Dane Wright, London Borough of Brent - open and linked data
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The document discusses the importance and evolution of open data, emphasizing its role in enhancing transparency and usability across councils and government. It outlines key historical milestones in the development of open data practices and technologies, along with the drivers behind the push for open government data in the UK. Additionally, it addresses challenges such as licensing, data consistency, and the need for better data publishing practices.
![The Semantic Web
“I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become
capable of analysing all the data on the Web – the content,
links, and transactions between people and computers. A
‘Semantic Web’, which should make this possible, has yet
to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of
trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by
machines talking to machines.” Tim Berners-Lee 1999
• Additional languages etc - RDF, OWL, SKOS, SPARQL
• Ontologies – taxonomies with formal relationships
• Linked open data – structured data in standard formats](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/danewright-lbbrent-openandlinkeddata-101013031800-phpapp02/85/Dane-Wright-London-Borough-of-Brent-open-and-linked-data-5-320.jpg)
Dane Wright, London Borough of Brent - open and linked data
- 1. Open and Linked Data Dane Wright IT Strategy Manager Brent Council October 2010
- 2. Conservative Party conference 2010 Francis Maude Thousands of commercial and social entrepreneurs have been frustrated by their inability to obtain and reuse datasets. I'm sorry to say that some councils spend time and money deliberately making data unusable to anyone else.
- 3. Open Data Open data is information that is freely available on the web to everyone without restrictions on its re-use Data on the web becomes more useful when it can be connected (or linked) with other data Linked data is a central component of the Semantic Web where information is understandable not just by human beings but also by computers – machine readable
- 4. A history of the Internet/Web 1940s Vannevar Bush's “memex” vision for automated information management 1960s McLuhan's “global village, concept of online hypertext 1970s TCP/IP protocols agreed, Arpanet > Internet 1980s Tim Berners-Lee develops WWW concept at CERN, first web servers on the Internet 1990s CERN makes WWW freely available, websites and web browsers developed, first UK council website in 1996 2000s Global public use of the Internet, search engines, Google, dot.com boom and bust, Web 2.0, social media, 1 trillion web pages in 2008 2010s Mobile devices, cloud computing, Semantic Web
- 5. The Semantic Web “I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analysing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A ‘Semantic Web’, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines.” Tim Berners-Lee 1999 • Additional languages etc - RDF, OWL, SKOS, SPARQL • Ontologies – taxonomies with formal relationships • Linked open data – structured data in standard formats
- 6. Linked Data Linking web pages together to allow machine readability •Everything identified by URIs – Universal Resource Identifer •URIs give information in standard formats eg XML/RDF •Include links to other related URIs Tim Berners-Lee at TED 2009 – “raw data now” BBC World Cup 2010 website used linked data engine to build/manage the website and its navigation esd standards controlled lists are published as RDF Talis Connected Commons offer hosting for RDF/SPARQL LeGSB working on linked data ontology for £500 spend data
- 7. History of open data in government 1 1766 Freedom of the Press Act in Sweden 1966 Freedom of Information Act in US (Lyndon Johnson) 2000 Freedom of Information Act in UK (Tony Blair) 2004 Civic enthusiasts repurpose Hansard & US Congress data 2003 EU Reuse of Public Sector Information directive 2005 Google Maps and Google Earth open up mapping to the public 2006 Guardian Free our Data campaign begins 2006 EU Inspire directive for open spatial data 2007 Cabinet Office Power of Information Review 2009 Tim Berners-Lee “Raw data now” speech at TED 2009 Tim Berners-Lee appointed as expert advisor by Gordon Brown 2009 US federal and state open data stores – data.gov, datasf.org etc
- 8. History of open data in government 2 2010 Jan - data.gov.uk and data.london.gov.uk launched 2010 Apr - Ordnance Survey makes some mapping data open 2010 May - David Cameron letter re central & local data transparency 2010 May - Tim Berners Lee, Nigel Shadbolt & Tom Steinberg appointed to Cabinet Office Transparency Board 2010 Jun - Eric Pickles announces local government publication of £500+ spend/contracts by Jan 2011 2010 Oct - UK Open Government Licence released 2010 Oct - Ordnance Survey makes more mapping data open 2010 Oct - David Cameron & Francis Maude reiterate support for open data 2011 Jan - All local authorities in England publish spend and contract data
- 9. Drivers for open data in government 3 factors driving government open data - Pressure from civil society enthusiasts to re-purpose government datasets and make them available for re-use Support from government officers Top level mandate to publish open data Plus the capacity – FoI legislation, availability of data etc Open Data Study – research by Becky Hogge, May 2010
- 10. Licensing • Crucial for re-use in machine readable form • Variety of licences in the past – Click-use, Creative Commons etc • Now there is the new Open Government Licence (OGL) which covers access, re-use and database rights • Still some issues with Ordnance Survey licensing around derived data – details of new PSMA to be revealed soon • LAs can still charge for data where necessary • LG Group is working on a practitioners guide
- 11. £500 spend & contracts May 2010 – Prime Minister letter on opening up data June – letter from Eric Pickles Sept - spend guidance from Local Public Data Panel Oct – Letter/video from Eric Pickles Oct – spend & salary guidance from LG Group Oct - Open Government Licence published Oct – 35 councils with spend data published ? – contracts guidance Jan 2011 – deadline for spend to be published monthly
- 12. Spend/contract/salary issues • England only, not statutory • Council commitment to open data or just the minimum? • Personal data redaction – manual or automatic? • Format – CSV not PDF, maybe RDF as well? • Consistency across boroughs? • Classification schemes – BVACOP, ProClass • Publishing large volume of data files • FOI requests – increase or decrease? • Potential for fraud?
- 13. Examples Openly Local Brent Lichfield – Jonathan Harrison (Pezholio) Warwickshire Trafford Walsall LG Group Transparency Guidance
- 22. What to do next Feedback to LG Group Transparency Programme Publish more than just the minimum Use the recommended CSV formats Include classifications, links wherever possible Use the Open Government Licence Encourage OS to allow us to make GIS data open Encourage conversion to RDF and linked data Make more data sets open – GIS, Govt returns …
- 23. Hindsight Freedom of Information. Three harmless words. I look at those words as I write them, and feel like shaking my head till it drops off my shoulders. You idiot. You naive, foolish, irresponsible nincompoop. There is really no description of stupidity, no matter how vivid, that is adequate. I quake at the imbecility of it. Once I appreciated the full enormity of the blunder, I used to say - more than a little unfairly - to any civil servant who would listen: Where was Sir Humphrey when I needed him? We had legislated in the first throes of power. How could you, knowing what you know have allowed us to do such a thing so utterly undermining of sensible government? Tony Blair - A Journey - September 2010
- 24. Open and Linked Data Dane Wright Brent Council [email protected] @pluto9 Useful links are on brentwebdev.wordpress.com