5 tips for Open Data at a local level

5 tips for Open Data at a local level

Tuesday was our Local Open Data event. We had great speakers; fab attendees and lots of discussion about the good stuff going on with Open Data from Inverness to Hampshire. We learnt loads, but here’s a selection of the top tips our speakers had for us on using Open Data at a local level.

1. Look beyond transparency as an end in itself and focus on how data can be applied to specific practical problems. From data on social care to libraries, GP screening rates or sports facilities; how can you make your local open data useful and productive?

(how Trafford are visualising leisure activities in different locations)

2. For publishers, understand what people want to use your data for. Since different people want to do different things with the data, you might have to help them select and present the data in a way that solves their problem.

(Lucy Knight’s Open Data Use Cases)

3. Involve other local organisations so you can share ideas and data to increase the impact of the stuff you make.

4. When you publish your data, use good identifiers. A well designed and maintained common point of reference creates opportunities and saves work for everybody.

5. Collect and share success stories where using data contributed to tangible benefits.

We’ll soon be sharing some slides and videos of the day – watch this space!