We often associate open data with the publication of data by governments and businesses. But openly licensed data is also being collected, curated and maintained by a variety of communities across the web. Whether you're interested in music or maps, comics or comets there are ways that we can all contribute directly to the creation of some unique open datasets. In this talk I'll be exploring some of those projects to highlight their work, how they're being used and thinking about what they can t...
Jun 23, 2017•33 min
Come join Matt Laessig, COO and co-founder of data.world, as he talks about the open data in government movement in the United States. Showcasing some of the work data.world has done with key federal organisations like the US Census, the Department of Defense, and the White House, Matt will talk about how data.world has helped to make data more accessible and drive more collaboration and a more engaged community around it. He'll trace its history from its origins – in the Presidential Memo out o...
Jun 14, 2017•42 min
In November 2015, Gavin Chait set out to create a service that 66 local authorities claimed would cause a crime wave. After researching this and rejecting their conclusions, Gavin pursued the case through the Information Commissioner. In February 2017, a decision was reached, and he won. Gavin was seeking to create a data service offering all entrepreneurs access to quality business intelligence usually only affordable to corporations. His first task was to secure the data he needed, and make it...
Jun 14, 2017•47 min
At the ODI Summit in November 2016, web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee spoke about the need for scrutiny in decision-making, saying ‘show me the data, show me its provenance’. In this lunchtime lecture, Jamie Whyte will look at how linked data can be used to support this level of scrutiny. He’ll show us how combining documents on the internet (webpages, pdfs, visualisations, etc) with the web of data to allow evidence to be baked into narratives such as Government white papers, news articles, visu...
May 26, 2017•52 min
One of the UK’s regulators, Ofcom, published new research on offensive language last year. It hit the headlines and was a nice opportunity for papers and websites to make cheap gags about swear words. As well as opening up the opportunity to make cheap gags, it also gave our Head of Policy, Peter Wells, an opportunity to open up some data, talk to people about swear words and the importance of context, and to wonder whether that data can be used to make better decisions about swearing. WARNING: ...
May 19, 2017•45 min
Many birth defects are caused by gene mutations, which can prevent an embryo from developing as it should. Genetic heart conditions, for example, affect around 1% of all newborns, and in around 10 times as many cases they may lead to miscarriage. If we want to prevent or treat birth defects, it’s vital that we understand how different gene mutations affect embryos as they develop. The DMDD (Deciphering the Mechanisms of Developmental Disorders) programme is tacking this issue by studying the eff...
May 12, 2017•43 min
Libraries.io is a free utility that helps developers and maintainers make more informed decisions about the software they use. In this lunchtime lecture Ben takes a look at the techniques Libraries.io uses to ‘map the open source landscape’, presents some of the issues surrounding software development, distribution and packaging and finally talks about why Libraries.io is much more than a discovery service. About the speaker Ben Nickolls is a software developer by training but a product person a...
May 05, 2017•44 min
Open data can help local governments engage more with communities, improve public services and create opportunities for innovation. But how do they get started? In this lecture, Lucy Knight will share how her team at Devon County Council got to grips with open data through training, trying cheap tools and making critical friends. Lucy will explain how they created an environment where good data is valued as a resource and the goal is to make it as useful as possible with a ‘fail fast, fail cheap...
Apr 02, 2017•40 min
t’s not currently possible to find a complete dataset on all charitable grants in the UK. 360Giving exists to change this. Its vision is that UK grantmaking is more informed, effective and strategic. 360Giving supports organisations to publish their grants data in an open, standardised way and helps people to understand and use the data in order to support decision-making and learning across the charitable giving sector. They’ve developed an open data standard as part of their work – the 360Givi...
Mar 28, 2017•54 min
Museum collection catalogues are a perpetual work in progress. Over the years, they have evolved from straight-up inventory management to online publications with digitised images for all to see. In early 2017 the Science Museum Group relaunched its online collection of digitised objects, under a Creative Commons licence via a public API. The museum hopes that the open data will be used in many ways. Researchers might use it to explore the collection using computation analysis, software programm...
Mar 20, 2017•48 min
The digitisation of public collections has made great works of art available globally, at the click of a mouse. In this talk we’ll look at tax exempt art, Britain’s most obscure public art collection and ask what’s the future for open culture. About the speaker Jo Pugh is a research engineer and a member of the Centre for Digital Heritage at the University of York. He is the founder of Open Inheritance Art, a project to collect images of tax exempt art from around the UK.
Mar 03, 2017•43 min
Linet Kwamboka, coordinator of Kenya’s Open Data Initiative, and Sandra Elena, coordinator of the Open Justice Programme at Argentina’s Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, share stories from their experiences running open data initiatives and how we can improve equality of opportunity in data and tech.
Mar 02, 2017•33 min
In a post-truth world, where experts are dismissed and populism is on the rise, how do those of us that support openness in government fight back? For at least the last ten years there has been growing support for the idea that greater government transparency and evidence-based policy making will improve the lives of citizens. This is now under threat. In his talk, Robert Palmer will explore how the transparency and open data movements can work to defend the gains made to date and continue to ma...
Feb 24, 2017•41 min
We often talk about ‘evidence-based decision making’ or becoming ‘data-driven organisations’. But how much faith should we put in data? ODI CEO Jeni Tennison will look at how complex using data in decision making can be, and how, to get the best result, sometimes we should limit our use of data. About Jeni Tennison Jeni Tennison is the CEO of the Open Data Institute. She gained her PhD from the University of Nottingham then worked as an independent consultant, specialising in open data publishin...
Feb 10, 2017•49 min
With increasing accusations of ‘fake news’, spin and highly influential public relations flying around, data is becoming more widely used in stories to back up their claims with evidence their readers can verify. How has data journalism developed? What are the challenges and opportunities that data can present to journalists? How easy is it for journalists to access useful data and build stories from it? Londonist Editor James Drury will explore these questions, using real-life examples from Lon...
Feb 03, 2017•45 min
Watch a video of the lecture here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raEEWlwfzUA&index=1&list=PL6DDzoHu1cx1ozmghXXCgzwHF8Ln8Tlv8 Each year, over billions of dollars in illicit funds – the fruits of crime, corruption or tax evasion – pass through anonymous shell companies. Their owners remain hidden, escaping accountability and passing the costs of their illicit activities onto communities. How can beneficial ownership data help solve these problems? Why should it be available as open data? ...
Jan 27, 2017•39 min
The shape, architecture and deployment of data are subject to much debate. Digital technology has helped us to optimise the utility of data sources for future applications. That said, the digital revolution has also led to the destruction of many paper records and datasets in obsolete formats. In many cases, corporate knowledge, along with its underpinning data, has actually declined over the past two decades. In this lecture, Michael Weatherburn will share his insights into the scale of this is...
Jan 20, 2017•48 min
Watch the lecture here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I18oS3vKqm0 Easy and convenient access to financial services is becoming more important as more of us expect to be able to bank with our smartphones. How are traditional banks reacting to consumer trends towards financial technology (FinTech), why it is important for FinTech providers to rely on traditional banks, and what role can big data play? Various tools and solutions are emerging to help banks and other financial institutions join the...
Jan 13, 2017•29 min
Watch the lecture here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYB0mrwimZM Interpreting the law requires years of study. In any case you need to carefully and objectively analyse the facts and judge them based on legal precedent and principles of justice. Open data and digital technologies are arguably bringing about an unprecedented change in how we engage with the law, since more firms are adopting machine learning to help with due diligence, compliance and contract review. As legal aid budgets get sm...
Jan 06, 2017•39 min
Watch a video of the performance here https://www.youtube.com/edit?video_id=9XGWx2N7AKM&video_referrer=watch It’s that time of year again, when team ODI welcome special guests for a festive Friday lunchtime lecture. This year, sound artists David Littler and Alex McLean will describe and demonstrate their musical collaboration, fusing new and old technologies; namely the algorithmic music through live coding, and mechanical music through music boxes fed by punched paper strips. The lecture b...
Dec 16, 2016•46 min
Watch the lecture here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6vUe-ACaZ8&list=PL6DDzoHu1cx1ozmghXXCgzwHF8Ln8Tlv8 The ODI Labs team work hard to evolve and create state-of-the-art technology tools, standards and techniques to help people work better with open data. But who are they? What excites them? What weird and wonderful things to they get up to in their free time? During this geek fest of all geek fests, ODI Head of Robots Sam Pikesley will bring us lessons from a side-project involving a she...
Dec 09, 2016•31 min
A ‘register’ is an authoritative list of data you can trust. Government keeping and maintaining open registers can help us move beyond relying upon data which is published periodically to operating on data that is trustworthy, standardised and open. Used widely, registers will help the UK to build better services, more cheaply and quickly. In this talk, Paul Downey from the Government Digital Service will share his vision for what open registers can help achieve, and the characteristics an open ...
Dec 06, 2016•53 min
Is it possible there aren’t enough cats on the web? In this lecture, ODI’s Peter Wells explains how a bout of lunchtime whimsy led him to create an open data register of UK government cats. He talks about the tools he used to create the register and dashboard, how people can help collaboratively maintain them on the web and some of the lessons he learnt along the way. He also admits that it wasn’t all about cats and talks about how anyone can help strengthen data infrastructure. About Peter Well...
Nov 25, 2016•38 min
Watch the lecture here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl95fGey7SM PopChange is developing a new method to perform small area comparisons on Great British Census data from 1971 to 2011. This gives us unprecedented access to explore changes, divisions and inequalities across the UK with data ranging from ethnicity to tenure to Townsend deprivation score. In this lunchtime lecture Dr Nick Bearman will explain how his team took the disparate Census geographies of enumeration districts and output ar...
Nov 18, 2016•30 min
Watch the lecture here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plMJR4I0uyk When data points are linked to one another, the whole generates more intelligence than the sum of its parts. From the social graph to the knowledge graph, the interest graph to the transactions graph, proprietary data networks drive the generation of new power and capital. Such graphs are used to make algorithmic predictions and optimisations about our future activities. Only those who can aggregate and hedge raw data emerge as t...
Nov 11, 2016•55 min
watch the lunchtime lectures https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6DDzoHu1cx1ozmghXXCgzwHF8Ln8Tlv8 This lunchtime lecture will provide an overview of how the local authorities in Greater Manchester have used open data to map the city region’s infrastructure and to provide a city-wide tool to understand social and infrastructure needs to support growth and development. The session will cover how an idea for an online interactive map developed from ‘Just a map’ to an integral part of city plann...
Nov 04, 2016•53 min
Watch the lecture here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3nAZCD_fj8 The principles of responsible data are that data and technology can play an important part in effective social change work, but they must be used with care. People’s rights to consent, privacy, security and ownership are important to keep in mind while collecting, analysing, storing, presenting and reusing data. With that in mind, why is responsible data important for the open data movement? How can the principles and practice of...
Oct 29, 2016•44 min
ODI Writer / Editor Anna Scott speaks with Andy Hamflett and Simon Raper about how open data can help reduce food poverty. Andy and Simon have worked together to create the UK’s first dynamic visualisation tool for food poverty, by aligning the Trussell Trust Foodbank Network’s client and food bank location data with a range of open datasets. Find out more at http://theodi.org/blog/odi-podcast-fighting-hunger-with-data
Oct 13, 2016•21 min
The ‘Indices of Deprivation’ are used by central government, local government, charities and businesses to target a phenomenal amount of public spending each year. They are a valuable resource in ensuring services and funds are targeted towards the most vulnerable in society. Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion (OCSI) are the team behind the Indices of Deprivation 2015, a highly trusted, robust and accessible set of data that is used extensively. During this lunchtime lecture, you’ll hear th...
Oct 10, 2016•50 min
The EveryPolitician project’s goal is ambitious: to collect, collate and share data on every politician in the world. Up until now, mySociety – the brains behind the project – have focused on national legislatures, but the team is now actively expanding the depth and width of the data (what is stored, and on whom). Hear about the joy and pain of working with politician’s data in this lively lunchtime lecture, in which Dave Whiteland will explain exactly what mySociety are doing, how they’re doin...
Oct 03, 2016•53 min
