Learn how you can leverage open data portals. We’ll discuss what open data means, who produces and consumes it, best practices for integrating it in your workflows, and recommendations for sharing your own data with the world.

1. Preparing, Sharing,
and Using Open Data

2. Agenda
• What is open data?
– Who uses it?
• Open data and FME
• 4 tips for your own
open data portal
• Looking ahead

3. Open data and content can be freely used, modified,
and shared by anyone for any purpose.
opendefinition.org
Open Data is free, public data that can be used to
launch commercial and nonprofit ventures, do research,
make data-driven decisions, and solve complex problems.
Open Data 500
“
“

4. It’s in demand.
• Citizens want access to
open data more than ever.
• We expect transparency.
• It enables collaboration.

5. Who uses it?
• Citizens who want to examine the data
and answer questions they have.
• Researchers and journalists who want to
gather and analyze the data to tell stories.
• Developers who want to use the data to
build applications.
Source: City of
Winnipeg

6. Whoproducesit?
All levels of
governments
Intergovernmental
Organizations
Non Governmental
Organizations
Private Companies
Academic Institutes

7. Open Data and FME

8. Consuming Open Data
● Read directly from
URL/FTP.
● If data is updated
frequently, pull only the
updates with the
ChangeDetector.
● Use FME Server’s
scheduling abilities to
automatically pull data.

9. Make Your Own Open Data Portal

10. 4 Tips for a Successful
Open Data Portal

11. Tip #1:
Update
Frequently
Datasets should be
regularly updated.

12. Keeping Your Data Up To Date
Provide your data
as a published feed
(e.g. RSS) or API.
Connect your open
data platform directly
to the master
database.
Enlist the help of
FME to sync your
master data store
with your open
data repository.

13. How to Use FME to Update it
• Use the FME Server scheduler to reliably
run data sync.
• Use FME Server data streaming service to
provide the feed.
• Use the ChangeDetector transformer to
ensure only delta updates are applied.

14. Tip #2:
Coordinate
System
Freedom
If you have spatial
data, make sure the
available projections
are flexible.

15. Projection Support
● Advanced users should be able to choose their
projection.
● Local (e.g. State Plane or British National Grid)
and global projections should be provided.
● Globally, we recommend:
● WGS 84 Lat/Lng (EPSG: 4326)
● Spherical Mercator (EPSG: 3857)

16. Using FME for Projection Support
• Set the coordinate system as a published
parameter to allow runtime choice.
• Use the Reprojector transformer.
• We use the CS-MAP reprojection engine,
but you can define your own.

17. Tip #3:
Be Responsible
For Quality
Ensure your data is
good quality before you
make it public.

18. Pay Attention To Data Quality
Data Quality Checklist: fme.ly/quality
Free CSV quality checker: csvlint.io

19. Tip #4: Pick a
Good Delivery
Mechanism
Choose formats that are
both human-readable
and machine-readable.

20. Formats: Data should be available in...
Tabular:
• CSV
• JSON (API)
Spatial:
• GeoJSON (API)
• Shapefile
Tabular:
• Excel
• XML
Spatial:
• AutoCAD DXF/DWG
• Esri File Geodatabase
• GML
• KML
• Mapinfo TAB
Suggested: Supplementary:

21. Delivery: 9 Open
Data Solutions
• ArcGIS Open Data
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• CKAN
• DataPress
• DKAN
• FTP
• GitHub
• Junar
• OpenDataSoft
• Socrata
Watch our Open Data Webinar
comparing these 9 solutions at
safe.com/webinars

22. Focus shift:
data quality,
not quantity
More cities &
governments
following NY
Open private
sector
No tech excuses
The Future of Open Data
Normalization of data
at national level so
we can compare
cities globally
Hackathons
(i.e. BigApps
NYC 2015)

23. ● Open data is increasingly important.
● FME can read it from many sources.
● If creating your own open data portal:
○ Update the data frequently.
○ Give users coordinate system freedom.
○ Be responsible for quality.
○ Pick a good delivery mechanism.

24. Resources
● fme.ly/OpenDataEbook
○ Free eBook: A Beginner’s Guide
to Open Data
● safe.com/opendata
○ How the City of Surrey automates
Open Data with FME
● playground.fmeserver.com
○ Try creating a data delivery
service in the FME Server
developer playground

25. Thank you!
Questions?