This document provides an introduction to open data. It discusses how governments historically collected data but it was not openly available. It notes challenges of data being locked up, hard to use, and lacking resources to process it. The Open Knowledge Foundation works to open up government data so it can be used by citizens and organizations. Open data brings many benefits like empowering people, increasing efficiency and savings for governments, and fueling economic opportunities. The document provides tips for governments on improving open data programs by focusing on high-value, granular data and using open formats.
9. We notice when government data
collection fails
• US government is
prohibited by law to
collect data on
gun related deaths
• Argentina’s inflation
statistics cannot be trusted
• Greek financial figures
until 2011 were unreliable
• April 2014: Nigeria adjust their size of GDP by 80 per cent
11. We are an global network working for since 2004 to
open up data and see it used to empower citizens
and organizations to answer questions that matter
and drive positive change
12. “Central” team of more than 35 on 4 continents.
Community network including civil servants, civil-
society researchers and citizens with presence in more
than 40 countries - including the Philippines, Indonesia,
South Korea, Japan and China!
21. Challenge: Exploding
Complexity of information
In 1820 all UK bank clearing done in a single room in
London once a day
Today, billions of transactions a minute.
=> componentization to divide and conquer complexity
22. Opportunity: Information
Technology
Smart phone = system for the Apollo moon landings
1TB of storage < $100 - in 1994 $450,000.
Mass participation in information access, processing and
production. Decentralization.
Image: ItoWorld
OpenStreetmap Edits
23. Many Eyes Will Bring
Knowledge To Society
And Government
33. Is open data simply “open
washing”?
Open washing was coined by Christian Villum at Open Knowledge in this blog post:
http://blog.okfn.org/2014/03/10/open-washing-the-difference-between-opening-your-
data-and-simply-making-them-available/
34. Open Data Census/Index
“Russian officials use the ranking on the
Index as one of KPIs of data openness. It’s
been very helpful for us - open data activists
- to promote open data and open knowledge
in Russia.”
Ivan Begtin, Ambassador,
Open Knowledge Russia
“Since the Index came out, a number of
countries - including the Russian,
Indonesian, German and Belgian
Governments - are using it as a yardstick for
their achievements or lack of it.”
Andrew Stott, former Director for
Transparency and Digital
Engagement for the UK
Government, & Open Data Advisor
at the World Bank
In October 2013, ahead of the annual Open Government
Partnership (OGP) summit in London, Open Knowledge
launched the Open Data Index, the first major assessment of
the state of open government data in the world.
The Index ranked 70 countries according to the availability
and accessibility of data in ten key categories, and is based
on peer reviewed submissions from the Open Data Census.
36. Source: Daily Nation, Kenya, November 10, 2012, http://www.nation.co.ke/business/news/Open-data-initiative-has-hit-a-dead-end/-
/1006/1617026/-/n18uhrz/-/index.html
37. Walk the walk on open data
● Better data
● Publish data that matters - local and
granular
● Release in open formats
● Know how well you score
38. Better data
● Improve formats eg. PDF → CSV
● Documentation: What is in your data
● Low data quality and closed formats will
result in reduced reuse
40. Release data that matters:
eg. grades at school level
Source: Twaweza, Tanzania, List of worst schools,
http://www.shule.info/schools/worst
41. Tip: the story is almost always buried in
granular data
Source: Mapumental
42. Case I: fair distribution of
government subsidies
Government:
Provincial breakdown shows
“equal distribution”
Breakdown by postal code =
rich gained 20 times higher
subsidies than poor areas
44. Data is open if anyone is free to use, reuse
and redistribute it for any purpose without
restriction or charge
http://OpenDefinition.org/
Without open formats data
will not be reusable and truly
open data