1. Inventories and Data Publishing a. k
Inventories and Data Publishing a.k.a how to make data easier to publish, compare and find
Dave Burdge
Corporate Information Manager
North Somerset Council

2. Data management at NSC
Established centralised management of spatial data
Creation of central Business Intelligence service in 2015
Austerity has been a catalyst for culture shift
Senior sponsors - Open Data / transparency
But not enough people/money to do everything
DataShare used for publishing transparency datasets
* Caveat with changes to ICT – have successfully broken the site but working on this and mostly functioning

3. Open Data publishing and inventories
DataShare site implemented in 2014
Participants in incentive scheme
All transparency datasets published via DataShare + others
Aligning datasets with other LA schemas wherever possible to ensure consistency
Tagged to ESD service list for internal tracking / monitoring
DataShare used for publishing transparency datasets
* Caveat with changes to ICT – have successfully broken the site but working on this and mostly functioning

4. Open Data publishing and inventories
Inventories and schemas are automatically harvested and visible via:
NSC DataShare APIs
Data.gov.uk
LGA
Consistent formatting enables automated updates and publishing*
DataShare used for publishing transparency datasets
Caveat with changes to ICT and service users – have successfully broken the site but working on this and mostly functioning
Issues with data formatting and headers

5. A non-transparency example: Using open data to discover North Somerset’s heritage and culture Fields, ex tractors and combined harvesters...

6. Culture and heritage project
3 core stages
Create and centralise corporate datasets
Events
Sites and attractions
Historic imagery
Publish as open
Build a website using this data
That’ll be easy, won’t it...
Disperate datasets, no control over format; many data updaters, no data owners
Pending retirement of archaeologist – extract knowledge whilst it still existed

7. Understanding standard standards
Not that easy to find existing standards...
...but some very useful sites exist
Incentive scheme & transparency code
LGA standards site
National archives
Data.gov.uk
BSI
Existing open data sites (e.g. Bath:Hacked)

8. Data collation
Data pulled into one place and mapped to agreed schemas
Data owners identified
Update mechanism agreed & implemented
Creation of automated data ‘blending’ using UPRN and Safe FME
Geolocation
public transport distance
URLs, etc

9. Publishing and inventories
Datasets published via NSC DataShare site
Automatically harvested to Data.gov.uk
Schemas all visible and available to others
Created Flickr site for images
Automated updates and publishing*
DataShare used for publishing transparency datasets
* Caveat with changes to ICT – have successfully broken the site but working on this and mostly functioning

10. Discover North Somerset website
Creation of website using open data
Live APIs from DataShare
Links to imagery on Flickr site
DataShare used for publishing transparency datasets
* Caveat with changes to ICT – have successfully broken the site but working on this and mostly functioning

11. Overall benefit realisation
Consistency – data and schemas
Ability to automate updates*
Easier for others to explore data
Reduction in FoI, data requests and calls
Becoming understood by ‘non-nerds’
Near real-time view for internal and external uses
Growing library of schemas**
** this is also a potential concern – how can this be managed and who looks after it?

12. Where next? Continue to understand / engage with data users
Make existing schemas easier to explore
More great national work like the incentive scheme
Define more national standard field names / schema ‘building blocks’
Addresses, unique referencing systems / URIs
Make Schema and APIs more flexible (semantic?)
More collaboration with software suppliers to automate data publishing from source
APIs / web services

13. Where next? Complete review of development sites
Brownfield sites
Active development sites
Linked to LLPG/BS7666 and monitored at property level
Aggregated then published for partners as open – text based and inspire compliant web services