Opening up Warwickshire's data - again!

The main driver for open data is that the current Government has pledged to making public sector data openly available.  It is high on their agenda, supported by the Opposition, and soon to be a legal requirement.

What is Open Data and how will if effect you?

The idea is that collections of non-personal data held by the public sector should be freely available to be used and re-mixed by anyone who is interested. The objectives for this is that our data will be:

• open so that it can be turned into useful applications
• transparent so government can be accountable
• shared between public sector partners more efficiently.

Datasets owned by Warwickshire will be encouraged to be made public wherever practical and secure to do so.

• Data will be published on the council’s websites.
• All data will be published in formats which will allow easy reuse with csv as a default.
• All data will be issued as free to use, in accordance with the Open Government Licence which is compatible with a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License.
• Datasets will be recorded in HM Government’s register of open data at http://data.gov.uk and at http://opendata.warwickshire.gov.uk.
• Dataset versions and published date will be clearly labelled, with a schedule for regular maintenance.

What does this mean for you?

One of the benefits of continuing to develop our open data resources is that by increasing our catalogue of datasets allows for the development of new, innovative and accurate web sites and applications to enhance the dissemination and use of data.

It will also aid and promote the concept of recycling and reusing application resources as a single dataset can be used in many applications, thereby creating a single source of the truth. By removing the issue of duplication of data records, it organically simplyfies the Information Architecture.

Our current applications can be found at the following address:

http://warwickshireopendata.wordpress.com/app-gallery/

We need more datasets to be published and the applications that will naturally follow.  To this end Warwickshire has created an Open Data Group to set up the business processes needed to embed the principles of open data in our everyday culture.  So far it consists of  a group of advocates, including three publishers, that are tasked with finding and promoting datasets. The organisation chart and assorted documentation will be published on the  Wiki in due course (under ICT Strategy).

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