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Draft paper for discussion by the Local Public Data Panel
Purpose of the paper:
This paper takes Tim and Roger’s paper to the last meeting as a starting point. It
attempts to:
Provide a basis for discussion to help the Panel to plan its activities for the rest of
2012
Provide draft guidance and FAQ for local authorities, for the Panel to use as the
basis for engaging with local authorities to help those that want to do
something about open data (there seem to be a few, struggling with the same
types of issues).
Things that are already happening
Central government departments and some local public service providers are
publishing datasets, and many more are in the pipeline. More local authorities are
starting to put up ‘open data’ pages on their websites, and publishing datasets
beyond £500 spend data.
A few authorities are reporting early benefits of opening up their data and their
decision-making processes. There have been some steps towards raising
awareness about open data in the charity sector (eg Tim Davies’ work). Some
useful applications have been developed, for instance using real-time data about
London buses so that people can plan their journeys, and aggregating local authority
spending and democratic data to provide an open and unified way of accessing local
government information.
But....
... much more active support is needed to ensure that the data that is released is
relevant, accessible and open, and to generate the awareness, networks and skills
that will be required to make effective use of it.
What central government needs to do
Make core reference datasets (such as geographical and land use data,
postcodes and addresses) openly available.i
Provide support as well as instruction to local public services to help them secure
the potential benefits of local public data.
Provide ways for local authorities and other public services to submit required
data returns simply by publishing them. This would provide an incentive for
organisations to publish datasets.
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Ensure that FOI and open data policies apply to all public services (ie those that
are publicly funded).ii
Publish datasets held by quangos that are being abolished.iii
Establish a benchmark of how many local authorities are currently doing what is
suggested in the FAQ, so that we can measure progress (CLG).
And??? [Panel members, insert your additional proposals here....]
What local public services can do:
Publish more open data.
Engage with people inside and outside public service organisations to help them
identify relevant datasets and make effective use of them.
Support the development of skills and networks inside and outside their
organizations to enable people to use local public data to solve problems and
improve local areas.
What the Local Public Data Panel can do:
Definition: Generate an accepted definition of ‘local public data’, because it isn’t
exactly the same as open data in general and there’s a need for a definition
that goes beyond the technicalities of open data.
Support for local authorities: Help local authorities to work through the process
of opening up their data, eg by developing and publishing a guide and
frequently asked questions (see Annex). Seek wider input for the document
and then distribute it widely through our networks.
Support for people to find and make effective use of local public data:
Devise (and find money to support?) a proposal for CLG / LGA / Local
authorities / other (?) to support local training and support for people to raise
awareness of the data that is available and support skills and network
development to enable people to use it.iv (Would there be any merit in the
panel / CLG / Cabinet Office supporting open data surgeries, along the lines
of the Podnosh social media surgeries? And if so is there anything we can do
to get the ball rolling?)
CLG data returns: Help CLG develop a way of gathering data returns that are
published by local authorities, rather than receiving them through a closed
system?
Showcase the benefits: Gather and showcase (through the Panel’s blog?)
examples of people using local public data to solve problems, bring about
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improvements and make local public services more efficient, effective and
responsive.
Generate / analyse demand for datasets: LGA (Or CLG?) to run a ‘request a
dataset’ service, which local authorities could use to help prioritise datasets to
release, and which we / CLG / cabinet office / whoever could use to help
develop standard formats for those datasets.
Press for release of more core reference data: Continue to apply pressure for
appropriate governance arrangements around the release of core reference
datasets (through our statements, general lobbying and meetings with
relevant people).
And ???
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Annex: Draft guidance / FAQ for local authorities and other public services on
local public data
The benefits of local public data
The effective release and use of local public data can:
Enable people, including those who provide and those who use local public
services, to understand and tackle issues in their area.
Support participatory democratic processes like developing neighbourhood
plans, making investment, planning and policy decisions.
Level the playing field between local communities, public service providers
and other people and organisations who make and influence decisions
about their areas.
Increase the productivity and efficiency of local public services (for example
local authorities’ use of geographical information, and the savings the
London Borough of Redbridge has achieved during the first five years of
its Redbridge i project to digitise its services, including the release of local
public data).
Enable people to hold their local public services to account for their decisions
and performance.
Provide the raw material for applications that can help people make more
informed decisions and make more effective use of services in their area.
Publishing data in itself will not be sufficient to bring about all these benefits. Nor will
publishing only limited sets of very narrow datasets without any context (such as
data about payments over £500).
Local public data needs to be seen as part of a wider set of changes in how
participatory democracy works in a world where increasing numbers of people have
access to the internet through computers, phones and other devices.
The spread of internet access, and the ability of the web to serve as a platform (‘web
2.0) facilitate a general move to digital government by default. These changes also
place pressure on public service organisations to open up their processes to make
decisions and deliver services more collaboratively and transparently.
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Definition of local public data
We define local public data as being:
Accessible:
Easy to find online.
Presented in formats that are straightforward for a person with basic
spreadsheet skills to view and manipulate.
Locally relevant and usable:
Relevant to the local area, issues in the area that people care about, and
decisions that are being taken by local authorities and other public
services.
Sufficiently detailed to enable people to make sense out of it and use it to
understand, solve problems and make decisions about their local area.
This means datasets about buildings, streets, and neighbourhoods,
not just local authority areas.
It also means that data needs to be linked, where possible, to
relevant location-based and other descriptive data.
Technically open:v
Structured and machine readable – ie in a spreadsheet or other structured
format, rather than a pdf.
Freely available under an open license.vi
Where possible, linked to other data, especially descriptive data such as
location data.
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Frequently asked questions about local public data (for local
authorities / other local public services)
How do the costs and benefits of releasing local public data weigh up?
Static datasets are straightforward and not expensive to release in a structured
format and under an open license for any organisation that already has a
website.
Dynamic real-time datasets can be published at a relatively low cost, if
publication is built in to ongoing renewal of systems and contracts (eg
Transport for London’s approach).
The benefits of local public data are as long as a piece of string. The
London Borough of Redbridge has reported savings of £2.7 million over five
years, and recurring savings per annum of £1.1 million from 2012 arising from
its Redbridge i project. Overall, the economic and social returns on
investment for open data won’t be known until there is more of it and it is more
widely and effectively used.
Charging for local public datasets that are produced in the normal course of
business is, in most cases, unlikely to be workable or beneficial in terms of the
potential outcomes of publishing data.
Which datasets should we prioritise?
Financial and performance data should be published openly as a matter of
course. This should be straightforward for any organisation with a website,
since the data is already collated internally and in many cases is reported to
external bodies such as CIPFA and central government departments. (For
more detailed guidance on publishing spend data, see [insert link to LGA /
data panel guidance])
Publish information that is requested under FOI. Doing this should be
straightforward, as the information has to be collated anyway so publishing it
should be a relatively minor additional task. There are also, particularly for
frequently requested datasets, benefits in not having to collate the information
again if a duplicate request is received.
Provide links to datasets held by other organisations that are relevant to
the area. This can help to get around early anxieties about the risks of
publishing data, whilst making relevant local public data more readily available
to local people inside and outside the organisation.
Choose an issue the organisation and / or community organisations are
currently working on, and work out what datasets the organisation has that
could be openly published to support that process.
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Publish a list of datasets held by the organisation and ask people to identify
priority datasets for release. Talk to local media, businesses, civic
organisations, developers, schools, colleges and community activists and ask
them what datasets they want.
Where and how should we publish the data?
There is no need to develop an expensive platform to release local public data. It
can be released through the organisation’s existing website.
Register the dataset with data.gov.uk [insert link to the how-to guide on
data.gov.uk]. This will make it easy to find, and will enable people to use tools
on or linked to data.gov.uk such as the postcode and map-based data search
facilities.
What format should we publish the data in?
If you have the dataset in a structured format such as a spreadsheet, then use
that format to publish it, and do so using the standard open government
licensevii. Ideally, it should also be published in a non-proprietary structured
format such as csv (see the five stars of open dataviii).
Where possible, use existing standard formats such as central government or
CIPFA returns. This will help people to make sense of the dataset by
comparing it with other similar datasets. Eventually, doing this will also
enable central government to collect datasets from local authority websites
rather than requiring authorities to submit them separately.
[ends]
i
Link to Panel statement on the Public Data Corporation
Link to Panel submission to the Justice Select Committee on FOI
iii
Link to Panel statement on quangos
iv
Link to Tim Davies’ blog on a charter for data engagement
v
Link to TBL 5-star progression
vi
Link to OGL
vii
Link to TBL 5-star progression
viii
Link to OGL
ii
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