The practical achievements and challenges

This one day conference is part of EU project "Opening Up" - Opening Up aims to help innovate public services through the use of open data and to encourage smart use of social media. In the project, eight European regions around the North Sea will test new methods, set up training, and develop ad hoc applications.  This event will explore the challenges, the practicalities and the successes of Open Data.

Date:Wednesday 26th September 2012

Venue:The Upper Hall,

Jesus College, Jesus Lane, Cambridge, CB5 8BL (Cambridge map and Travel directions)

What can we do with Open Data?

Opening Up Mini Conference will feature speakers with experience of publishing and using open data in local government in Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the UK.  It will:

• describe hands-on practical approaches
• share approaches and case studies
• address how to go about publishing open data
• examine how and why open data is used

Networking and breakout sessions will also allow delegates to investigate approaches, challenges and issues in detail.

Why do we need Open Data?

Public sector organisations across Europe are all at different stages in their understanding of Open Data.  Not everyone is ready or clear as to why it is necessary, what policies or skills are needed, how to put it into practice and the implications of ongoing management. The whole question of Open Data and Open Linked Data are proving to be challenging in an environment where efficiencies and savings are key.  Although in the long run Open Data will prove to be a very cost effective way of sharing data at the moment the advantages and innovative ways of using Open Data are often confined to visionaries who are championing its use.

To help demystify some of the challenges, The UK Cabinet Office has published a White Paper entitled “Open Public Data - Unleashing the potential” which promotes data as the raw material of social and economic growth.  It lists the principles, drawn up by the Public Sector Transparency Board, for making published data as useful as possible and promotes the Five Star Scheme for publishing open data, in which Linked Data is defined as the most useful.  The speakers chosen to present at this mini conference will build on the principle of Open Data as a business asset.

With the formal and informal release of large datasets by governments there are increasing pressures in the EU towards the opening up of information to become more transparent. This mini conference will explore the possibilities, legalities and technical skills needed in using Open Data and will focus on two broad themes:

• the challenges faced by government in making data available for use by other governments, citizens and businesses
• the challenges businesses, citizens and municipalities face in both using open data and the accurate interpretation of data generated to ultimately improve and streamline access to services

Who should attend?

The conference is aimed at local government officers and related experts who have experience in or imminent plans to publish and use Open Data.  It will help both policy makers in deciding what to publish and practitioners, who put data in the public domain, build upon, utilise and link up with other people’s data.

To see the agenda please follow this link

To see the biographies of the speakers please follow this link

This event is free to attend. It is funded by the EU project "Opening Up.

We have limited places and are expecting widespread interest from local government organisations across countries in the North Sea Region.  Early booking is therefore required.

Please leave comments on the booking page to tell us what you’d like to get from the day.

Max no. 60

Open to all including overseas visitors.