Open Data

Overview

1. About Open Data
2. The Open Data Institute
3. Applications of Open Data
4. Evaluating Open Data Publishing
5. The ODI Network
6. Open Data Monitor

About Open Data

• open data
  must have have a licence to say it is open
  just being on the web is not enough
• the license
  may impose some constraints:
  attribution and/or share-alike

A piece of data or content is open if anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it — subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and/or share-alike.

Open | Big | Personal Data

Image Credit: Ulrich Atz

Why Open Data?

• for the developer
  build cool things without having to pay for the data or collect it yourself
• for government and business
  new business opportunities based on open data
  cost savings, greater efficiency
• for society
  greater transparency

The Open Data Institute

The Open Data Institute

• founded in 2012
  by Tim Berners-Lee and Nigel Shadbolt
• non-profit, non-partisan company
  partly funded by, but independent from, government
• based in east london, but with (inter)national outlook

ODI Culture

• doing everything in the open
• creating economic, social and
  environmental value by...
• ...helping others be successful with open data

ODI Activities

• training
• tools and services
• startups
• policy
• research

ODI Members

• Quanta Computer
  needs no introduction!
• Telefonica
  major mobile and fixed line telco
• Virgin Media
  large UK cable telco
• ...plus almost 50 others

Success Factors
in the UK

• government
  strong funding commitment
  high level political support
• leadership
  strong champions
• community
  critical mass in the open data community
  (business and activists)

Applications of
Open Data

Prescribing Analytics

The Question

• annual prescription drugs bill for UK national health service is ~£10 billion
• potential cost savings from prescribing generic drugs
• how big are the savings?

Prescribing Analytics

The Method

• prescription data for england, published monthly
  anonymised, under an open license
• work with domain specialists,
  select one drug class: statins
• find all cases where generic could have been prescribed
  with no difference in patient outcomes
• what is the cost difference?

Prescribing Analytics

The Results

• potential costs savings to national health service of
  £200 million per year
• for just one drug class

Fire Stations in London

• proposal to close a number of fire stations
  in central london
• candidates for closure identified by
  non-transparent analysis/process
• questions
  is the analysis fair/accurate?
  how can citizens engage in the process?

Fire Stations in London

Conclusions

• findings broadly compatible with initial analysis
• significantly cheaper than official analysis?
• tool is publicly available
  citizens can explore the options

Evaluating how
Open Data
is Published

Open Data Certificates

• the first robust quality badge for
  open data publishing
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Open Data Certificates

• the first robust quality badge for
  open data publishing
• helps...
  publishers certify their data
  users find and use it
  policy makers benchmark
  
• http://certificates.theodi.org

The ODI Network

supporting an open data culture worldwide

ODI Nodes

supporting local, national and international impact

ODI Nodes

ODI Nodes connect the organisations that support
open data projects and people

Businesses + Universities + NGOs

http://theodi.org/node

ODI Nodes

Open Data Monitor

Open Data
Monitor

Project

• 2-year EU-funded project, started this week
• monitoring and analytics for
  open data deployment across europe
• european focus, but may provide services elsewhere

Questions?

Tom Heath · Open Data Institute

tom.heath@theodi.org · @tommyh

Acknowledgements

OpenDataMonitor project

funded by EC FP7 grant 611988

Tom Heath · Open Data Institute

tom.heath@theodi.org · @tommyh

Open Data Institute Tech Team
@ukoditech
info@theodi.org
irc.freenode.net #theodi

http://theodi.github.io/presentations