Open Data is often mentioned alongside its bigger sisters of Open Software and Open Hardware, but so far the movement has not enjoyed as widespead success. But why not? What more could people be getting out of open data that would drive its adoption? In this evening of talks, our speakers make the case for open data and show all the benefits that sharing data openly and widely can bring.
This month we’ll be hosting our evening of talks online. You can join remotely from the comfort of your own home to listen to the speakers and chat in realtime with the other attendees.
AGENDA
18:15 – Join online meeting to chat with other participants
18:30 – Presentations
20:30 – Close
Why Open Data?
The term Open Data is generally understood to mean data that has been published, often by government, in a neutral format and with a licence that allows re-use. What is less clear are the reasons for opening data: the drivers; the economic and social benefits; the legal obligations and even the moral imperatives. In this short talk Ian Watt will cover these in a way which will not only aid understanding but will help someone to build a case to make their organisation’s data open too.
Ian is a Data Scientist and CEO and co-founder of the charity Code The City which operates Scotland’s only node of the Open Data Institute – ODI Aberdeen. He has been a prominent advocate for Open Data for almost ten years. Until his retirement from local government in 2017 he led the open data programme for Scotland’s seven cities. He recently became the civic society lead for Commitment Three (covering open data and data literacy) for the Open Government Scotland plan. He is on the steering group of Stirling University’s Data Commons research project, and is a non-executive director of Democracy Club, a UK CIC who use open data to improve democratic engagement.
Comparing Open Data With Open Source
What is open data? How has the publishing and use of open data evolved in different communities? And how does it compare to the open source movement?
In this talk Leigh will explore how the open data movement has evolved, how it compares with other “open” approaches and discuss how combining approaches can help to create open, trustworthy data ecosystems.
Leigh is Director of Delivery at the Open Data Institute where he helps to define, lead and deliver a range of projects and programmes to help build an open, trustworthy data ecosystem. Leigh has over 20 years experience in a variety of technology focused roles, including as a software engineer, product manager and technical consultant. For the last ten years he has worked on a range of open data projects across the public and private sector. He also chairs the Bath: Hacked volunteer group, exploring use of open data in Bath & North East Somerset.
Open property data for decision-making and innovation
Open data relating to the built environment is hard to find, use and trust. When found, data is rarely standardised which makes it difficult to link to other data sets and build up a holistic picture, both nationally and at a hyperlocal level. In this talk, Natalie will explore why there is a pressing need to increase access to unique open identifiers and geospatial data sets (non-personal) relating to places and property to inform decision-making and enable the emerging PropTech sector to innovate new solutions to help overcome housing and planning challenges.
Natalie leads on Digital Housing and Planning Policy at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in the Digital Land team. The team works in the open to help local government, policymakers and the PropTech sector to get better access to trusted land, planning and housing data to build new services. Natalie has a background in Urban Planning and co-founded a PropTech startup, Walulel, in 2016 before moving on to work on the wider digital transformation of planning through policy roles in local and central government.