Foi and open data
- 1. Devon County Council’s Approach to Open Data By Martin Lawrence
- 2. What is covered? • What is Open Data • Why is it beneficial • How does it link with FOI • Devon’s approach • Open Data Initiative – the Devon Hub • Examples of how Open Data is used • Open Data initiatives at Devon • Can Open Data help you?
- 3. What is Open Data? “Open data is data that can be freely used, re-used and redistributed by anyone - subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and share alike.” Taken from the Open Data Handbook
- 4. Why is it important • Promotes openness & transparency • Can help reduce the no of FOI requests • Reduce the burden of responding to FOIs • Promotes active engagement • Makes use of skills in the community • Promotes innovation • Leads to better insight from combined data sources
- 5. How does it link with FOI FOI Officers work closely with “Data people” - we are often best placed to identify Open Data sources Insight from FOI can help in target where open data might be useful for the public Linking Open Data with your Publication Scheme to reduce the burden of requests
- 6. Devon’s approach Devon County Council has been heralded as an “Open Data Champion” by Francis Maude. We are actively committed to publishing quality open data sources that will benefit the community and help improve our services.
- 7. Devon’s approach • No standard approach until recently • Open Data Group established • Open Data initiatives coordinated • Risks identified & fed through IA process • Councillors kept informed • Representation from the community • We are using FOI to identify direction of travel
- 8. ODI – the Devon Hub The Open Data Institute exists to create economic, environmental, and social value through open data. It helps unlock supply, generates demand, creates and disseminates knowledge to address local and global issues.
- 9. ODI – the Devon Hub • DCC has a formal relationship with OCI Devon • Exploring a single Open Data store • Networking has already helped information sharing • We want to utilise the skills and resources of the community • Those skills already used to good effect
- 10. How Open Data is used Members of the community possess fantastic skills and expertise. They can sometimes do things that there is not sufficient resources for the Council to do! Devon already published spend over £500. Look what a member of the public did with this data. www.devonspends.co.uk
- 11. Open Data Initiatives • The Human Resources Dashboard • Highways Open Data Hub • Complaints and FOI Dashboard • PCN Mapping • Parking Charges Data • Adult Social Care Data Store
- 12. Can open data help you • Do you publish open data • What types of data do you publish • Are there any opportunities to join up
- 13. Any questions?
- 14. Further information Please direct any questions that you or your colleagues might have to; Martin Lawrence (Senior Information Governance Officer) – martin.lawrence@devon.gov.uk This slideshow is available online at
Editor's Notes
- #2: 2 mins Introduction to me, my role and why I am talking about Open Data
- #3: 2mins Outline the items that will be covered in the presentation. Explain that people can ask questions at any time. Explain that slides will be available online from slideshare.com
- #4: 1min Outline what is open data Explain the various types of data such as xml and csv Explain why it is important that data can be used and manipulated by the public
- #5: 1min Explain why it is important Outline benefits that DCC have seen – some FOI requests easier to respond to
- #6: 1min Outline links with FOI explain in DCC context
- #7: 1min Outline the slide and explain that we are building a library of Open Data that is published
- #8: 2mins Outline how the Open Data Group feed into our Information Assurance process Improves identification of risks and allows resources to be allocated where there is a legitimate business need Political drivers from councillors therefore they are actively engaged
- #9: 2min Explain that DCC does a lot of work with the ODI and some of our technical staff are involved on the group We are using it as a conduit for improving links with the community The ODI also provide training and guidance for staff which can be used to improve the quality of data that is available
- #10: 1min DCC is evolving its relationship with ODI and is looking to establish a contract ODI to host data store DCC to utilise the expertise of ODI members to find innovative ways that the open data can be accessed ODI provide a network that can be used by the council to help promote our open data.
- #11: 1min Outline the work that has been done by a member of the public Example of how Open Data publication can lead to innovation
- #12: 2mins Outline the types of data that are going to be published Explain that highways are looking at mapping solutions Outline how FOI has been used to inform on some of these projects Early involvement of FOI team has led to senior management buy-in
- #13: 2mins Open up to the floor Ask if anybody is engaged in publishing Open Data Any thoughts on data that might be useful for attendees to publish Are there any opportunities to “join forces”
- #14: 1min Any questions from the floor
- #15: 1min Further queries can be directed to me. Feel free to drop me a line