Warwickshire Open Data

Things are moving along nicely…

Ria Porter — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:10:58 +0000

We have not been idle of the last three months. The Advocates are in place and ready to start blogging and uploading datasets. The publishers are now able to access Open Data email and are uploading information in the form of reports and articles onto the relevant websites and linking these to the raw datasets that can be used and reused by those interested enough.

The one we are following closely is the Equality and Diversity data, should be published by 31st January by our publisher Matt Hawthorne.

Warwickshire has also successfully recruited a new GIS Manager who will eventually be the contact point for Open Data in Warwickshire, his details will be published in time, once we have inducted and prepared him sufficiently.

Opening up Warwickshire’s data – again!

Ria Porter — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 11:39:56 +0000

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).

Re-animating Warwickshire Open Data

Jim Morton — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:35:13 +0000

For the last year or so the WCC open data project has been in a state of near hibernation – although we have been steadily updating our open data site with various bits and pieces (most notably monthly information on all payments over £500) – a number of factors have meant that the amount of time and effort that we have been able to put into this area has dwindled.

It is now time for a crack multi-disciplinary team of WCC staff to re-animate this slumbering giant. Rather than some complicated DNA based cloning method, we have brought together a variety of staff from across the organisation to form an open data group.

The purpose in creating this group is to spread the idea of and responsibility for open data across the authority rather than it being seen as an ICT-centric initiative.

There will be more news and information on these exciting new developments very, very soon. And with a bit of luck it won’t involve anyone getting eaten.

Hacking Warwickshire….again

Kate Sahota — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:27:41 +0000

Following on from the fantastic inaugural Hack Warwickshire competition, we are very pleased to announce our second Hack Warwickshire competition.

Round 2 will run from Monday 23rd August 2010 until Friday 29th October 2010. Judging will take place on Friday 5th November 2010. The rules are located on our blog. We will be giving away a camcorder to the value of £250 as the prize.

We have another 15 datasets to play with following on from the first Hack Warwickshire competition, so there’s plenty of scope for new applications. We hope to have more data online over the course of the next 2 months.

Good luck!

A Small Victory

Kate Sahota — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:17:34 +0000

Through a fantastic team effort by our Road Safety Unit, our GIS team and Health & Safety, our open data site is now the proud owner of the School Crossing Patrol data. Finally, we are moving closer to my dream of Walk This Way, Talk This Way becoming a reality.

For anyone who has been privy to my Open Data presentation, you will know that this is one of my Town Mayors. For those wondering what on earth I am on about, watch out for “Kate Sahota – Open Data Promoter”, coming to an open data event near you!

Mature County Council, GSOH, seeks local media developer to share good times, funding opportunities

Jim Morton — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:57:30 +0000

Hi, I’m a large public sector body based in Warwickshire, I have lots of experience, a great sense of humour and a burning unfulfilled desire to make the most of my prodigious open data assets.

I’m looking for a dynamic local digital media development company to share evenings out, trips to the cinema and maybe something more lasting… like working together to apply for up to £30,000 worth of funding to develop exciting new open data applications for Warwickshire, more details here: http://www.nesta.org.uk/areas_of_work/networked_society/digital/make_it_local

If you are interested please get in touch via opendata@warwickshire.gov.uk – you don’t need to include a recent photo, but some details of your experience would be welcome, as well as any ideas you have for open data applications that we could build together.

We can meet in Warwick town square, I’ll be dressed as a huge concrete building with a pond out the front.

No flies on us

Kate Sahota — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:42:24 +0000

Now the dust has settled after the highly successful Hack Warwickshire competition, there are no flies on us as we have just released a whopping 12 datasets. These datasets are all related to Waste Management in Warwickshire so come and have a look and see if you can do something exciting with our rubbish.

The highly awaited locations our School Crossing Patrols are imminent, as well as some very interesting data around our energy consumption in council buildings. We’ll be blogging and tweeting as soon as these are available.

Discussions are taking place on the £500+ expenditure figures with our finance teams. Our staff are beavering away tidying up some of the data to ensure there is no personal information at risk of being published. We hope to have something out in the next couple of months.

Never mind the World Cup, here are the Hack Warwickshire results

Kate Sahota — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:23:32 +0000

After 3 hours locked in the War Room of Warwickshire County Council, we are delighted to announce that the winners of our inaugural Hack Warwickshire competition are:

Lewis Wagner with his Warwickshire Library New Releases hack

and

Matt Hawthorne with his Warwickshire Wired Hack

Congratulations should also go to Karen Ramsey-Smith for her great idea and Chris Heilmann for his excellent use of Yahoo! YQL, who are both the recipients of Apple iPod Shuffles.

The standard of entries was great and our judges were all very impressed with what they were looking at. Dave Coplin, of Microsoft, said

“My goodness, there’s some good stuff in there”

Thanks to everyone who got involved, we’re delighted with the outcome and, remember, there will be more opportunities to Hack Warwickshire soon.

Extra Time to Hack Warwickshire

Kate Sahota — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:04:44 +0000

Due to the increased numbers of datasets loaded onto our Open Data site in the last week, we have decided to extend the deadline of the competition to Friday 2nd July 2010 at 5pm.

This is to give entrants more time to look at the new data and either enhance their current entry, or even build a new one.

A Surge of Open Data

Kate Sahota — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 08:08:42 +0000

In the run-up to the last week of the competition we have some great new datasets to play with.

Ageing Population

Child Poverty Issues

Health Deprivation

Job Seekers Allowance Claimants

Jobs Growth

Relative Age Profile

Skills and Qualifications

and to top it all off …

Warwickshire Super Output Areas to help you do something clever with all of the new data.

With a week left to go, there’s still time for you to get your paws on an iPad or an iPod shuffle.