Mark Frank

University of Southampton

Open Data and Open Decisions

My Research

• Local Authority open data

• Case studies – over 30 interviews

– Who is using it?

– What impact is it having politically?

• Organisations and people who have a job to do (and may not care that much about Open Data)

– Officers e.g. commissioning

– Councillors – in power and opposition

– Voluntary sector

– Local press – well one reporter!

Aims of Open Data

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Aims

Political

Transparency

Police.uk

Citizen choice

School Admissions

Participation

?

Economic

Individual

Transport Apps

Business

Energy Saving

• Survey on use of “Pickles” list (Worthy 2013)

– 60% described use as ‘low’ or ‘very low’ with (another 30% not knowing)

– Highest use 6002 page views in a 28 month period

• My experience confirms this:

“There are people like the armchair auditor ... but they are pretty far and few between at the moment”

“there are books in libraries that don’t get borrowed for years and years, but then someone will want it someday”

Little or no use by local press

• Why So Low?

– Presentation – hard to find, hard to understand

– Habits – not used to it

– Motivation – who cares?

– The press get stories from elsewhere, don’t have the skills

What Open Data is Not Doing

The Voluntary Sector view• Supplier/procurer relationship

“We have to supply lots of data to them, but we don’t get much back”

• What we would like to know

– What’s the strategy

– How can we help

“Where are the dementia sufferers”

– How can we make our case (right to challenge)

Costs e.g. running a house

Demand for services e.g. Deprivation

• What we know and could tell you

– What’s really happening!

What Open Data is doing – the internal effect

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• “it is a bit like taking your desk ... so it is in full visibility of everyone walking past”

• “energy data effects how staff use energy because it becomes transparent, it becomes open”

Terry Leahy “to run an enterprise without data is like driving by

night with no headlights.”

What Open Data is Doing – US Cities

Baltimore, Chicago, New York, ….

What Open Data Could Be Doing

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It’s not about your revealing your organisation. It’s about helping your residents.

• Address all users to help with their problems• Combines data from many sources• Easy to find and understand• Easy to correct and contribute

Data becomes a shared resource – a communication substrateDecisions become shared decisions

Surely this is what localism really means?

Who is Doing It?

• Selective

• Combine Many Organisations

• Visualise and support

• In many cases lead from outside local government

How Do We Get There?

• Leadership

• Take Your Own Medicine – the internal story

• Growing the Community – but don’t become a club for enthusiasts

• Take the user’s point of view (and that is not the app developer!)

– Open Data is one tool among many

– It may (or may not) help to solve real problems in combination with other resources