Digital Utopias – ODI Open Data workshop – Julie Freeman – 2015-01

Julie Freeman · julie.freeman@theodi.org · @misslake
Digital Utopias - Hull - 20th January 2015
Introducing Open Data
Tuesday, 20 January 2015

Provide a good foundation in the
principles of open data, and explore
examples of open data usage.
Aim

What is Data?

Deﬁnition of Data (origin)
Euclid’s book of propositions, Data, was
written to “facilitate and promote the
method of resolution or analysis”.
The propositions in it (such as if X then Y) help us take
givens (existing datum) and use the propositions to
deduce or infer new data.
In this context, data is the gift that keeps on giving.

Deﬁnition of Data (1)
A collection of facts, information
and statistics that can be analysed
to develop new knowledge

Deﬁnition of Data (2)
The lowest level of abstraction
from which information and
then knowledge are derived.

Data
(information without context)
Information
Knowledge

What is Open Data?

Deﬁnition A
Open data is data licensed
for use by anyone
for any purpose
-Open Data Institute

Deﬁnition B
Open means anyone can freely access, use,
modify and share for any purpose (subject, at
most, to requirements that preserve provenance
and openness)
-Summary of Open Deﬁnition (v2.0)
Introduced August 2014

Deﬁnition C
Open data is data that is published in an open
format, is machine readable and is published
under a license that allows for free reuse.
-data.gov.uk
Accessed November 2014

Deﬁnition D
Open data is the idea that certain data should be
freely available to everyone to use and republish
as they wish, without restrictions from copyright,
patents or other mechanisms of control.
-Wikipedia
Accessed November 2014

Open data is data licensed
for use by anyone
for any purpose
-Open Data Institute

Data as an art material
– used by artists & creative practitioners
Data that IS cultural media
– moving image, photos, audio, BBC archives, Europeana...
Data about the cultural sector
– museums, galleries, theatres, audiences...
Cultural Data

Is data is the material of a
digital utopia?

Exercise
In groups, create a
short list of your
organisational data
(present and future)
10 minutes

The challenges…

Types of personal data
Open personal data
Data about people
not a person
Available to anyone
Has been anonymised
e.g. number of people attending event,
gender split, age ranges.
(bigger numbers are better!)
Available personal data
Data about a person
Available to the person only!
Often known as MiData
e.g. credit scores, energy and other
consumption data.
Personal data
Data about a person which is
neither open nor available.
Might belong to you or be
collected by a company.

Opportunities
Open Data
Brings transparency, open peer review
Big Data
Brings evidence
Personal Data
Makes it relevant

Case studies…

Open Data Stories
Enabling transparency
Enhancing society
Creating an income stream
Cutting costs
Improving services
Saving our planet

Exercise
In groups, discuss what
you’d like to achieve or
the problems you’d like
to solve with your data
10 minutes
Enabling transparency
Enhancing society
Creating an income stream
Cutting costs
Improving services
Saving our planet

Resources & Tools
Data Scrubbing (cleaning)
CSVLint http://csvlint.io
OpenReﬁne http://openreﬁne.org
Data Visualisation
DataWrapper http://datawrapper.de
Plotly http://plot.ly

Resources & Tools
Open Data Tips and Training
Training http://training.theodi.org/InPractice/
Business Case http://theodi.org/guides/how-make-business-case-open-data
Certiﬁcates https://certiﬁcates.theodi.org/
Anonymisation http://ukanon.net/ukan-resources/
Fun datasets to play with http://data.gov.uk/dataset/gh-wine-cellar-data_2

Data is a means, not an end.

Data as Culture
What is open data? what is its meaning? how is it used?
where is it found? what is its impact on society?
As data is opened up, the information it holds must be
reﬂected back to us from many angles.
How can we do this?

- 4 exhibitions, 17 artists, 8 new art commissions, 10+ workshops
- public talks (TED, British Library, universities)
- Tate Modern, V&A, Lighthouse, FutureEverything, White Building,
University of the Arts (London)
- National and international media coverage
(Guardian, Telegraph, Wall Street Journal, TED, BBC Radio 4)
- Co-commissioning open data art series with The Space
Engaging the public

We Need Us
A co-commission from ODI and The Space
weneedus.org

Frame from real-time data driven animation - see live project at weneedus.org

Thank you
Julie Freeman · julie.freeman@theodi.org · @misslake

Digital Utopias – ODI Open Data workshop – Julie Freeman – 2015-01

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