Linked & Local Open Data – What could it mean for positive activity information?

There has been a lot of buzz in central government geek circles over recent months about open data. Back in the summer, Gordon Brown invited Sir Tim Berners-Lee to lead efforts to make more of the data held by central government open for anyone to take and re-use, and in the recent ‘Putting the Frontline First‘ action plan the government committed to establishing a panel to drive forward the availability and linking of open data at the local level.

As the action plan puts it:

“We will encourage local government to release local public data and make it free for reuse, and establish an open-platform local data exchange. Professor Nigel Shadbolt will lead a local public data panel to ensure that data are linked effectively across local authorities, the Local Government Association, government departments and agencies.”

What does linked & local open data mean for positive activity information?

Projects like Plings are already a step ahead in making local data available in re-useable formats and through an easy-to-use API. But there are many more potential impacts of this drive towards open data.

Some that we’ve been thinking about:

1) Making the case

The central government commitment to open data can be useful in making the case within your organisation for more sharing of information about positive activities.

Particularly when there will be a drive for data to be shared in standard ways that can be linked up across local authorities, the case for using a system like Plings grows.

2) Enhancing information

If you’re involved in promoting positive activities, you don’t just have to be an open data provider, you could also look out for new data and information available to enhance the way you let young people know about positive activities.

For example, central government efforts have already seen the EduBase database of schools and national transport data made available through the beta Data.gov.uk website due to go live in January. Now you can have free access to information on the location of schools, and soon, all the nodes in the national transport network. As this example from Tony Hirst shows – datasets can be combined together in dynamic ways.

Perhaps in 2010 we will see a whole new set of ways to search for positive activities (by nearest school? by nearest bus stop? near to bus routes?), and we will see provision of all sorts of useful additional information (e.g. safest walking route) to young people.

3) Thinking linked

A lot of the excitement about open data is not just about having new datasets available to download, but it’s also about turning open data into linked open data. That is, using the semantic web standard RDF, and a number of linked data principles, to make it easy to connect different datasets together.

We’ve already been running some tests of how Plings data could be made available as linked data with our friends at Talis, and if you are interested in finding out more about Linked Data, then check out their open days in 2010.

What else?

What impacts of a drive to local open data can you see for positive activity provision?

Are you excited about seeing more linked data? Or is this more data distraction?

We’d love to hear about any ideas or plans you have around local, linked and open data…

Voicebox, voicebot, voicedata…

I recently met up with team behind the vinspired voicebox project, which if you hadn’t heard about, then here are the words directly:

‘v, the National Young Volunteers Service, are doing a data visualisation project which tries to separate the myth from the stereotypes about young people. They are asking young people their views on different issues, from attitudes to drink, underage, sex, politics, to what they think of places to go in their neighbourhood, to what they care about. The last one, they are getting a robot to write out what young people care about, live in Parliament next week. They have an open API for others to come and take the data – it belongs to the people anyway – and do with it what they want. Create their own visualisations, mash the data, whatever. Have fun.

The project certainly has some well conceived, designed and executed aspects – including the installation of the robot in the Houses of Parliament next week – be sure to follow it via webcam and encourage young people to send in “letters”..

There are three other aspects of the project that I find very interesting, from the Plings point of view.

1 – Places survey
This week sees the start of the theme around perceptions on availability and access to places to go (and things to do). Please encourage people to submit their answers..

2 – Data visualisation
Ever seen those “info graphics” in newspapers (or at dedicated websites if you are that interested!) and thought they were nifty ways to illustrate a point? Voicebox are visualising their data in real time, through a variety of neat ways.

3 – API
Not only does the data look nice, voicebox have also enabled anyone to access it in raw format, or through an API. This means others can freely build new uses of the data, or just scrutinise the results. We applaud this (and also note the nice documentation!)

For me it is the last point that is a real bonus. We can start to imagine data that is relevant and useful to young people being available for reuse and visualisation. Indeed, another project of similar design quietly opened up this week – We Need Young People – which starts to aggregate and push out data on youth opportunities…

Anyone fancy mashing these up? Maybe write a letter to the robot first!

Activities? Events? Organisations? Collecting the right data…

Over the last week or so David, Steven & Al at Substance, and partners from Nemisys & DigiTV, have been working on the structures for how positive activity data should be collected in Plings. Do we collect information about events (‘Dance this Friday – 6pm‘), about activities (‘Casterbridge under 16s modern dance‘), or about organisations (‘Casterbridge school of modern dance‘)? And how do we store and process that information so that (a) as many data providers as possible can input information from their existing databases and (b) we can provide that information to young people in many different ways?

If we want to be able to provide positive activity information to young people in response to the many different questions they may be asking, then we need to make sure we have the right information behind the scenes. But we don’t want to burden activity and information providers with pages and pages of forms to fill in, or to squeeze rich descriptions of activities into rigid and structured taxonomies and limited category lists.

Hopefully we’ll have struck a good balance in the next week or so, and we’ll be getting an API ready and documented to allow some of the local authorities in the ISP pilot to start feeding positive activities information into the Plings platform.

(And you can already explore our API for sharing positive activity information by taking a look at the Open Source webplings front end on launchpad.)

Citizen PL!NG

Viva la (online) revolution!

Move over Che Guevara, it’s all about Citizen PL!NG – 2007’s dazzling new pioneer for young people.

Combining the skill of Bond, the political punch of Jason Bourne and the gritty realism of Jack Sparrow, Citizen PL!NG defies human limit. Travelling the country in search of places to go, things to do, he’s a one-man mission to unite public info and create the ultimate reference site for teenagers.

Cutting through red tape with stealth, he’s been busy clocking up hundreds of PL!NGS (places to go, things to do) over the last few months and compiling them into one handy database.

Now, knowing every possible activity in your area could happen sooner than you think…

Flying The Flag

Citizen PL!NGS agenda:
- To build a centre point of information. A definitive, nationwide one-stop
reference point about what to do near you
- To make information accurate and accessible – via mobile phones & the
internet
- Promote, encourage and distribute safe, secure and positive environments
for young people

So far he’s liaised with government officials, MTV, Virgin and numerous other high-profile companies in his bid to ban boredom. It doesn’t end there, Citizen PL!NG also bagged 2 hours with Yahoo!’s big cheese at his London office last month – all part of his fight against sloppy social sites. Result!

Saying that, his quest does have a serious side – and part of that is looking at standards for activity data. Sound complicated? It’s not. Basically, it means the list of stuff for young people to do wouldn’t fall by the wayside.

Want To Join The Rally?

You’ve heard about banks gathering interest, but this is a totally different ball game. The only interest we want is the kind that ignites your mind, so when PL!NGS goes live, you’ll be able to deposit your own listings of places to go, things to do. Made for you, created by you.

Check out the PL!NGS IN post for more info.
Power to the people!