Are we engaging in what the community actually wants to achieve? Or are we coming from a data perspective. Start with the need, and then come to the data.
Is it push or pull? Do you need to go to a community for data, or are you bringing you data skills to help people solve problems?
The Welsh government has set ambitious targets to increase the number of Welsh speakers. At the moment, there are perhaps half a million, but by 2050 the government wants to see 1 million.
Session leader Ben Proctor said this presented an interesting open data challenge. “One of the things we have been kicking around in ODI Cardiff that there might be some useful things to do from a data point of view to inform this [target],” he said.
“We have been looking at whether there are existing models for language growth – there probably are, but we can’t find them – and if not can whether we can take some standard growth models and use them.
Bristol City Council has an open data platform, and a team to work on release and engagement. They also have a mobility API for transport data. How, though, to get more people to use this lovely open data?
#odcamp moving beyond just hack days to engage with open data
— Karen Morton (@KarenMorton11) May 15, 2016
The already run hacks – they have one coming up on Saturday 21st May 2016. They also run round tables with community groups. They’re running a session with the University of West of England journalism course pairing journalists with coders to see what they can do. But they need more than hacks – they’re limited to people with a particular technical skill set.
Continue reading Hacking the hack: routes to community engagement with open data
Google Docs notes from this session
Councils have really good data sets: but they can find it hard to find out what local communities would like to do with it. The ‘Lessons Learned’ session packed a break-out room with Open Data Camp participants keen to share their issues, ideas, and solutions to the problem.
The session was opened by Lee Dodds of Bath Hacked, who is working with council and local community to use data “for benefit of those who live in the area and those who visit us.”
Innovation – in numerous spheres, but especially in the economic – is one of the key putative benefits of Open Data. However, innovation is a complex and rarely solo activity.
Multiple inputs are required to create new products, services or efficiencies. It’s therefore unsurprising that ‘user innovation communities’ are visible all over. [1]
In my research, I’ve been looking at communities with proven innovation records – those of open source software – to identify exactly what activities are taking place that enable innovation.