• Where: Fountain Inn, Cambridge, UK (OpenStreetMap)
• When: Feb 2nd 2012, from 7:30pm

Abstract

There has been growing interest, especially in government, in ‘open
data’. This talk will explain what open data is, why it is important
and go on to cover some of the Open Knowledge Foundation’s recent work
in this area.

About the Open Knowledge Foundation

The Open Knowledge Foundation has been a pioneer in the field of open
data since its inception in 2004. It works in a wide array of areas
from sonnets to statistics, genes to geodata. Its open-source CKAN software powers http://data.gov.uk/,
http://thedatahub.org/ and dozens of other open data hubs around the
world. For more information about the Foundation see http://okfn.org/
and http://okfn.org/projects.

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The event is free, but unfortunately invite only due to limited capacity -(email richard.steele@icaew.com to attend). So, if you don’t have anything planned and would like to find out more about the intersection of accountancy and open data (think OpenSpending) then why not come along!

Open Data: What, Why, How

There has been growing interest in many circles, and especially in government, regarding ‘open data’. In this lecture Rufus will explain what open data is, why it’s of interest to government and others, and finally explain how governments and others can ‘go open’.

Access to government data is essential to many of the webapps and digital services we’d like to see, from planning a journey to work to knowing where your taxes get spent. As well as covering the basic what, why, how of open data this lecture will look at examples of some of the most interesting work in this area and provide a vision for what the nascent open data ecosystem could look like.

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• This week, from Tuesday 10th through Saturday 14th I’m in Brasilia to participate in CONSEGI and talk about open data.
• I’m then in Amsterdam from Sunday 15th through Tuesday 17th to participate in a workshop on Global Interoperability and Linked Data Workshop organized by Maura Marx and colleagues
• From Wednesday 18th through Friday 20th I’m in Budapest for an Open Data workshop being co-organized by the Open Knowledge Foundation / LOD2
• Finally on Saturday 21st I’m back in London to speak about OpenSpending at OpenTech

If you’re at any of these events (or are just located in any of these places) and are interested in open knowledge (data/content/etc) type stuff please get in touch!

Updates from the events: http://notebook.okfn.org/2011/05/19/reports-from-consegi-and-workshops-in-amsterdam-and-budapest/

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I’m contributing to a “primer” session on The Perspective of Open Data Communities and then giving a conference talk on Collective Costs and Benefits in Opening PSI for Re-use in a session on PSI Re-use: a Tool for Enhancing Competitive Markets where I’ll be covering work by myself and others on pricing and regulation of PSI (see e.g. the “Cambridge Study” and the paper on the Economics of the Public Sector of Information).

Update: slides are up.

Community, Openness And Technology

PSI: Costs And Benefits Of Openness

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I’ve posted the slides online and iframed below.

Outline

Over the past few years, there has an explosive growth in open data
with significant uptake in government, research and elsewhere.

Bibliographic records are a key part of our shared cultural heritage.
They too should therefore be open, that is made available to the
public for access and re-use under an open license which permits use
and reuse without restriction (http://opendefinition.org/). Doing this
promises a variety of benefits.

First, it would allow libraries and other managers of bibliographic
data to share records more efficiently and improve quality more
rapidly through better, easier feedback. Second, through increased
innovation in bibliographic services and applications generating
benefits for the producers and users of bibliographic data and the
wider community.

This talk will cover the what, why and how of open bibliographica
data, drawing on direct recent experience such as the development of
the Open Biblio Principles and the work of the Bibliographica and JISC
OpenBib projects to make the 3 million records of the British
Library’s British National Bibliography (BNB) into linked open data.

With a growing number of Government agencies and public institutions
making data open, is it now time for the publishing and library
community to do likewise?

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• Managing Public Sector Information – update: slides
• The NCVO (National Council for Voluntary Organizations) Annual Conference

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Update: Slides from the Open Shakespeare presentation

Outline

This talk will introduce http://www.openshakespeare.org/ — an innovative new approach to Shakespeare’s works, and, eventually, any literary text. The website is, as far as we know, unique in providing both public domain texts and open tools for the analysis of Shakespeare.

One such tool, the annotator, will be a special focus of the presentation, since it offers the potential for producing the first ever critical edition of Shakespeare compiled by thousands and with no restrictions on how it is used.

As well as exploring the technical challenges presented by such a website and such tools, we will also speak more generally on the open-source movement and its impact on literary studies, the problems posed and opportunities offered by openness, and, finally, the future evolution of the project itself.

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Update: Slides

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The seminar is 4-5pm and there’ll be an open-data workshop/discussion from 12-4. If you’re interested in working with open data generally or any Open Knowledge Foundation projects specifically, for example [Where Does My Money Go], CKAN, etc, you’re very welcome to come along to any part of it.

Seminar Info

Title: Open Data: What, Why How!

There has been growing interest in many circles, and especially in
government regarding ‘open data’. In this talk I explain what open is,
what’s its attraction is, especially for public sector information,
from an economic and policy standpoint, and finally explain how
governments and others can adopt this new approach.

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