More data is being produced than ever before, and more and more of it is becoming openly available. Open data has great potential to help drive poverty eradication and improve global development outcomes. Data usage, however, remains relatively low. In the UK, for instance, a third of the datasets found on the government’s online portal have never been used. One reason for this is because it is hard to join-up data relating to funding, people and outcomes since it is published in different forma...
Sep 25, 2016•37 min
Why can’t construction be as smart as other industries, like aerospace, renewable energies or IT? Will construction ever evolve, making the most of the opportunity offered by data science and IoT? Or will the sector be disrupted by a giant smart city data monopolist that manages to crack construction site robotics? Will construction workforces be able to re-skill and re-train, or will a generic, self-optimising, embodied AI replace all engineers, surveyors, site managers and eventually architect...
Sep 17, 2016•50 min
Friday lunchtime lectures are for everyone and are free to attend. You bring your lunch, we provide tea and coffee, an interesting talk, and enough time to get back to your desk. You can watch the lecture here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRA-SRLawoc The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a range of global objectives to improve the state of the world by 2030, from ending poverty to improving global health, tackling climate change to promoting sustainable economic growth Spearheaded by t...
Sep 10, 2016•53 min
Friday lunchtime lectures are for everyone and are free to attend. You bring your lunch, we provide tea and coffee, an interesting talk, and enough time to get back to your desk. Code is all about pattern. Beyond computer programming, this means code can also be well-suited to creating musical patterns – not only in recordings, but also during live performances. In this lecture, algorage pioneer and ODI Sound Artist in Residence Alex McLean will talk about live coding of music and how it’s devel...
Sep 02, 2016•32 min
In 2012, the same year that CERN discovered the Higgs boson, another experiment was underway that crossed more than just scientific frontiers: Arts@CERN. Since 2011, when the first Collide residency awards were announced at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, there had not only been engineered collisions between protons at CERN, but also orchestrated collisions between artists and scientists. So what does a curator add to a highly scientific and technological environment? Why are they necessar...
Jul 01, 2016•50 min
This Friday lunchtime lecture features an impromptu discussion on the potential impact of the EU Referendum result on UK data policy, and open data more widely.
Jun 24, 2016•40 min
Humans use multiple senses to navigate their surroundings in day-to-day life. But data is largely confined to the realm of the visual; from the ways the systems that collect it are designed and programmed, to the spreadsheets and databases that analyse it, to the visualisations that help us make sense of it. But is this enough? ‘Data manifestation’ describes how we move data away from the screen and into physical and environmental forms, so we can use different senses to understand its meaning. ...
Jun 17, 2016•51 min
ODI Writer / Editor Anna Scott speaks with Martin Vowels about his software company Plexus, which creates digital products to empower workplace wellbeing. Plexus has developed a knowledge base pooling diverse data from different platforms to help users understand mental health standards and services in their areas, from support networks to legal aid and job opportunities.
Jun 17, 2016•18 min
Plexus is a mental wellbeing startup that aims to support people in and out of work. In striving to reflect, review and help empower change in people’s daily lives, Plexus builds on the NHS 5 steps to wellbeing and government reports into digital empowerment in the workplace. Since winning the ODI Showcase in 2015, the first product that Plexus has produced is ‘Grace’, an AI bot. For five minutes each day, Grace asks users questions about their challenges, confidence, positivity and how useful t...
Jun 03, 2016•44 min
The cultural sector is one of the UK’s strongest assets. It encompasses world-leading broadcasters and some of the best museums and art galleries globally; their collections contain objects that are as important as anything in any other collection in the world. Most institutions are looking hard at how they open up access to these collections, but in an environment where nearly every public sector institution is facing substantial funding challenges are they getting enough support? Richard Leemi...
May 20, 2016•52 min
ODI Writer / Editor Anna Scott speaks with Lucy Crompton-Reid, CEO of Wikimedia UK, about addressing gender bias and promoting women’s participation in Wikipedia and other knowledge platforms
May 20, 2016•20 min
If achieved, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set out by the UN could transform the world by 2030. But how can data help us to achieve these goals? Rupert Simons, Chief Executive of Publish What You Fund – an organisation that campaigns for aid transparency – will give insight into the state of data in international development, and what improvements need to be made. Rupert will also share the findings of the latest Aid Transparency Index. About Rupert Simons Rupert joined Publish What You F...
May 13, 2016•35 min
Chief Executive of Wikimedia UK, Lucy Crompton-Reid talks about Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in the context of the gender gap, discussing the impact of this on the production and consumption of open knowledge and what the charity is doing to help eradicate inequalities and bias on one of the leading sources of information in the world. About Lucy Crompton-Reid Lucy Crompton-Reid joined Wikimedia UK as the new Chief Executive in October 2015, and is working with the staff team, board of...
May 06, 2016•18 min
Is it time to move beyond shop window displays in open data portals and embrace data market places? What does a good data market place look like? Making data more discoverable, accessible and usable is a goal shared by government, businesses, sectors and non profits. How do we realise maximum value of the web of data? What kind of data infrastructure do we need for the discovery, collaboration on and exchanges of data? Join us for a thought debate about how we access, use and share data across o...
Apr 29, 2016•55 min
The UK has led the way in publishing vast quantities of open data, but what’s stopping us from making better use of it? The biggest issue we now face is raising quality, not quantity. In this talk we’ll discuss what makes a good, quality dataset, and we’ll use automated data visualisation to illustrate their power and beauty. John Griffin is the founder of Atchai, a consultancy specialising in data-driven applications and developers of the interactive data visualisation platform, Dataseed. Follo...
Apr 22, 2016•20 min
In the first ODI Podcast, ODI Editor Anna Scott speaks with Malick Tapsoba from the Burkina Faso Open Data Initiative on transparency, how his team used open data to support democracy and lessons for other governments aspiring for open elections
Apr 21, 2016•19 min
What do the KLF, Alan Moore and Edmund Blackadder have to do with web design? Find out from Paul Rissen, Senior Data Architect at the BBC, with a deep dive into the structure of narrative and how data could unlock a new approach to creative expression. We’ll cover the BBC’s experiments in structured data for storytelling in drama and news, why we need the Internet of Fictional Things, and the alchemic secrets of the Web’s pioneers. Paul Rissen is a Project Manager of the RES project at the BBC, ...
Apr 15, 2016•26 min
The Institute for Government’s Whitehall Monitor aims to chart government – literally. It analyses and visualises numbers from and about government – on everything from staff numbers to public perceptions – to help politicians, civil servants, civil society and the public better understand what central government looks like in the UK. The Whitehall Monitor 2015 annual report looks at what happened under the coalition government from 2010 to 2015. Gavin Freeguard, one of the authors, talks us thr...
Jan 29, 2016•30 min
Paul Maltby, Director of Data at the Government Digital Service, outlines the new programme of work to improve the availability, quality and use of government data. As Director of Data, Paul leads teams in the Government Digital Service in the Cabinet Office responsible for making better use of data, data infrastructure and data policy and governance, supporting a cross-Government Data Programme. Paul was formerly Director of Open Data and Government Innovation leading both data-focussed teams s...
Jan 08, 2016•19 min
At North Pole Incorporated, a data revolution is underway to modernise how Christmas gifts get to girls and boys around the world. For hundreds of years, North Pole Inc. and its global network of elvish subsidiaries have been gathering data on what children across the world want for Christmas, who has been naughty or nice and the latest toy trends. To meet children’s needs, North Pole Inc. relies on up-to-date information spanning delivery routes (by air, boat and donkey), building entrances and...
Dec 18, 2015•36 min
“Open data” and “big data” are the current buzzwords, but does the public know what these terms really mean, or are they the preserve of nerds, developers and policy wonks? Jonathan Stoneman has spent the last six months analysing the impact of open data on journalism, and has written a working paper for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Even he was surprised by some of his findings. Jonathan is an Associate Trainer at the ODI. He was a journalist and editor as well as Head of T...
Dec 11, 2015•26 min
In this talk the Open Banking Working Group team discuss their work to improve bank services for consumers, businesses and society by making better use of data from across the spectrum. They have been tasked with delivering a framework for an open API standard in UK banking by the end of the year. This will highlight how customers can have more control over their data, and how to create an environment that supports creating value from its usage. The team want to hear views from the audience so c...
Dec 04, 2015•53 min
In February 2015 the UK government launched Contracts Finder, a portal that advertises open government-spending contract opportunities, allowing companies to easily and quickly bid for them. The UK spends £250 billion every year on public spending contracts, including vital public services like the NHS and it’s important that this money is spent as efficiently as possible. As part of an ASI fellowship, William Jones worked in collaboration with the UK Cabinet Office to increase the number of com...
Nov 27, 2015•22 min
Are physical and data infrastructures distinct? In this talk, Georgina Voss and Wesley Goatley present and discuss their infrastructure data artwork “Familiars”, which directly intercepted logistical radio signals broadcast by planes, ships, and trains, highlighting the material aspects of data infrastructures. In unpacking the research and development behind “Familiars”, they explore how access to forms of “open” data is mediated and who this data is really intended for. While the UK government...
Nov 20, 2015•22 min
Landscape Watch Hampshire is a new community project to characterise the county’s landscape in 2005 and 2013 by analysing aerial photos, held as open data by Hampshire County Council, and thereby identify the changes that have taken place over a period of eight years; the output from the project will be made available as open data via the Hampshire Hub as it becomes available. Hampshire County Council, on behalf of the Hampshire Hub Partnership, is collaborating with Remote Sensing Applications ...
Oct 16, 2015•32 min
Both the Freedom of Information (FOI) and open data schemes are well established but they don’t always work together to achieve a common aim of making information more accessible. Matt Burgess will examine how FOI and open data can be combined to enhance the UK’s openness. Drawing on real-world examples, he will suggest how those promoting transparency can identify ways of encouraging more important information to be published. Matt Burgess is a journalist and author, who has a special interest ...
Oct 09, 2015•35 min
2013 was a big year for open data. G8 leaders signed the Open Data Charter and the UK Government made a series 21 commitments in a National Action Plan for open government. It pledged to release more local open data, manage digital records better and develop a new anti-corruption strategy, among other initiatives to help it transition to ‘open by default’. How far have they been met, two years on? Politics expert Ben Worthy will reflect on findings from his new independent report on the action p...
Sep 25, 2015•24 min
There’s lots of open data on local areas about, but it’s in hundreds of datasets in hundreds of places and hundreds of formats. So where should you begin? The Local Government Association (LGA) has developed LG Inform, an online data service to bring lots of this data together. Working with Porism, they have developed an API for developers and others to present the data in a variety of ways for wide audiences. Juliet Whitworth, research and information manager at the LGA, and Mike Thacker, found...
Sep 21, 2015•28 min
As the growth in Open Data published by government continues to accelerate, the need to underpin this with high quality and maintained geospatial data has never been greater. In Great Britain, open geospatial data has been ubiquitously available from Ordnance Survey, the National Mapping Agency since 2010. For this talk a range of case studies will be presented that demonstrate the application of this open data in support of successful initiatives that deliver economic growth, increased public s...
Jul 10, 2015•25 min
In May 2014 the Environment Agency publicly committed to becoming an Open Data organisation. This talk describes the journey that the organisation has been on so far and will look to where this journey may lead. Michael Rose has worked with Government data for over 15 years. Michael was part of the team that implemented intellectual property management into the Environment Agency and have been involved in many complex data licensing negotiations to enable wide sharing of our data and have been u...
Jul 03, 2015•33 min
