This document summarizes a presentation by Paul Downey on registers from the Government Digital Service. It discusses the history and goals of GDS, including creating better government services across departments. It outlines GDS design principles like starting with user needs and iterating based on data. It also discusses building platforms and standards for things like addresses to create a digital ecosystem where data can be shared and built upon. The overall aim is to establish authoritative registers that provide open, trusted data to power digital government services.

1. Paul Downey
Registers
Government Digital Service
@psd

2. xmlsummerschool.com
Licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License
summer school
Registers
Paul Downey
Government Digital Service
Registers
14 September 2016

5. History

8. Create [GDS]
Fix publishing
Fix transactions
Go wholesale

9. So how can we help make
better services, across
government, for less?

10. Government?

13. gov.uk/government/organisations

17. 17

21. Publishing

23. GDS
1. Start with needs
2. Do less
3. Design with data
4. Do the hard work to make it simple
5. Iterate. Then iterate again.
6. This is for everyone
7. Understand context
8. Build things people can build on
9. Be consistent, not uniform
10. Make things open: it makes things better
Design Principles

24. Design with Data

25. gov.uk/performance

26. Build for people, not
browsers

29. https://
www.gov.uk/
after-a-death

30. https://
www.gov.uk/
info/
after-a-death

31. Do the hard work
to make it simple

34. When is the next bank
holiday?

35. Do
less

36. It must be gov, yeah, yeah!

37. No link left behind!

39. Use the HTTP:

43. Transactions

46. https://www.gov.uk/
service-manual

47. Working on an
exemplar

53. GDS@psd
Theodore
Burton
Fox Ruoff

55. The mirror
principle
— the register of title should reflect, accurately and
completely, and beyond all argument, the facts that
are material to the title

56. The insurance
principle
— if, as a result of human error, the title is proved to
be defective in any way, then the person or persons
suffering loss as a result must be able to claim
compensation

57. The curtain
principle
— the public register should be the sole and definitive
source of information for proposing purchasers, but
not reveal sensitive information

60. Autonomy Mastery Purpose

74. We had an amazing team!

76. and we learnt, loads

77. 77

78. A digital signature is …
I am me I agree!&

80. Your architecture is for the
users

82. Take fraud seriously

84. https://gds.blog.gov.uk/
2015/07/24/building-on-
the-steel-thread/

85. https://www.gov.uk/
transformation

86. Digital
ecosystem

88. Simon Wardley
http://blog.gardeviance.org/

89. http://blog.gardeviance.org/2013/03/basics-repeated-again.html

90. http://blog.gardeviance.org/2013/03/basics-repeated-again.html

93. Services

94. Start with needs*
* user needs, not government needs

96. Good services are verbs,
bad services are nouns

97. They change quickly in
response to learning
about their users

98. Service patterns

99. Design patterns

100. Platforms

102. GOV.UK Pay

103. GOV.UK Notify

104. From pounds to pennies
and months to minutes

105. Technology

106. GDS@psd
The main thing is you
must be able to change
your mind

107. Data

108. https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=YdsUunJAums

109. Discovery on data
discovery

110. Better use of data

111. Links

112. “If the data doesn’t link,
the website won’t link” —
Michael Smethurst

114. GDS
Question: why are companies
failing their food inspection?

115. GDS
Questions:
— size of companies failing
— location of failing companies
— quality of premises

116. GDS
Researchers need to know about
Food standards Agency, Valuation
Office Agency, Land Registry,
Companies House, Local
Councils, ONS, etc

117. GDS
They need to know what data
each of these agencies hold

118. GDS
They need to know how to use
each of their systems

119. GDS
They need to understand the
licensing terms of the data

120. GDS
More often, they need to know
who to ask for help

121. GDS
and they have to clean the data of
errors ..

122. Feedback loops

124. Better data helps make
data better

125. Longevity

126. Writing law
demands a certain
level of
commitment
from goats, calves
and sheep

127. Make
multiple
copies!

128. GDS@psd
Digital horcruxes?

129. My precious!

130. https://github.com/digital-preservation

131. Facts don’t rot!

136. GDS@psd
Ship of Theseus

137. ISE Shrine
– Clay Shirky, Here comes everybody

138. Registers

139. … authoritative data you
can trust

140. “The secretary of state for
… will keep and maintain a
register of …

141. companies, charities, trade unions, courts,
schools, universities, hospitals, zoos, circuses,
inspections, licences, certificates, births,
marriages, deaths, electoral roll, insolvencies,
bankruptcies, passports, animal passports,
drivers, vehicles, land parcels, land ownership,
land use, legal boundaries, awards, tax rates,
benefits, livestock movements, flood risk, river
levels, companies, fish caught, patents,
trademarks, designs, non-native invasive plants,
bank holidays, clock changes …

142. List of the day

143. GDS@psd
authoritative lists people
need to be able to trust

146. GDS@psd
“An alternative to
scurrilous gossip &
rumour”

147. GDS@psd
“Helping government to
trust its own data …

148. GDS@psd
… even when it’s in a
different organisation”

149. “Data good enough to
build services on”

150. Characteristics of a
register

151. noun

152. open / private

153. Getting from
lists to registers

154. “Strings are not things” —
Michael Smethurst

155. But they’re on a lot of
forms

157. “SCOLAND UK”
“SCOTALND UK”
“SCOTKLAND UK”
“SCOTLAD UK”
“SCOTLAND”
“SCOTLAND UK”
“SCOTLAND UK”
“SCOTLAND UNITED KINGDO”
“SCOTLAND UNITED KINGDOM”
“SCOTLAND UNITED KINGODM”
“SCOTLAND, UK”

159. Custodians are essential

160. github.com/
openregister/
local-authority-
data

161. Proofs

162. Psychic
paper

163. GDS@psd
“As a foo I need to know a
bar record came from the
bar registry and it hasn’t
been tampered with”

166. GDS@psd
“As Chief Registrar of Foo,
I need to know the Foo
system of record hasn’t
been tampered with”

167. redecentralize.org

168. Merkle tree magic!

170. object hash

171. Registers
Design
Authority

172. Our product is the
process for establishing
registers

173. ❏Request register
❏Accept register
❏Agree custodian
❏Agree dataset
❏Review how
feedback is collected
❏Review how register
is updated
❏Meet operational
standards
❏Meet technical
standards
❏Find duplicate lists
❏Review feedback
from alpha
❏Review recent
updates
❏Remove duplicate
lists
We’re in discovery …

174. Decision
log

175. Platform

176. Register platform

177. Platform Product Standard

178. Standards

179. Guidance

180. Towards a
digital
ecosystem

181. Knocking down the
Towers of SIAM

183. Guidance and tools for
migration

185. “The government will provide up to £5
million to develop options for an
authoritative address register that is open
and freely available. Making wider use of
more precise address data and ensuring it
is frequently updated will unlock
opportunities for innovation.”
2016 Budget
https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2016/03/23/an-open-address-register/

188. Paul Downey
Technical Architect
Government Digital