Originally published on the Open Data Institute blog. Original URL: https://theodi.org/blog/how-to-open-your-data-in-six-easy-steps 1. Scope out the job at hand Before taking the plunge and jumping straight into publishing, there are a few things to think through first. Take time to consider what data you’re going to release, what it contains and what the business case is for … Continue reading How to open your data in six easy steps →

Today I am 101100. That's XLIV in Roman. 44 is also the square root of 1936. 1936 was a leap year starting on a Wednesday. The Year 44 was also a leap year starting on a Wednesday. It was also known as the Year of the Consulship of Crispus and Taurus. Which is another coincidence because I like … Continue reading 101100 →

Originally published on the Open Data Institute blog. Original URL: https://theodi.org/blog/caution-data-use-responsibly In December 2015, Ben Goldacre and Anna Powell-Smith launched the beta of Open Prescribing. The site, which was swiftly celebrated in the open data community and beyond, provides insight into the prescribing practices of GPs around the UK. Its visualisations and reports give an entirely new … Continue reading Caution: data, use responsibly →

Originally published on the Open Data Institute blog. Original URL: https://theodi.org/blog/take-your-first-steps-with-open-data-pathway We're launching a new tool today called Open Data Pathway. It's a self-assessment tool that will help you assess how well your organisation publishes and consumes open data, and identify actions for improvement. The tool is based on the Open Data Maturity Model we have been developing in … Continue reading Take your first steps with Open Data Pathway →

Originally published on the Open Data Institute blog. Original URL: https://theodi.org/blog/5-ways-better-open-data-reuse Open data is still in its infancy. The focus so far has been on encouraging and supporting owners of data to publish it openly. A lot has been written about why opening up data is valuable, how to build business cases for open data sharing, and how to … Continue reading 5 ways to be a better open data reuser →

Originally published on the Open Data Institute blog. I’ve been asked several times recently about the differences between the 5-star scheme for open data and the Open Data Certificates. How do the two ratings relate to one another, if at all? In this blog post I aim to answer that question. The 5-star scheme The 5-star deployment scheme … Continue reading Comparing the 5-star scheme with Open Data Certificates →

Originally published on the Open Data Institute blog. Original url: https://theodi.org/blog/simplifying-the-uk-open-data-licensing-landscape The Ordnance Survey has adopted the Open Government Licence (OGL) as the default licence for all of its open data products. This is great news for the open data community as it simplifies licensing around many important UK open datasets. It's also an opportunity for other data … Continue reading Simplifying the UK open data licensing landscape →

In partnership with the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), the ODI has been developing a maturity model to help assess how effective organisations are at publishing and consuming open data. We are pleased to launch a public draft of the model and invite feedback on it from the wider community. Last year we announced the … Continue reading Public draft of the open data maturity model →

Originally published on the Open Data Institute blog. Original URL: https://theodi.org/blog/developing-an-open-data-maturity-model Organisational change is an important aspect of becoming an open data publisher. Often the technical process of getting data published is actually the easiest step. But if users are to have reliable, ongoing access to data then organisations need to consider the strategic, financial and … Continue reading Developing an open data maturity model →