Open local data presentation for okcon

Open Local Data,
OpenlyLocal & the
Open Election Data project

Open Knowledge Conference, London, April 24, 2010

It’s been a good year for open
government data
data.gov.uk, Ordnance Survey, MPs expenses...

But what about local data?

• Frankly it’s a mess



• Sporadically published by central government




• Inaccessible & impenetrable council websites





• Opaque local public bodies and NDPBs (quangos)






• At best unclear & at worst unusable legal situation







• Start with the basics. Who are the councillors, where do they
represent and what committees do they sit on?







• Start with the basics. Who are the councillors, where do they
represent and what committees do they sit on?

• How easy it that information to ﬁnd & reuse?

Open local data presentation for okcon

Enter OpenlyLocal...
• Inspiration was a Manchester project, MCC Work For You. Doing
something concrete to solve a problem. First code written 1 year ago


• Screen-scrapes council websites. Now over 140 councils done, with
basic information on all 434 in the UK



• Pulls info from about 150 local councils, plus ONS, OS, NPIA, CLG...




• Building a graph of connections – councillors, committees, social
networking, police forces, pension funds





• All open data – free for reuse, including commercial reuse





• All open data – free for reuse, including commercial reuse

• 100% accessible. Data ﬁrst; bells & whistles later

OpenlyLocal: where next?

• More data. More councils. More connections.


• Election data, cabinet members, mayors, police authorities, health authorities,
pension funds, etc... it’s all about the network



• Data used by Hyperlocal sites (inc Guardian). Ning app. Google
Gadget. Widget. And now starting to get info in the other direction
(i.e. connecting blog posts to councillors)




• Some things can’t be done programmatically. Need crowdsourcing
tools & help with tying info to Wikipedia, other sources




• Some things can’t be done programmatically. Need crowdsourcing
tools & help with tying info to Wikipedia, other sources

• Some good visualisations done, but lots more potential, particularly
now that we have OS geo data

Why does open local data matter?


• Transparency – can we see what’s going on (and understand it too)



• Engagement – reducing barriers to getting involved




• Equality of access to information (and thus power). Much of this data
is already available... for a price




• Equality of access to information (and thus power). Much of this data
is already available... for a price

• Efﬁciency – Don’t let ﬁve different branches of government needlessly
do the same thing (aka keeping it DRY)

Simple questions, hard to answer


• How does the budget of my council compare with similar ones?



• What’s the background of the chief executive of my council?




• Is my route to work going to affected by roadworks next week?





• What are the connections between the companies awarded contracts
and the councillors & senior management?





• What are the connections between the companies awarded contracts
and the councillors & senior management?

• How will cuts in services be decided and what can I do to inﬂuence
the decisions?

Transparency
A brief example.

• A story in Private Eye

Transparency
A brief example.


• An investigation by the District
Auditor

Transparency
A brief example.


Auditor

• A report buried in the nether
recesses of the website...

Transparency
A brief example.


Auditor


• ...with no relevant heading

Transparency
A brief example.


Auditor



• Accessible only as a PDF of a
scan of a document

Transparency
A brief example.


Auditor



• Accessible only as a PDF of a
scan of a document

• Is it any wonder suspicions are
raised?

Engagement
• Local Authorities now have a
duty to engage. This means
• Reducing barriers to understanding
and involvement

Engagement
and involvement

• Accessible for all

Engagement
and involvement


• Available to use when, where
& how we want to

Engagement
and involvement


• Available to use when, where
& how we want to

• Publishing as data means easy
to be repurposed – for mobile,
for mashups, for ofﬂine use
(e.g. Postcode Paper)

Equality

• At the moment, all
this information
is available...
at a cost

Equality ££
£
this information
is available...
at a cost

Equality ££
£
this information
is available...
at a cost

• Huge asymmetry
of information
(and thus power)

Equality ££
£
this information
is available...
at a cost

• Huge asymmetry
of information
(and thus power)

• Raises the barriers
to involvement,
and, critically, to
challenge

Efficiency
Now: cumbersome, wasteful, opaque, error prone

Typical local data ﬂows

Efficiency


Council

Efficiency


Govt Dept A
email

web
Council Govt Dept B

upload Govt Dept C

Efficiency


Govt Dept A public (maybe)
email

web
Council Govt Dept B

upload Govt Dept C

Efficiency
A better way?

Council

Efficiency
A better way?

open data
Council

Efficiency
A better way?

<tr rel='openelection:candidacy'>
 
 <th scope="row" rel="openelection:candidate">Keith William Cockroft</th>

<td rel="openelection:party" resource="http://
openelectiondata.org/id/parties/6">Labour</td>
 

<td property="openelection:candidateVoteCount"
datatype="xsd:integer">330</td>
 <td>16.6%</td>
open data
Council <td property="openelection:elected"
datatype="xsd:boolean" content="false">No</td>
 </tr>

 <th scope="row" rel="openelection:candidate">
 Brenda Lilian Constable
 
 37 Morley Road,
 Burntwood,
 Staffordshire
 WS7 2DE
 
 </th>

Efficiency
A better way?

public



open data
 <td>16.6%</td> Govt Dept A
 </tr>

Govt Dept B
span>,
Govt Dept C
 
 </th>

Efficiency
A better way?

public



open data
 <td>16.6%</td> Govt Dept A
 </tr>

Govt Dept B
span>,
Govt Dept C
 
 </th>


Publish once, consume many times

Problems
• IDs – councils don’t generally use them; central government uses
many... inconsistently

Problems

• Data tied up in PDFs (will we ever get this back?)

Problems


• Legacy systems. That nobody now understands

Problems



• Private companies/JVs. No FoI. No access to data

Problems




• Outsourcing (councils have outsourced the skills & knowledge and
now are often dumb consumers)

Problems




• Outsourcing (councils have outsourced the skills & knowledge and
now are often dumb consumers)

• Silos, especially of budgets. How do you get money from one budget
to another (even if the whole beneﬁts)

The OpenElectionData project

• Tackling the open local data problem, one set at a time & learning
lessons on the way


lessons on the way

• Succeed, or fail forward


lessons on the way


• No public database of local election results, only a commercial one
(subsidized by the Electoral Commission)


lessons on the way



• Allows even those with no prior knowledge of linked data/RDF/
semantic web(choose fave buzzword here) to take part


lessons on the way



• Allows even those with no prior knowledge of linked data/RDF/
semantic web(choose fave buzzword here) to take part

• Just need HTML competence

How it works
• Instead of publishing their election results as arbitrary HTML they
publish it as HTML that has been semantically marked up.

• e.g.
 <th scope="row" rel="openelection:candidate">Helen Elizabeth Fisher</th>

<td rel="openelection:party" resource="http://openelectiondata.org/id/parties/25">Conservative</td>

<td property="openelection:candidateVoteCount" datatype="xsd:integer">655</td>
 <td>33.0%</td>

<td property="openelection:elected" datatype="xsd:boolean" content="true">Yes</td>
</tr>

instead of
<tr class='zebraBandOdd'>
 <th scope="row" class='darkGreyCell'>Helen Elizabeth Fisher</th>
 <td class='lightCell'>Conservative</td>
 <td class='lightCell'>655</td>
 <td class='lightCell'>33.0%</td>
 <td class='lightCell'>Yes</td>
</tr>

How it works

How it works

• Allows:

How it works

• Allows:

• data to be pulled from the page, and consumed by RDF reader

How it works

• Allows:


• Local Authorities to develop an understanding of the key issues of
open linked data - e.g. URIs as identiﬁers

How it works

• Allows:



• the beginnings of a complete database of local election results

How it works

• Allows:



• the beginnings of a complete database of local election results

• a concrete way of identifying the blockers & pain points when
moving towards open local data

How’s it going? Too early to say but

• After the May 6 election (local elections at 166 councils) will be
somewhere between 12 and 40 councils publishing their data this way
(too early to give more accurate ﬁgure yet, lots joining at last minute)


• Already we have increased knowledge and publishing of open data
by councils by an order of magnitude, and have established informal
network of people who get it



• Council people have begun to help each other, solving problems,
writing scripts for internal CMSs, and it now has its own momentum



• Council people have begun to help each other, solving problems,
writing scripts for internal CMSs, and it now has its own momentum

• Core blockers already becoming clear: lack of basic skills (even
HTML); intransigent middle managers; inﬂexible IT systems

Where next?

• A Freedom of Data act – too many different bodies

Where next?


• A recasting of how Government (central & local) does IT. Avoiding
the big #fail

Where next?


the big #fail

• A change in relationship between central & local government

Where next?


the big #fail


• A change between between government and citizen

Where next?


the big #fail



• Some new business models – to support hyperlocal sites, innovative
and supportive suppliers, public-interest groups

Where next?


the big #fail



• Some new business models – to support hyperlocal sites, innovative
and supportive suppliers, public-interest groups

• Develop the meme: enabler or blocker

Open local data presentation for okcon

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