Category: Data Infrastructure

What kinds of data is it useful to include in a register?

Registers are useful lists of information. A register might be a list of countries, companies, or registered doctors. Or addresses. At the ODI we did a whole report on registers. It looks at different types of registers and how they're governed. And GDS built a whole infrastructure to support them being published and used across … Continue reading What kinds of data is it useful to include in a register? →

Why is change discovery important for open data?

Change discovery is the process of identifying changes to a resource. For example, that a document has been updated. Or, in the case of a dataset, whether some part of the data has been amended, e.g. to add data, fill in missing values, or correct existing data. If we can identify that changes have been … Continue reading Why is change discovery important for open data? →

How can publishing more data decrease the value of existing data?

Last month I wrote a post looking at how publishing new data might increase the value of existing data. I ended up listing seven different ways including things like improving validation, increasing coverage, supporting the ability to link together datasets, etc. But that post only looked at half of the issue. What about the opposite? … Continue reading How can publishing more data decrease the value of existing data? →

Exploring registration agencies as data institutions

A key focus for our research and delivery work at the ODI at the moment is exploring how to design sustainable and trustworthy data institutions. Data institutions are organisations that steward data on behalf of a community. They have a variety of legal forms, roles and purposes. Yesterday I wrote (again!) about identifiers and specifically, … Continue reading Exploring registration agencies as data institutions →

How do different communities create unique identifiers?

Identifiers are part of data infrastructure. They play an important role, helping to publish, structure and link together data. Identifiers are boundary objects, that cross communities. That means they need to be well-documented in order to be most useful. Understanding how identifiers are created, assigned and governed can help us think through how to strengthen … Continue reading How do different communities create unique identifiers? →

How can publishing more data increase the value of existing data?

There's lots to love about the "Value of Data" report. Like the fantastic infographic on page 9. I'll wait while you go and check it out. Great, isn't it? My favourite part about the paper is that it's taught me a few terms that economists use, but which I hadn't heard before. Like "Incomplete contracts" … Continue reading How can publishing more data increase the value of existing data? →

Three types of agreement that shape your use of data

Whenever you're accessing, using or sharing data you will be bound by a variety of laws and agreements. I've written previously about how data governance is a nested set of rules, processes, legislation and norms. In this post I wanted to clarify the differences between three types of agreements that will govern your use of … Continue reading Three types of agreement that shape your use of data →

Can the regulation of hazardous substances help us think about regulation of AI?

This post is a thought experiment. It considers how existing laws that cover the registration and testing of hazardous substances like pesticides might be used as an analogy for thinking through approaches to regulation of AI/ML. As a thought experiment its not a detailed or well-research proposal, but there are elements which I think are … Continue reading Can the regulation of hazardous substances help us think about regulation of AI? →