Presentation at Botswana Innovation Hub in Gaborone on 7 August 2013

1. Developing an Open Data initiative:
Lessons Learned
Andrew Stott
UK Transparency Board
formerly Director, data.gov.uk
Senior Consultant, World Bank
Gaborone, Botswana
07 Aug 2013 v0.2
@dirdigeng
andrew.stott@dirdigeng.com

2. The first 3 years of data.gov.uk
 Over 9300 datasets
 37 GB of geo data
 Public Data Principles
 Open Government
Licence
 Transparency of
salaries, spending,
contracts and tenders
 Four site versions, each
in response to user
feedback
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3. UK Government Transparency Data
For every central Ministry
and regional/city council: Expenditure
 Senior staff salaries
 Expenses
 Official credit cards
 Contracts
 Tenders
 Organisation charts
 Local service &
performance data
 Meetings
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4. Leadership throughout the Organisation
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5. Top-level political leadership essential
“Greater transparency
will enable the public
to hold politicians and
public bodies to
account”
“Public information
does not belong to
Government, it
belongs to the
public.”
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6. Demand from business and citizens
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7. Also important to have passionate team!
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8. Policies & Legal
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9. Clear, common, licensing approach
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10. Standards
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11. Make sure data is re-usable
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12. Data Publishing – Star Quality
Ease of reuse





Put your data on the Web with an
Open Licence (any format)
Make it available as structured data
(e.g. Excel, CSV, instead of PDF)
Use open, standard formats (e.g.
XML, RDF)
Use URLs to identify things (so
people and machines can point at
your data)
Link your data to other people’s data
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14. Ensure Privacy of Personal Data
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15. Data within Government
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16. Focus on data on things that people care about
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17. It’s not just about new data
Scope for “Open Data” also includes data
previously “published” but …
 in non-reusable format
 with restricted licence
 only aimed at specialist groups
 only for payment
 only in response to requests
 difficult to find
data.gov.uk contains a lot of data which
nobody knew was already published
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18. Handling the concerns of data owners
“People hug their database, they don't want to
let it go. You have no idea the number of
excuses people come up with to hang onto
their data and not give it to you, even though
you've paid for it as a taxpayer.”
– Tim Berners-Lee
http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_berners_lee_on_the_next_web.html
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19. Release data people want
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20. Manage expectations, prepare for mistakes
“We’re making a small start next
week. But eventually, it’s going to
make a big difference.”
“The information we’re publishing
next week won’t be perfect, and
I’m sure there’ll be some mistakes.
But I want to get on with it.”
UK Prime Minister 29 May 2010
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21. Deliver incrementally
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22. Not all Government data is accurate
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23. Data Quality
 Release of data
will reveal issues
of data quality
 Celebrate greater
checking of data!
 Use as stimulus to
 Measure
 Prioritise
 Improve
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24. Using citizens to help improve data
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25. Promote Use of Data
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26. Recognise success
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27. Create “Heroes” of totemic data releases
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28. Create “Heroes” of agencies who give data
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29. .. and “Heroes” among developers too
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30. Creating Sustainable Applications
 Sustainable apps come from social
entrepreneurs – helped by geeks
 Do things that matter to people
 Make it quick and easy to do – “while you’re still
upset about it”
 Make effective use of email
 Use location: input and visualisation
 Build in community support, action & stickiness
 Use simple design
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31. Open Data Ecosystem
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32. Continuously engage with developers
Photos: @memespring,
@MadLabUK, @paul_clarke
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33. UK Open Data Institute
 Develop capability of UK
businesses to exploit value of
Open Data
 Engage developers/small
businesses to build Open Data
supply chains and commercial
outlets
 Help public sector use its own
data more effectively
 Ensure academic research in
Open Data technologies
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34. UK Open Data Institute
 Running 9 months
 £200m/yr savings identified
 5 startups incubated, 6 courses launched,
4 hackathons
 27 private-sector company paying members
 Over £2m of private sector funding secured
in 6 mths
 1,500 visitors to London space – and
provides “neutral meeting space” for
government and entrepreneurs
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35. Measure!
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36. Measure achievement
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37. Measure delivery and conformance
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38. It’s not (just) an IT project!
CIOs can give leadership, but
 CIOs/IT Directors often do not “own” the data
 Key issues are business, policy and politics:
don’t let policy makers brand it as “just IT”
 Keep the IT simple
‒ use Open Source (CKAN, Drupal, etc)
‒ use existing contracts/infrastructure with niche firms
‒ host data on existing websites or on public Cloud
 Use revealed legacy data quality issues as
spur for improvement
‒ not as an excuse for doing nothing
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39. … and the biggest lesson of all
Overcome obstacles
practically
by doing,
not debating
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40. Discussion?
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41. End
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