A Practical Guide to Open Data

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The economic benefits of Open Data to the global community are commonly spoken of. We know that Open Data is a Government directive, and Councils are well aware that they need to come to grips with data release. Issues of privacy have been debated and there are many examples of apps using open data to inform, educate and provide services.

But do we really understand the day-today realities from a Council perspective? Where to start? How do we tackle the barriers and challenges one meets when trying to follow open data principles?

Paul Stone, Open Government Data Programme Leader, came to the 2016 ALGIM GIS Symposium to inspire us about Open Data. Inspire he did, but more importantly he offered practical, common sense advice. 

Guidance from Government

There is not only international impetus to grow the use of Open Data, but globally there is a new cultural expectation that data can and will be made available. As reported at a Ministerial level, New Zealand has a fabulous reputation internationally for what we’re doing with Open Data, yet we do not nationally acclaim this success.

The Open Data Programme, hosted by LINZ, has the mandate to “make nonpersonal Government-held data and information more widely available and discoverable, easily usable and compliant with open government data principles within the New Zealand legal context.” The Programme works with Central and Local Government and government agencies, to encourage, educate and facilitate release of open data. As Paul expresses, it’s all about “growing people’s understanding that data is a huge asset”.

To understand Government policy and principles around Open Data, Paul presented a simple three-leg stool design.

The New Zealand Data and Information Management Principles (2011) expresses that data should be not only open, but reusable and reasonably priced. These are global recognised principles, reiterating the International Open Data Charter. 

The New Zealand Government Open Access and Licensing Framework (NZGOAL) is all about making it clear what information can be re-used, and how. NZGOAL also provides guidance to publicly funded agencies on how to apply Creative Commons licenses to information data and content, be it published digitally or in hard copy format.

The New Zealand Declaration on Open and Transparent Government (2011) calls for the proactive release of publicly funded, non-personal and unclassified data; data that has potential value for re-use. It directs data to be managed according to the Principles, licensed appropriate for re-use (as expressed by NZGOAL) and published on data.govt.nz. Managed by DIA, data.govt.nz provides an index of data sets.

But can we trust the data we release?

A key barrier to data release for many Councils is lack of confidence in the accuracy of current datasets. Paul sees this as a widespread concern, but suggested three ways this issue could be managed:

1. Imperfect data is better than no data – just say so! It’s easy to make a statement that the data could have areas of inaccuracy

2. Use the data users themselves to help improve the quality of the data, by building in a feedback loop

3. Look at methodologies for certifying data, such as ODI Certificates, which can be used to declare the sustainability of the data.

Then there’s the bigger question, where to start?

Paul was quick to encourage Councils to be aware of their “low hanging fruit” - data that could be easily released. It’s also good practice to take a forward-looking approach:

1. Embed open data output as a requirement into all new systems

2. Incorporate Open Data output into processes/publishing (the glossy annual report may look great on the reception table, but it also needs to be machine readable)

3. Require quality data as part of any new contracts for services, in a form that can be released e.g. rubbish collection schedule changes.

Can’t do it yourself?

For Councils lacking the resources or software configuration to get data out in a sustainable-way, there’s an excellent creative solution available through GovHack NZ. For one weekend a year, GovHack brings together coders, artists, storytellers, observers and communicators from private, public, NGO and academic sectors. In simple terms, these people form groups throughout Australasia and play with data sets.

Possibly the biggest challenge to realising data as our greatest asset is the cultural change required around this principle. Open Data is actually about open culture. The Open Data Programme is looking to the Data Champions network to help drive the change of thinking around processes. ODP recently held a successful workshop in the Hawke’s Bay region, which brought together the Local Authority Data Champions, and plan to continue with similar workshops around New Zealand during the next six months. The goal is to change mind-sets; to worry less about whether data is perfect or not and embrace the concept that by opening data sets to customers, the quality of the data itself will inherently improve. Plus Councils can clearly articulate how they perceive the state of the data released to be.

In terms of releasing data for usage, Councils need to consider what data is currently closed through use of Copyright. Correct use of Creative Commons Licensing can open data whilst providing appropriate protection, which will appease the concerns of our legal departments. For example, by attributing a dataset CC-BY, this licence lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the data, even commercially, as long as they credit the original source. The new Creative Commons Version 4 allows more flexibility with attribution, and is worth exploring. [Note: NZGOAL Version 2 advises organisations to use Creative Commons Version 4 licenses.]

If data is opened by design, the flip side of the coin is that it can equally be closed by design. Paul used the New Zealand Police as an example of an organisation that has chosen to open some data by design, albeit keeping other data closed.

Paul did provide some inspiration through some interesting examples of Open Data in action. From Zoodle to ThunderMaps, these ranged broadly in both data use and application. One interesting example is Mogeo’s Campermate, a free app, bringing together Central and Local Government data, business data and crowd sources to answer questions such as ”Where can I camp for free?”, “Where’s free Wi-Fi?” and “Where can I dump rubbish?”. The success of this app could even be creating its own problem – are we getting swamped with freedom campers?!

Data is also being used to provoke and inform public debate, such as NZ Herald collating secondary school data such as NCEA results (internal and external), decile and ethnicity statistics to create discussion around the overall success of NCEA.

As a final point of reflection, it is interesting to consider that the 2011 Declaration directs Central Government to open data, encourages the wider Government sector and invites Local Government to participate. However, Paul believes that it is Local Government that will provide leadership in this key area. Local Authorities are close to their communities and understand the benefits of providing data to their customers. We have the opportunity to speak with our local businesses about their needs and by providing datasets that match those needs, free them up to provide valuable services to our communities.