Open Data
What, Why, How
RE:PUBLICA, Berlin, 2011-04-13
Rufus Pollock
The Open Knowledge Foundation
Founded 2004 / Not-for-profit
Build Communities and Tools
Help People Create, Use and Share Open Information
http://www.okfn.org/vision/
Sonnets to statistics, genes to geodata
Community based, with 15+ projects and workings groups
Background
Sumer, Mesopotamia, 5000 years ago
The UK Census (1801)
The Hollerith Tabulator (US 1890 Census)
An IBM (1960s)
Today, Once Again, We Find Ourselves in the Midst of a Revolution
What does Open Mean?
Open = Freedom for Anyone to Use / Re-use / Redistribute
Anyone means Anyone!
What Data?
Transport, Geodata, Statistics, Electoral-Legal ...
Key point: Non-Personal Data!
(E.g. Train times, station locations, spending breakdowns, national laws ...)
Open Data: Why?
The Holy Trinity:
Innovation, Efficiency, Transparency
AKA: Jobs and Growth, Community and Governance
£5 Billion UK, €27 billion for EU
Information is Special: Non-Rivalrous
Very cheaply copied ~ zero cost
Giving me a 'copy' of your car is a problem, giving me a copy of your data isn't
The Many Minds Principle
The Best Thing to do With Your Data will be Thought of by Someone Else
Fixing is Faster with Open Data
(And You Don't Repeat Yourself)
To many eyes all bugs are shallow
One department can find and use another's data
Scaling
(Closed Data Doesn't Scale!)
|
|
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| We're Weaving Data Together |
To Scale We Need to Componentize |
But We Need to Put Humpty-Dumpty Together Again - Not Possible if Closed |
Data and Content are a Platform
Not a Commodity
You Build on Them, Not Sell Them
Plenty of Ways to Make Money Without Going Closed
How
(Going and About It)
(And Some Possible Issues)
Deal with Licensing
It's boring - but without it nothing else works ...
Issues: Preparation Costs
One-off setup, and low ongoing.
KISS: Keep It Simple!
Don't worry (too much) about e.g. formats, schemas etc
Issues: Control and Misuse
Data has always been misused.
Government can still play a role in interpretation.
As a democratic society we must trust in informed public discourse
Conclusion
Enables a Read/Write Society
Open data means anyone can access, analyse and contribute. No longer confined to passive consumption we can 'write' back - adding, adapting, and updating.
Unlocking a Vast Potential for
Innovation in Products and Services
The Googles of the Future
Credits
Images
lego.jpg: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oskay/265899811/
humpty_dumpty.jpg: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/298669543/
woven_ball.jpg: http://www.flickr.com/photos/exfordy/387876530/sizes/s/
sim_city_airport.jpg: http://www.flickr.com/photos/42183741@N05/3890767674/in/photostream/
thomas_jefferson.jpg: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt_Peale-Thomas_Jefferson.jpg
stick_figure_male.png: http://www.openclipart.org/detail/15036
stick_figure_female.png: http://www.openclipart.org/detail/15040
city_icon.png: http://www.openclipart.org/detail/20145
city_icon.png: http://www.openclipart.org/detail/20145
sumer-ur-pot.jpg: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seriykotik/122518602/
hollerith-tabulator.gif: http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/census-tabulator.html (orig from IBM)
ibm-machine-city-hall.jpg: http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_virginia/2898506631/
census-1801-example.jpg: http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~alan/family/images/census/1801_example.jpg
itoworld-openstreetmap-2009.jpg: http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterito/3054501076/
