TSO Open.Up Blog

OpenUp was an invitation “to mash up public data for the greater good of your community”. I wanted to enter an idea which answered someone else’s problem, not one of mine. I wanted an idea which had a business case.

Hackday ‘proofs-of-concept’ are often marvellous things, but they scratch developers’ itches. I wanted an idea that had a specific benefit to business; that demonstrated how open data can be put to work. I thought that if I could demonstrate a time-saving, that would be a start on a business case for the service. And I’m also conscious that there’s been a considerable amount of political will expended in opening the data we have so far. So, I wanted an idea that used data I knew had already been made available by people such as Ordnance Survey, UK National Statistics, Valuation Office Agency and Data4NR. Data already signposted at www.data.gov.uk

In fact, I wanted to demonstrate that the open data that is already available can be used for business benefit. I wanted a case study that would show that the work done to open data up has real, tangible use to real people – as opposed to simply helping developers produce hackday playthings. However, it’s the people there that answer questions like “What now?” that I really applaud. I want real services that use the data that has already been opened up.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the hackday movement. In fact, Neontribe is very proud to be organising Rewired State : Norfolk and we’re delighted that TSO is a sponsor. There’s more on that at http://rewiredstatenorfolk.neontribe.co.uk/

But hence George, the downtrodden employee I invented, whose boss wanted answers about where they should open a new office – and right now! George was the person I was thinking of when I looked for data, for a site designed to save people like him real time.

And hence New Premises? As my entry said, “a web site providing information for organisations interested in moving to new offices in areas of the UK they don’t know well.”

I’m well aware it’s not the most inspiring name – if I’d thought it might reach the final, I’d have spent more time on that. But it uses data that is available right now, and has a business model and exit strategy. It would be funded by display advertising, not Google ads. I could see a range of businesses that would want to reach people like George. Not least, commercial property agencies. And they’d also represent interesting possibilities for an exit strategy and possibly even competition.

The judges immediately spotted a big problem with my idea. How many Georges are there? How many people really do spend time searching for new premises? And how much would the site help them? I’m still not sure – 15 minutes with Ashley Friedlein before the judging would have really helped.

Obviously, I was disappointed not to win. If for no other reason than the site would be a really interesting project from a usability and technology perspective, as well as a case study of open data for business benefit. I must admit, my heart wasn’t entirely in the running of a company that took the idea to market. I simply wanted to help build it. Still do, actually. But it was fabulous to meet the judges, and get their feedback on the idea. And thanks to Robin for saying such great things about my presentation in his recent blog post – the presentation is up here http://www.slideshare.net/harryharrold/openup

I think I’ll be taking George and his boss to other open data competitions – and maybe one day we’ll be able to help him.

Fifty words or so is not a lot of space to pitch an idea, but the apparent simplicity of this format really does concentrate the mind. My entry to the TSO OpenUp competition was simply this:

“I would like to be able to programmatically access data used to power the UCAS course search. As universities open up more data relating to courses (from library usage data, to open educational resources tagged by course code), access to UCAS data would make it easier to create aggregation and distinctiveness services that span multiple institutions offering similar courses.”

But what does that actually mean?

UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) is the organisation set up by the UK’s universities to administer applications for first-time undergraduate degrees. Each year, universities submit details of the courses they are offering, along with search keywords, to UCAS. In turn, UCAS maintains a ‘universal catalogue’ of offerings, as well as the formal application route, on behalf of the UK’s Higher Education sector. The only way of accessing this complete set of data is by searching on the UCAS website.

By opening up the UCAS course catalogue, we can provide a skeleton for a whole raft of independently published services that can be built on top of that data. By making a complete course catalogue (along with course codes) available, service providers can build services relating to course offerings that span the UK Higher Education sector, safe in the knowledge that they are not creating bias through omission. This is one problem that occurs if we are trying to crowd source the data, we may get complete coverage of courses offered by one university, but sparse coverage of those offered by another. If anything, this may lead to more efficient applications to university through UCAS because of more informed choices being made by potential students.

The first challenge we face is getting hold of the data. The simplest way is for UCAS to make it available. A slightly less convenient route is to request the data from each university, but this runs the risk of getting the data back in a variety of possibly inconsistent formats. Another approach might be to pick up the data from each university in a standardised way, an approach that JISC have been exploring through various projects relating to the open publication of marketing information for courses using the XCRI Course Advertising Profile (XCRI-CAP) data format.

Once the data skeleton is in place, more data can be aggregated around it. There is a wealth of statistics published around higher education each year: from completion rates and qualification rates, to the national student satisfaction survey; from skills maps, to teaching quality scores and employment rates after leaving university. There is also data relating more generally to the universities themselves: student/staffing ratios, research quality, even the state of repair of the physical buildings. At a more detailed level are descriptions of modules that can be taken as part of a particular degree course, along with syllabi, example course resources, and even related library loans data.

With the enriched data available, third parties will then be able to build services on top of that data. Improved course discovery and comparison services offering a far richer or personalised experience than the one provided by UCAS spring immediately to mind. TSO may choose to develop one or more services on top of this data, or publish the data as a service for third party developers. Or both.

Either way, the first step is this: to open up the data.

Tony Hirst is a lecturer in the Department of Communication and Systems at The Open University. A copy of the pitch he made to the OpenUp competition panel is available on his blog: TSO OpenUp Competition – Opening Up UCAS Data

My idea, the Great British Public Toilet Map, is a public participation website that aims to make a map of public toilets using local government open data.

A loo map might sound like a bit of a joke. There is very little attention paid to public toilets, and should the media mention them it is done with the obligatory puns and great British euphemisms. As a researcher of public toilet provision for the last two years, I know that a lack of coverage does not reflect a lack of need. Access to toilets when away from home is something that unites us, regardless of age, race, class, gender or ability.

For many, the inability to find a toilet is an inconvenience. For others, it is so much more. It shapes their lifestyle to the extent that it controls whether they leave their home, and for how long. Continence concerns can be due to a number of factors: medical conditions, side-effects of medication, pregnancy, old age or infancy.

“I won’t go somewhere unless I know what’s going to be there… … because it would just be a disaster for me if I went somewhere and they didn’t have loos. I would just come home again,” – 24 year old with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).

Information on where the toilets are is not enough. Opening hours, accessibility and the facilities on offer all affect whether someone can physically use that public toilet. This is information that councils have, so why not share it as reusable, machine-readable data?

Perhaps they just don’t see the point. Local councils don’t have to provide open data about public toilet locations and facilities. In fact, they don’t have to provide public toilets. The best way to convince them of the need for this information is for their residents and visitors to ask them directly.

The Great British Public Toilet Map will use open data that is hosted on council websites. Where the data exists the user can search for toilet locations and information. Where data does not exist, users are encouraged to contact the council to ask for their participation. We would provide a sample letter to help explain the project, whilst encouraging personal perspectives.

The data from the individual councils would also be processed into one common format and made available as an open national public toilet dataset. This can then be used to enhance existing maps and apps that can provide complete and reliable information that helps people to find toilets when away from home. We can also create new applications, such as “Trip-Advisor for toilets!” as one lady suggested.

In theory, it is not difficult to achieve, yet we could all benefit from such information, some of us a little, some of us a lot. In fact it is so achievable that a National Public Toilet Map already exists. It’s for Australia, it was funded by their Department for Health and Ageing and it contains information on 14,000 toilets with the information provided by over 1,200 organisations (www.toiletmap.gov.au).

The Great British Public Toilet Map is the main design output from the Royal College of Art Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design’s research into improving public toilet service provision. We hope to create a pilot version of the site by the end of the year.

You can read Gail’s OpenUp presentation in full at http://gailknight.wordpress.com

You still have until December 31st to submit your entry. But it’s time to pack up the office so this is probably the last post before we close the OpenUp contest and set to reviewing all the entries.

It’s been the year of government data. Since www.data.gov.uk launched in January, more than 5,400 datasets have been published and more than 100 apps using that data already appear on the site. We’re looking forward to hearing about your ideas!

In the meantime – season’s greetings from us all and who knows what new data 2011 will bring.

Following feedback we are delighted to announce that if you’re a developer submitting your idea you can now register your interest to get funding to develop the idea yourself if it wins. If you would like to sign up for this opportunity, please email openup@tso.co.uk and we’ll be pleased to take you through the registration process.

You now have until 31 December 2010 to submit your entry. As an added bonus, the first 50 entrants to submit a qualifying idea will be eligible for a £50 High Street shopping voucher!

If you have already submitted your entry, to ensure we can notify you of any news as quickly as possible, please check your contact details are up to date on your OpenUp account at www.tso.co.uk/openup.

If your idea is one of the five selected you’ll be invited to pitch your idea for 10 minutes to a panel of experts in January 2011.

For full details of the new Terms and Conditions please go to https://openup.tso.co.uk/competition