Getting more from your data - Ian Watt

Editor's Notes

• #3: Quick show of hands - who here is publishing Open Data beyond spending data? Who is planning to? OK. So why are we publishing open data? How is your data used? What difference / impact does it make? How do you know? If we are going to do this right, we need to understand what impact we seek - and measure it. So, I’ll take you through what I’ve done and what we are doing in Scotland.
• #4: To do that I’ll share some of my own experiences and what I and my colleagues are working on at the moment. I am a co-founder of both Code The City and ODI Aberdeen - the only node of the Open Data Institute in Scotland. By day I work at Aberdeen City Council where I lead our open data efforts (as part of a broad city region digital programme) And I am leading for the Scottish Cities Alliance their Open Data programme as part of the Smart Cities programme.
• #5: Our work in Code the City goes back about 6 years (although as a formal Community Interest Company, our organisation has existed for just three years). During that time we have ran hack weekends, and other sessions mainly in Aberdeen, but also across Scotland and in one case in the Netherlands. Our events are based on themes (e.g. Environment, Heritage, Transport etc) and follow our own methodology: Service owners / users Identify challenges / opportunities Ideation Agile approach – quick sprints Rapid prototyping of possible solutions Focus on open data and open source We like to have a flow from event to event - build on what was done at previous weekends where we can. We are still working on developing a pipeline process that works - to take prototypes forward as products and services.
• #6: During 2014 - 15 I led Aberdeen’s participation in Code For Europe. As part of that we visited and studied the work of other cities - consider leaders in Open Data. In Helsinki we visited Helsinki Region Infoshare, a centre of excellence for information and data, formed of a consortium of local authorities clustered around Helsinki. I was going to play their video which they made for civil servants. Search for Open Your Data on Youtube – but choose the English, not Finnish version. We also learned from Forum Virium, an independent body similar to Nesta here. In Amsterdam we encountered the amazing WAAG Society and saw at first hand what they are doing with open data. This is the 15th Century Waag (or Weigh) building in Nieuwmarkt Square where they are based, and which gives them their name. It contains an original anatomical dissection theatre in its upper storeys. We saw what each city through partnership working (Waag and Forum Virium) is cultivate active open data eco-systems, encouraging and facilitating collaboration across sectors and disciplines. And last November I visited Amsterdam and saw at first hand the Data Lab which the city council has now established. Tis has become a focal point for much data related activity in the city.
• #7: I mentioned the project I am leading for SCA. This has all 7 Scottish cities working very closely together (possibly uniquely). This goes far beyond transparency. We're looking for significant public service improvement / efficiencies. And to deliver economic growth through Innovation. 4 work-streams include: Data standards, Procurement of new OD platforms for 5 of the 7 cities, and data analysis and visualisation. The other work stream – the one which I am going to concentrate on today) is ‘Community and capacity building’ both internal to local authorities and external. Internally we're working on Skills, Processes, standards, automation of publishing, continuity of supply, Where we can make them the standards should be common across all partners. Externally: Engagement with practitioners, data consumers, data users, data beneficiaries Building platforms and solutin swith, not for end users. Events - regular, thematic, build communities. And joining up at all levels: city / district, regional and national Remember data doesn’t respect geographic boundaries.
• #8: One of our first pieces of work is benchmarking - where is each city now? How can it improve – and how does it compare? We’ll use a Data Maturity Model based the ODI model ( see links at the end) Stakeholder Mapping - Internal People and skills (This slide shows the ODI’s Skills Framework) Policies Publication processes Coordination of effort (internal community) In our city council we’ve established OD Working Group across all services. This fits within our Information Governance Framework, and links to other strands of activity including Master Data Management, Data Governance (developing roles such as Data Custodians), info and Data security etc.
• #9: Externally we’re looking to map out our ecosystems. Looking at the situation nationally and also at a city-region level Who are the open data providers ( services, neighbouring local authorities and public and 3rd sector partner orgs )? Could we entice the private sector? Who are the current and potential open data users? How could we support crowdsourced data – or third party data? Academia, Researchers, SMEs, infomediaries. Data Lab in Scotland – 4 campuses – turning out 95 MsC postgrads in Data Science this year. What do they need / offer? Who could be the open data beneficiaries? What would happen if all 7 cities prioritised the same datasets for publication – what would academia or SMEs need from us? What are the business opportunities which that raises? And we’ll use all the benchmarking to measure where we are now and where we get to by Dec 2018. And we’ll do the same to measure progress from start to finish with our maps of the local eco-system and skills matrices.
• #10: As we work through the next 2 years we’ll be working together: 7 cities and local partners Where there are examples of existing best practice we’ll share those Where there are gaps - e.g. in skills - we’ll address those together Where we need standards, guidance materials or case studies we’ll develop and share those. We’ll develop a shared calendar of data events - and hold national ones where 5, 6 or 7 cities work together. These could be hack events, challenges or data festivals. We are 7 out of 32 unitary authorities - so we’ll share with the others 25 councils too. Part of this is working out which sharing methods work best for all - Github, Slack, Trello etc. What people can access, as well as are comfortable with, varies widely.
• #11: So if we are to summarise what this experience tells us, and what we’re doing in the next 2 years Scotland, what are the main points? Understand where you are and where you are headed through common benchmarking, skills matrices, and mapping of the internal and external communities. Have a sense of how you will get to a destination. Collaboration is key - internally and with parters. Use existing tools that work: develop and share them where there are gaps Grow communities through interaction, internally and externally. Build things such as open data platforms with users, not for users. Strengthen communities through common themes - and bring coalitions of interested parties together. Share data, standards, tools, approaches, models, documentation and progress. Code For Europe showed us that open data, open source and open licensing go well together.
• #12: I am always happy to have conversations around embedding best practice in Open Data at a local, regional or national level. So please get in touch if you want to do so. I’ve dropped a whole bunch of links into the final slide of this presentation. Not so that you can note them down, but so that when the slides are shared you can follow them for yourself. I’ll be part of a panel Q&A in a few minutes so if you could save your questions for then that would be great. Thanks for listening.
• #13: Useful links Links http://opendatahandbook.org/solutions/en/Open-Data-Ecosystem/ http://opendatatoolkit.worldbank.org/en/starting.html (good links) https://www.digitalgov.gov/2016/04/06/the-data-briefing-building-an-open-government-data-ecosystem-in-the-federal-government/ http://ddod.healthdata.gov/wiki/Main_Page and (https://www.digitalgov.gov/2016/02/17/the-data-briefing-demand-driven-open-data-at-health-and-human-services/ ) http://opendataenterprise.org/transition-report https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/deloitte-analytics/open-data-driving-growth-ingenuity-and-innovation.pdf ODI Maturity Model: http://theodi.org/guides/maturity-model An online version: http://pathway.theodi.org Excel version: Open Data Maturity Model (Edition 1.0 _ 31 March 2015).xlsx http://theodi.org/open-data-skills-framework http://randow.co.nz/2016/12/07/uses-benefits-open-data/