Portal Costs?
Open Data Portals for Cities
*Source: GovEx- https://govex.jhu.edu/wiki/open-data-how-much-does-it-cost/

29. Who else has done it?
Countries, States, Cities, Development Funders
www.data.gov
https://data.chattlibrary.org/
https://data.maryland.gov/
https://data.worldbank.org/
New! https://data.govmu.org/dkan/ 

30. Engagement and Use
• Publish what the community wants:
• How to find out what they want?
• From your desk: FOIA requests; key initiatives; the data you
use to make policy decisions – can be it opened? What comes
up in public testimonies?
• Leave your desk: Government initiative engagement forums;
hackathons (you don’t have to host it to attend); focus groups;
personas; partnerships with academia; and so much more…
• Invest in data literacy
• Lots of ideas here: https://sunlightfoundation.com/2018/04/19/39-
fresh-ideas-for-how-to-support-community-use-of-open-data/
If I build it, will they come?