Things are moving along nicely…

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!

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:

https://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).

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

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.

New Hack Warwickshire Prizes in Association with Yahoo!

Very excited to announce that we will have two more categories for prizes in our Hack Warwickshire competition. Both have been made possible by the marvellous people at the Yahoo! Developer Network.

In each case these prizes are open to everyone eligible to enter Hack Warwickshire, whether a member of the public or a member of staff at Warwickshire County Council. The two new categories are:

Best Hack Warwickshire entry using Yahoo! Query Language

As the title suggests so succinctly we will be awarding a prize to the entry that makes the best use of YQL, best described as “Pipes for the command line”. Dveelopers will find it super-easy to use – have a play at http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console/ or check out the documentation at http://developer.yahoo.com/yql. The winner of this category will receive an iPod shuffle.

Hack Warwickshire: Give us an idea

If you have a great idea for an application but are not a technical person we have a new category in Hack Warwickshire to get you involved. Send your ideas for applications, web sites or mash ups that you think should be built using Warwickshire data and the best entry will win an iPod shuffle, once again kindly supplied by Yahoo!

To enter, send us a description of your idea to opendata@warwickshire.gov.uk –  feel free to include as much or as little detail as you like, pictures/diagrams welcome. We will publish them on this site on the Give us an idea page and the prize winning entry will be chosen during the Hack Warwickshire event on 9th July at WCC headquarters. Your idea needs to be with us by the end of Friday 2nd of July.

Cinematic Hack Warwickshire Action

So, the Hack Warwickshire competition is well under-way, @808kate is co-ordinating a media blitz and we already have some great ideas and examples rolling in through the Open Data Community. In an especially marvellous move, Chris Heilmann of Yahoo! has created a screen-cast of the process he went through to create his entry, a map showing various services and associated details.

It’s well worth a watch if you are interested in how you could use Yahoo Pipes and YQL to help build your own project. This and a load of other examples are now available for your perusal in our App Gallery.