Start exploring Open Data (it's more than just maps)

There’s been an increasing interest in Open Data in recent years; Google Trends show a steady increase searches over the last 5 years, with a heavy concentration in the UK. In part this interest mirrors the acceleration in the datasets available. The Global Open Data Index keeps track of the status of Government Open Data initiative globally – it identifies 97 places (countries) with Open Data, and monitors the scope of data available across topics such as Government spending and budgets, election results, national statistics, legislation, company registers, maps, postcodes etc. The UK is ranked with highest availability.

Trying to get a feel for how extensively such data sets are used is pretty patchy. Sources such as OpenData500 provide some summary information,  though surprisingly this doesn’t include the UK – and some good graphical representations of which industry sectors use which government departments data sets – for the US the Data/technology sector being just ahead of the Financial Services sector in usage. Both sectors use the Dept of Commerce heavily, but the FS sector’s leading usage is (not unsurprisingly) data from the Securities & Exchange commission.

This kind of high level view is broadly interesting, but doesn’t actually help organisations get started with exploring what they can (and should) be doing. Equally much of the media coverage positions the concepts of OpenData via examples that stimulate more thought rather than action. This excellent article covers ‘5 ways that Open Data is changing lives’; these programmes are fairly wide-ranging from global initiatives to local (e.g. Edinburgh’s City Scrapbook). Similarly this article in the Guardian (probably the most vocal in the UK media regarding the possibilities and opportunities for big data) provides some fascinating examples of the breadth in scope of Open Data usage – with a focus on “How Open Data can help save lives” and topics as diverse as from where to locate defibrillators to understanding cycle safety hotspots.

Some commentators claim that the provision of Open Data has become a tick-box exercise with government bodies just being happy to say they’ve ‘done it’ rather than consider how useful and accessible the data is. Other angles attempt to identify the top lists of Open Data, (or here) again interesting but less of a practical help if you have a specific problem you are trying to solve.

What’s very encouraging is the lead being taken in the UK on Open Data, across a range of dimensions: collection, released and re-used – driven by an on-going government commitment to Open Data and the initiatives that include dimensions such as increased training in data initiatives and encouragement in data consumption, assisted by the National Information Infrastructure.

If you haven’t already investigated UK Open Data, the start exploring: take a look at http://data.gov.uk/ and browse or search some of the 27k data sets available, understand more about the strategy and direction of Open Data at the Open Data Institute: http://opendatainstitute.org/  The ODI kicked-off a survey in November last year that looks at how commercial organisations are using Open Data, research findings published in June this year provides some clear focus points that could help many organisations contemplating wider analytical sources:

• The most popular datasets for companies are geospatial/mapping data (57%), transport data (43%) and environment data (42%).
• 39% of companies innovating with Open Data are over 10 years old, with some more than 25 years old, proving Open Data isn’t just for new digital startups
• ‘Micro-enterprises’ (businesses with fewer than 10 employees) represented 70% of survey respondents, demonstrating a thriving Open Data start-up scene. These businesses are using it to create services, products and platforms. 8% of respondents were drawn from large companies of 251 or more employees.
• 70% of companies surveyed use government Open Data, while almost half (49%) of the surveyed companies use Open Data from non-government sources, such as businesses, non-profits and community projects. 39% use a combination of government and non-governmental Open Data.