‘Geek meet and greet’

Underneath the Bridge by Vaidas M

I attend the regular geek meets run by Hull Digital as often as I can, not only to be able to geek out without the usual look of disdain but also to see how people on the ‘outside’ are working, how they are managing and what they see as the future..

Did I not mention that I am on what the media portray as the ‘darkside’?  I am a public sector worker.. and worse than that I am a back office public sector worker, I work in ICT supporting front office workers… Yes I know I am lower than a snakes belly etc.. but hear me out for I feel, nay I believe that we can do good and also help local businesses lead the way.

I asked John Polling, the organiser of the Hull Digital Dev Group if I could follow up on a talk by one of my colleagues titled ‘Open Data’ with a talk of my own titled ‘RESTful APIs am i doing it rite?‘.  This would centre around the problems associated with integration, data (vast amounts of data) and open data.

I started the talk off with a quick background to some of the issues that face public sector ICT and how it differs from private sector ICT.  Asking for a show of hands from those who had ever worked in the public sector brought just one hand…I thought then that this would be a hard sell to get them to see beyond the headlines..

Discussing the statutory needs that the average Council has to provide along with the evidence/information they need to collect juxtaposed with the constant political pressure (both local and national) that weighs like a strong North Westerly on a unfolded sail I described the massive number of different systems that are present in most Local Govs.

People were shocked.

Most private companies are vertical players, they focus their business on a couple of key systems, they specialise.  This makes total business sense, spreading your effort thinly means you are not very good at a lot of things instead of being good at a few.  When I pointed out that we can not back out of our commitments to the elderly, to business, to schools, etc etc they’re statutory requirements that we need to fulfil regardless of money pressures, the audience were starting to see the dilemma about public ICT provision.

‘Public Sector Data’

You may ask where am I going with this conversation, well be patient! By providing this overview I set the scene to talk about not only the number of systems we have to overlord but also the MASSIVE amount of data that flows into, around and out of these systems.  I have argued for a very long time that the public sector in general is very data rich but information poor.

As a business I would want key information to be available in near real time to be able to make informed, evidence based decisions that ensure my business heads in the right direction. If you can imagine it as akin to a salty seadog skipper making micro adjustments of the wheel of his vessel, feeling the water constantly flowing past the hull: he can feel the current, read the waters and keep his craft [business] from hitting those rocks.

If I were dealing with one, two or even three systems then this information collation would be difficult but doable because the metrics I’m reporting on are relatively limited: cash flow, manufacturing, leads, prospects, etc.

Trogdor (the Burninator) by Joey Day

But multiply those systems by 50 and you start to see the usual demand for the average Local Authority. Metrics ranging from number of children in care, allotment demand, street naming and numbering, dog fouling, monitoring of river flow, etc they all need reporting on.

How to build a dashboard for all this information, how to integrate it and how to make usable information from such a depth of numbers is where the real difficulty lies, as the old maps used to say – ‘DANGER – here be dragons.’

‘Integration – a different way?’

I spoke at length on integration, how the majority of integration was done as an integration ‘path’ with complexity included throughout the process from system A to system B (c,d,e etc). I chatted about how most integration is usually how system A speaks fluent ‘Klingon’ while system B speaks ‘Olde English’. What we do is add a Babel fish in the middle that converts these languages for each other.  Adding to the public sector’s dilemma is our requirement to spend the public’s money carefully, this means every xx years we need to go to the market and ask – is this still the right way of solving this problem?  Can it be done cheaper/better/differently?

Most of the time the answer is yes…but when you take into account the unravelling of any integration the project costs start to outweigh any improvement.

I proposed a RESTful style wrapper that would help reduce the complexity of integration and allow decoupling of systems from the integration path, well actually I argued you can never remove complexity just reduce its footpath to that of the API wrapper.

090827 Day 68 facts by dabblelicious

If system A can be wrapped with an API that publishes its resources in a standard way (using standards such as ISO date format, BS7666 for address data, etc) then if we replace system A with a new system all we need to do is recreate the API wrapper, test it and then switch it on.. The decoupling of the systems from the integration would allow public ICT to be more reactive to systems design, it would allow us to go to the market and actually get best value for the tax payer.

It would also provide a publish/subscribe model of data flow. This could be human readable (browser based) simple information presented as an automated integrated dashboard to replace the various reports etc that are hand built at great effort.

My proposal is to create complexity out of simplicity. Start small, build up API calls that call other APIs, add in business logic and suddenly you have a system that is intelligent, maintainable and scalable.

Building it on REST methods means that all calls are via http and are therefore cacheable. One of the main demands of REST principles is for the transfer of the state of the resource to be complete and therefore cacheable. This could reduce the load on our main systems whilst still providing up to date information.

The whole concept of RESTful wrappers would require a new mindset and a large investment of effort and commitment but it can be done. One of the main reasons for putting on my talk was to get critique from the audience of private sector developers.  These guys live and die by their code, their businesses have to be responsive and their code/applications have to be efficient. Anything less means their business will die. It’s the nautical equivalent of placing Homer Simpson in charge of the ships wheel with a crate of Duff and sharp rocks ahead – something bad WILL happen..

I presented my ideas and asked for their opinions; luckily I’m heading in the right direction and got quality feedback on the difficulty on attempting to introduce a ‘pure’ RESTful setup.

All I have to do now is convince my bosses…

‘Advantages and opportunities’

Which brings me to one of the advantages of moving towards a more open publish/subscribe model of data flow. Not only could we decouple the applications from the integration path but we could decouple any integration hub from the path. And, as a direct result find Open Data at its very heart. It wouldn’t need to be an after thought; it wouldn’t be ‘something we are forced to do’ taking precious resources away from business as usual; it wouldn’t be a waste of time on a vanity project. It would be part and parcel of connecting systems together.

By making Open Data easy to create we could start to gain the advantages that I feel will flow from Open Data usage. In the next section of my talk I described how Open Data could be provided with examples of datasets that show once data is open it can be used by anyone for anything, even to make money – great. #winning

Local Authorities are there to improve the lives of the populace, they are there as a net if people fail but they are also there to support and help business and innovators. Open Data could be a big winner with the latter while helping the former.

Broke by Johnny Grim, on Flickr

Explaining the concept of Open Data took a little while, my audience asked about funding; the response: NO MONEY. We give data, you use it. If you create something others will use that improves their life then great, we have social return. If you make money on the back of it then great, the social return is doubled. At the end of the day – the data is yours, it’s public data for the public.

More importantly, what you create, what you mash together is up to you. If you can make something that is innovative and makes you, I and everyone else stop and think, then that is brilliant, that is one of the drivers for Open Data – innovation. Innovation leads to new ways of thinking, new ways of working and new ways of looking at the World. We all welcome innovation, its full of win.

BTW a big note here for anyone who’s ready to jump down my throat – we are talking about data that’s NOT person centric. Releasing data that contains individual names, address details etc flies in the face of the Data Protection Act and all recommendations on Information Security so will never be released. I hear strange and wonderful variations of the Data Protection Act quoted all the time and through my job have had to understand it very well. I and all my colleagues take Information Security very seriously, in fact we even put away our Sponge Bob coffee mugs when discussing Information Security…it’s that serious.

So what data could we provide?

Well within my talk I used an example of trees. Did you know that we, Hull City Council have all the trees geo-coded within our asset management system, this includes their exact location and the type of tree. It may be a little out of date as we don’t have the funds to keep counting trees.

We also have geo-coded datasets of listed buildings, toilets, public buildings, schools, etc you name it and we will most probably have it.

And most of it could be issued easily and simply, which takes me back to the RESTful wrappers, once they are in place around an internal system it wouldn’t take much effort to create an API ‘OpenData’ resource that GETs the required information on a regular basis.  This could then be fed into an automated externally facing system that presents the data in all the formats geeks/nerds love (JSON/YAML/XML/etc) while also being available to humans in something akin to CSV.

‘Hackathon anyone?’

As part of the way forward I suggested that the council jump on the bandwagon and organise a hackathon in conjunction with the local devs where they could use data supplied by us…Pizza to go with the coding would be mandatory.

Pizza Craving. by ecsuecsu, on Flickr

The response was overwhelming, I suspect it had something to do with the offer of free pizza but I also felt my talk hit a nerve. Not because it was awesome, that goes without question , but because it addressed a need at the right time – data has become the life blood of the population.  We live in very changeable times but having the right information presented in the right way at the right time allows us to navigate the treacherous waters a little easier.

Providing Open Data in partnership with local developers could be a perfect example of  Public/Private partnership and I feel that one without the other will not work.  Shouting the mantra of OpenData in a similar way to Steve Ballmers’ notorious ‘Developers, Developers, Developers…’ rant will provide nothing for the public.

It may be open but not in any real way.

For it to be open it has to be accessible and more importantly understandable, it has to have context.  We (the public sector) are not the best people to provide that context, we provide the fuel for the vehicles, let the mechanics and engineers create the vehicles, let them build apps.

If in doubt look to Google – search for Open Data, look at data.gov.uk, look at the London datastore, look to dados.gov.br, look to the future.

I look forward to the future with optimism and know collective knowledge is the way forward, the more we learn the more we understand and the less we destroy.

Hull’s Hackday will be announced in the not too distant future, keep an eye on the HullDigital website.

Hull’s open data future - bm.wel.by - Thinking, thinking, always thinking

This morning I saw Emma Langman tweeting the talk that was being given at from a Business Breakfast in Bristol about the example modelled by Nehemiah from a project management point of view. I really liked that angle so captured it using Storify.

Credit to Aidan for the talk and Emma for posting it. Today I’m just nicking other people’s content

Nehemiah on Project Management

Spotted Emma Langman tweeting a talk given by someone called Aidan at a Business Breakfast in Bristol, thought they were worth capturing.

Storified by Benjamin Welby · Fri, May 18 2012 05:10:47

…Approaches the King of #Babylon for the resources he needs. Great example of #ResourceManagement! #cbbbEmma Langman

Nehemiah was also hot on #benefitsrealisation. His attention to detail makes Prince2 look a bit fluffy #cbbbEmma Langman

Nehemiah on Project Management - bm.wel.by - Thinking, thinking, always thinking

That was quite the momentous week. Probably needs two separate blogs for the two separate events.

May 11, 2012 3:55 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@bmwelby

Benjamin Welby

Momentous event number 1 – handing in my notice.

When opportunity first came knocking this wasn’t the plan – that was to take a career break and return to Hull City Council when the offer came to an end. But because the work has nothing to do with my day job and coincided with the busiest period in Hull’s BSF programme it caused headaches.

So despite my love for local government, and despite being conscious of how hard it might be to return, I’m walking away. I’m ditching the security of a contract with 16 months left to run and my ‘gold-plated’ pension. I’m leaving the relationships I’ve built over the last 3.5 years. I’m even choosing to spend part of every week in #thatLondon.

And I’m doing all of that for six months’ work. Risky? Cavalier? Unwise? Perhaps, but I think the opportunity is worth it.

You might have read my thoughts about the significance of the single government domain on those of us in local government (Alpha(Local)Gov, Government as a local platform?). They’re proof that blogging is worthwhile because they prompted an email and a phone call and an invitation to spend the day at the offices of the Government Digital Service with the team responsible for the business bit of GOV.UK (that which is currently handled by BusinessLink).

So three weeks ago I took a day off work and travelled south. I’d asked Louise Kidney (who has swapped localgov for GDS herself) what I should expect from her new colleagues. Nothing she’d said prepared me to finish the day using a wall as my canvas to present back work I’d been set a couple of hours to complete.

Prepared or not my scrawl did the trick and I start as a Business Analyst on May 28th.

Exciting.

Opportunity Knocks - bm.wel.by - Thinking, thinking, always thinking

A couple of weeks ago #lgovsm (a weekly hour long, hosted and themed, discussion about the use of social media within local government) looked at blogging. 610 tweets have been captured on SearchHash but my follow up from it was to think about four questions – Why should we blog? Why don’t we? How can we get past those hurdles? What more could be done with blogs?

Blogging Research Wordle by Kristina B on Flickr

Why should we blog?

I ought to blog more because otherwise thoughts rattle around and around and around in my head. For me that’s not productive – bottling up frustration is not helpful and denying yourself a creative outlet blunts my effectiveness. Blogging for me is a helpful bit of reflective practice.

So there are personal reasons why blogging is important but there are also benefits for the public sector at large. If you’ve got ideas then share them because the chances are other people need to hear them. If you’ve seen something brilliant then let people know about it. If you’ve got a question then someone might answer it. You never know where what you write might end up.

Last year the truly excellent WeLoveLocalGov wrote about Conferences which prompted me to cite blogs as an important alternative:

I am so impressed by the government focused blogosphere.  They put their thoughts online so it’s all findable. They’re enabling us to join the dots, to see both trees and wood and to take their work as inspiration for our own activity. They share their slides, their notes, their pictures, their videos, their ideas and as they distill issues and suggest solutions they kick off great discussions and debates.

So why don’t we?

I don’t because I prioritise other things rather than writing. But even when I do I edit, re-edit, agonise, re-edit and then re-agonise about something seeing the light of day. That isn’t because I’m worried about getting me into trouble but mostly because I doubt whether it will be a worthwhile contribution and why would you go to the trouble only to get flamed (even if that has never happened).

But there are those who don’t because they fear internal censure. Personally I would have celebrated anyone wanting to discuss something I’d blogged because it would have suggested we’d broken our inward looking bubble. Equally I am happy to defend everything I’ve written – you will invite problems by launching tirades against an employer or airing things that should be dealt with internally. It’s all about common sense.

But common sense might not protect you from journalists. This week someone wrote an anonymous negative comment about a local headteacher; the next day the local paper ran a full page article fanning the flame of criticism. A complete non-story prompted by a negative, random and unjustified comment. But the national media is just as bad, if not worse. So the fear of a witch hunt means people will be reluctant to write.

How can we get past those hurdles?

JFDI is a good challenge to get on and do. Of course there are situations where being candid may not be best but if there’s something you want to share, then share it.

I appreciate it isn’t as easy as that. Confidence is a big deal when it comes to hitting that ‘Publish’ button. WeeklyBlogClub is a brilliantly supportive idea that has obviously encouraged people to start blogging. And it highlights the strength of community amongst those interested in the things of the public/third sector which moves beyond our day jobs and into the softer side of life too.

But still, that public facing open to all environment of sharing is not necessarily something people would want to do and nor is it always suitable. I think there’s an opportunity and responsibility for those of us who value blogging to think about whether we can play our part in a journey I wrote about last year about the value of content behind walls

…as people become familiar with the idea of sharing with the others in their office, their colleagues across the organisation and then their peers across the sector it breeds a pattern of behaviour that thinks little about moving to the next level and starting to share in public and being excited about the possibilities for engagement with the public…

Such internalising can also help towards ensuring one of the key things that will encourage blogging – knowing that you’re going to be supported by your organisation and valued for the contribution you make. I think Puffles expressed it well in saying

@LouLouK Puffles says robust local leadership from councillors &chief execs are needed to protect #lgovsm tweeple from firestorms re blogs

April 17, 2012 7:42 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@Puffles2010

The Dragon Fairy

And whilst that does presuppose that they understand the value themselves isn’t that the kind of environment we’d like within our organisations?

What more could be done with blogs?

Two years ago Dave Briggs interviewed Mark Lloyd, Cambridgeshire’s Chief Executive and ever since then I’ve been stubbornly convinced that a blogging platform is a far more effective option for internal communications than either paper based newsletters or sporadic email. Rather than those one-to-one, broadcast mechanisms the beauty of a blog is that it can facilitate conversation and comment across an organisation and, hopefully, encourage healthy debate. However, there are always unintended consequences. In Sandwell the the chief executive’s blog, which had been public, was made internal when the local press started to quote comments from officers as changes to policy.

The relationship between councils and local media can be fractious. We’ve relied on them to tell our stories and have often dumped press releases onto our websites. Adrian Short has some ideas about changing that dynamic but it’s clear from Birmingham News Room (let alone hyperlocal journalists) that approaches to news and blogging have a lot in common. Instead of just words on a screen there’s room for pictures, video, audio and (perhaps most importantly) the metadata which links related content together.

My final thought about blogs is to to ask a question about whether their contribution can be amplifed. A couple of months ago I read an influential academic blog that annoyed me because the writer was clearly ignorant to what’s actually happening. At the moment the good stuff that’s shared doesn’t always manage to break out.

When people are studying the role of digital within local government or emergent trends in how things are being done then there’s a wealth of knowledge which is being missed because blogging from officers does not carry the same visibility or legitimacy as something in the library. Much of what I’ve seen shared through blogs is often highly empirical – they’re full of testing, exploring and experimenting. There are some people contributing to these conversations who are students or academics who will further the debate but it would be great if there was some way of capturing the learning and the doing from those who aren’t.

Blog on blog - bm.wel.by - Thinking, thinking, always thinking

The quantity of data which we have within local government is vast. In Adam’s pitch to the developers of Hull he mentions 150-300 disparate systems within our council, most of which will produce some kind of metrics. Whilst we all want an approach to open data which means the public sector is more transparent and active citizens are able to access that data the National Audit Office has said that attempts so far have been expensive, and haven’t engaged.

Over the course of this week I’ve looked at the question from the other end. Having seen the reaction of managers when shown UpNorthAuditor I think that the case for open data can be made by going upstream to make sure internal systems and internal reports are built on a positive understanding of what data can do rather than a negative stick with which the public might beat us.

Maybe Hull has dragged its heels in comparison to other parts of the country whose open data platforms already hold a lot of information. We haven’t made a big deal out of the fact that we’re publishing everything about £1 rather than the required £500. To all appearances we’re not really that bothered about open data. We’ve certainly got a long way to go before we get close to New York’s digital roadmap. However, the work which Adam has done (under his own initiative) has influenced those who make decisions meaning that I think we’re creeping towards a position where it is internally understood and valued.

Although I’ve been talking about the importance of doing things internally (and therefore very much not ‘open’) it is with the understanding that this approach can help an organisation understand how valuable public engagement with data could be. You can’t very easily host a hack day without data and equally there is little point preparing a box of tricks unless you’re also preparing an audience to work with (my first post pointed to Tim and Will as helpfully discussing exactly this).

The clamour for open data to happen fast and furiously is fine if you’ve got organisations which understand why they might do that. In other places you’ll need a more circumspect approach that needs leadership. Maybe that leadership will come from a councillor, or an officer with clout, local developers themselves or maybe it will come from a council’s very own internal up north armchair auditor plugging away by themselves.

There is no one-size fits all approach or formula to guarantee a particular outcome. This series of posts is informed by what I’ve seen here and where that has taken my thinking. These are my conclusions about how Hull City Council, and the local community, might get the most out of our open data:

• we need APIs on our internal stuff, apparently they should be RESTful.
• APIs can drive reporting and visualisation. The time saving and the clarity that they provide in comparison to what’s available at the moment is like chalk and cheese
• A better understanding of data needs to be paired with a narrative explaining what’s going on. It’s not about reporting the data but telling the story (both internally and externally)
• with the narrative having a higher profile, and the data being easier to manipulate, can this have positive impacts on how we develop and evaluate policies?
• we need to encourage conversations with the public. Maybe we can connect with the actively concerned citizens, could (as Will suggests) we then start being able to help them use data for themselves?
• we still need to be moving towards publishing datasets and cataloguing APIs
• we should want to work with local development groups, professionals, amateurs in a relational way that is open, challenging and focused on solving the important stuff.

Open data: magic from the inside out - bm.wel.by - Thinking, thinking, always thinking

Winning?

In order for the engagement around data to be meaningful we need an internal appreciation for that to be understood as more than the Tax Payers’ Alliance rifling through our accounts. It might have taken some time but it seems that within Hull City Council we’ve hit a tipping point and for us open spending data has been the catalyst.

Finish by Philo Nordlund

Eighteen months ago I finished my part-time MSc at INLOGOV by questioning whether ‘citizen-produced’ websites could help meet the digital needs of local communities. Alongside BCCDIY, FixMyStreet and OpenlyLocal my other case study was Adrian Short‘s Armchair Auditor which I sent over to my colleague who was responsible for Freedom of Information. He loved it and, as Adrian had open-sourced the code, was eager to co-opt it in order that we might display our published data in a user-friendly and engaging way.

This proved impossible to do officially. However, because the data was public that didn’t matter. I wanted to do it but lacked the skills but fortunately Twitter had at some point connected me with my colleague Adam. I asked if he could build it, he took Adrian’s code and built UpNorthAuditor – not as an officially sanctioned piece of work but as an actively engaged citizen in his own time.

The ripples have been significant.

Before Christmas our Chief Executive launched some cross-cutting value for money groups looking at resolving some key issues. As part of this Adam and I were invited (by the man who had once been responsible for FOI and now in charge of Comms as well) to attend a meeting to discuss the need for a functional contracts register. The frustrations I heard around the table made it clear that our systems do not make it easy for managers to access the sort of contract information I had assumed would be at their fingertips.

At the follow up meeting Adam put UpNorthAuditor on a screen and you could hear scales falling from eyes and lightbulbs popping as managers who had hitherto been wrestling with Spreadsheet Server were able to suddenly make head, and tail, of their spending.

The very existence of UpNorthAuditor has changed the debate. Open data now means something real, tangible and valuable at a local level (I will never underestimate how parochial a city can be). As a result Adam has been able to have the conversations within ICT that I couldn’t make stick. And he’s also taken the opportunity to explain why it would be worth him having the opportunity to work on other systems.

Our Streetscene Services use a system called Confirm. Previously it used to take somebody a day to pull together the necessary report. It took him a few hours of development to expose his first RESTful API to produce that report on the fly. That’s where opening data starts to live up to the potential I’ve understood was there. And that’s still only scratching the surface.

Adam doesn’t want to stop with Confirm. The combination of his work with UpNorthAuditor and Confirm has given him something that is very persuasive and offered a platform for suggesting that we wrap all our systems in RESTful APIs. As I said yesterday sometimes it’s better just to let the magic be magic but Adam asked that I specifically identified them as RESTful. The simple reason for this, he said, was that APIs built in this way easier to standardise in support of both integration internally and publication externally because they are lightweight and flexible with the result that decoupling from legacy systems (oh, hai Oracle) isn’t as arduous or expensive.

On May 3rd he’s going to be talking about this at the Hull Digital Developer Meetup where people who actually understand what all that means will be in the audience:

…the Council are looking to open up their data for developers to use, and how they are looking at building APIs that are fit for purpose. Adam wants to hold a discussion with developers regarding his thinking on how the Council integrate the 150-300 disparate systems they run…

So that’s why I think we’re winning. Time will tell and there are various people who will need to make bold decisions but there’s the spark of something exciting going on. That leads me to think the magic of open data can be unlocked from the inside out as well as the outside in, and I’ve written a few more conclusions in the fifth and final part of this series.

Open data: winning? - bm.wel.by - Thinking, thinking, always thinking

Of illusions and conjuring tricks

In the last post I said that thinking about open data needed to start with how it improves what we do within our organisations because then we might understand it, recognise the value people might add to it and therefore properly champion the concept of ‘open data’.

It’s all very well saying that but if the narrative about exposing public data is difficult then an internal conversation which talks about what data could do for us is perhaps going to be thwarted before it gets off the ground anyway.

Part of the issue is that without concrete examples conversations can tend far too often towards the technicalities. The most helpful conversations aren’t comparing SOAP and RESTful APIs or talking about integration, nor will they bring up open standards or this protocol or that data format with the layman. Phil Jewitt recently wrote a couple of blog posts (1, 2) about how those beyond the project team didn’t need to know about SCRUM they just needed to know what was necessary. The most helpful conversations have at their heart somebody enthusiastically committed to sharing the secret of what’s possible.

Arthur C Clarke’s third law of prediction says that

“any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”

When you go to see someone like Derren Brown you will leave wondering about how on earth they did something amazing with the everyday. And as I sit on this train with my laptop wirelessly tethered to my mobile phone connected to the internet you might as well just accept that it is magic before you try to understand how it actually works.

When it comes to seeing what can be done with open data we need members of the public to be magicians (even if that’s just by using Facebook in a slightly different way) but even before we get to that point we need someone to manipulate raw data internally and use that everyday, local data to demonstrate what could happen if we made our data public; not just talk about it.

There are a number of things which have given that treatment to data for the public but which hint at what you might be able to do internally.

Do not take me for some conjurer of cheap tricks by Jonathan_W on Flickr

Birmingham’s Civic Dashboard, for example, gives the public an overview of feedback reports but there must be richer data behind the scenes which could provide real time, location rich insight into what’s going on. We’ll have that exact same data at HCC but at the moment it languishes in spreadsheets waiting for painstaking manipulation to reveal its secrets.

Those clever folk at GOV.UK have also blogged a number of times about how they’ve started from the premise of data reuse because that simplifies everything else. To take two of those – James Stewart explains the principle of ‘building APIs, building on APIs‘ whilst John Sheridan gives an insight into the structure behind legislation.gov.uk in his post ‘Putting APIs first‘.

In Hull we are very possessive of our platforms and understandably committed to ensuring we squeeze value for money from our existing systems (Oracle didn’t/doesn’t come cheap after all). We don’t have any public APIs or publish a wide range of open data. But we do do a pretty good job with the publishing of our financial spend (everything above £1). Unfortunately there’s no narrative associated with it, we haven’t been held to any greater account because of it and nor is there suddenly a proliferation of citizen produced effort using it so does it actually add value to anybody?

The answer is yes, it is in the process of adding really serious value to Hull City Council because it helped us find our magician.

Tomorrow you’ll get two posts – one looking at why what is in motion gives me hope about the direction of open data in Hull and the other attempting to pull together a conclusion.

Open data: of illusions and conjuring tricks - bm.wel.by - Thinking, thinking, always thinking

Square One

It is great that the focus around ‘open data’ may be shifting away from simply getting us compliant and pushing data out to instead think about how engagement can be structured around its use. It’s also brilliant to see twitter buzzing about Saturday’s National Hack The Government Day which wouldn’t have been possible without the data that is there already.

I have no doubt at all that the public sector as a whole is sitting on a goldmine of information that can help make democracy flow and services perform better. But I think there’s a danger of being excited about the cart to the forgetting of its horses.

Encouraging the meaningful use of data – whether that’s to empower the public to challenge or a public entity preferring ‘citizen produced’ effort over something built in-house – requires the humility to accept we don’t hold all the answers. And humility can be hard to come by.

Untitled by rachel a. k. on Flickr

Therefore, before we can think about inspiring the public with open data or enjoy the full benefits of what someone might do with it then I think for us Square One, is a bit counter intuitive. I think where we need to start is in unlocking the data potential within our organisations.

Rather than approaching open data as that thing we do at the end of a process we need to  look for opportunities to exploit and reuse raw data as far upstream as possible. Not only will that make it easier for eventual publication to become part of business as usual (and not an expensive additional activity) but embedding something into an organisation will hopefully mean that the story of data can be better understood (which would help to encourage engagement and reuse). Most importantly of all though I think we’ll start to see benefits to the way we work and therefore in the services we offer.

Personally I love to hear about the disruptive success of citizen activism that takes something which isn’t working well and delivers something to meet that need. I can’t be anything other than impressed when I see dissatisfaction bringing people together to collaborate.* But I’ve learnt that sometimes where I see fruit plenty of others will see threat.

In fact for some the reuse of data may well entrench negative attitudes about the dangers inherent with being engaged with the public, especially about our data and our processes. Conversations that start at the point of making data public and pointing out how this authority or that authority are ‘better’ doesn’t make many friends. Show those same people the power of data (which may one day be open) in the context of their internal processes or legacy systems then maybe the external benefits wouldn’t seem quite so scary (I think there’s a lot to be said for cherishing an internal wall or two).

So, despite it appearing to be the antithesis of open I think our Square One needs to be how we’re using raw data inside our organisations to help us find the humility that will mean we can be truly engaging when we make it public.

But to use that data might need a bit of magic so tomorrow I’m going to be thinking about wizards.

*Edit 26th April: the Hull Daily Mail reported this story about about Hull council tenants using Facebook to arrange their own swaps because the local authority offering didn’t meet their needs. It’s a timely reminder that social media platforms mean people are able to develop their own solutions which just work and that disrupt what’s already present without the need for extensive development skill.

Open data: Square One - bm.wel.by - Thinking, thinking, always thinking

redkid absolut data by Libertic, from Flickr

My time at Hull City Council has coincided with an emerging Open Data movement leading calls for greater transparency in the public sector. That has raised questions for my organisation and led to a lot of circular conversations. Recently things have started to change in a way that has got me thinking that perhaps the magic of open data is found from the inside out. Hopefully this series of posts will explain what I mean.

‘Open Data’

In some circles these two little words ‘open’ and ‘data’ have prompted much debate and discussion. Touted as making the public sector more accountable. Seen as an opportunity that excites because of tools it might make possible. But in other circles it’s an alien subject and a phrase that can be a little bit obtuse to those outside the choir.

Yes it is a phrase that means everything to the data evangelist but perhaps, as Graham suggests, it’s actually an idea that needs to die?

There is potential in opening data (and rather than reading me you’re probably better off studying the academics who have used concrete and global examples in this journal) but there is also a gap between publishing big datasets and understanding it; or making something machine-readable and it actually making a difference to Joe Bloggs. We know that data and tech can do x, y and z but we also know that that there needs to be the right combination of people in order to turn that idea into a reality (as an aside James Cattell‘s blog, The Welfare App, points to how an unconference might help make this happen).

But still so far, so good for those who are tech and opportunity savvy and that conundrum has got people thinking.

At this year’s UKGovCamp was a session called Open Data Engagement calling for the forging of greater connections with the local community to use data. And that approach is echoed by Will Perrin‘s forward strategy for open data which calls for more outreach from government to help those without geek credentials know about data and how it can be used.

Last week the National Audit Office published its report into the government’s use of open data. It was pretty damning and suggesting that the work which has taken place has no proven benefits and could actually be costing taxpayers more than it’s worth.

If ‘open data’ as a phrase is unhelpful, communities aren’t being engaged in how to use it and if the government’s approach is being criticised then is there a threat to the political will which has so far been championing this stuff? Will those resisting the move towards a world of open win? And should I stop pestering my colleagues about it?

I hope the answers to all those things is a resounding no. Tomorrow I’ll be thinking a bit more about what ‘Square One’ might look like.

Open data: concepts - bm.wel.by - Thinking, thinking, always thinking

QR codes are prolific but it doesn’t seem as though people are actually using them, or convinced by their value. I like them but I can understand that agnosticism because they seem to be added for the sake of it rather than because they add any value for the person doing the scanning.

The code on this post is just like that but it was two things I saw today that prompted me to write this. Firstly, via the quite excellent WTFQRcodes.com the ludicrous concept of the ‘SafetyTat’ for paranoid parents everywhere. And secondly a colleague returning from an event this morning clutching a flyer with QR code present and correct.

That flyer typifies a lazy use of QR codes that really annoys me and feeds the general ‘mehness’ towards them. All it does is duplicate the link to the website that was printed next to it and that seems to be the most common usage – so when you’re out and about, rather than having to remember a URL until later, you can whip quickly scan the code and you’re away. But when all that does is take you to the same thing that you’d see at your computer that’s a wasted opportunity. And if your website isn’t mobile friendly (the one on the flyer isn’t) then it results in a negative experience that adds no value, at all, to the person doing the scanning and makes it increasingly unlikely that anybody would scan a QR code again.

I’m not sure of a better mechanism for linking someone in the street with the digital part of something they’ve encountered. But that appreciation for them is closely linked to how they’re used. Unless it offers something specific and useful that makes sense of being handheld it is nothing more than a waste of space.

Here are 8 things that have occurred to me when I’ve seen them used, read stories about them, or come across them myself.

Selling stuff

If I see something specific being advertised with a QR code then I’m expecting to be taken straight to the item in your (mobile-friendly) store. But it needs to be easy for me to buy it if I’m on a phone – so I want payment options that don’t need me to faff about with my wallet to find my credit card details. If you don’t have a mobile store then maybe all the QR code needs to do is locate me in relation to the nearest store where I can pick it up and tell me whether it’s in stock at that moment. A quick scan, a short walk and I can own it (or save myself the frustration of not being able to get it).

What’s on

If I see an event, or a programme of events being advertised then I want to access a tailored mobile page giving me time, date, location and contact details in such a way that they can be saved to my phone. If it’s ticketed then I also want to be able to buy/reserve tickets on the spot.

About me

QR codes can contain A Lot of information. You can store vCards as QR codes so they do make sense on business cards and adverts where contact details are important. The beauty of it being a vCard is that when your phone scans it then it drops name, phone number, email address, address and anything else that’s been included straight into my contacts.

Subscribed for later

If I’m seeing something advertised that’s not product or event specific then you’re wanting to raise brand awareness and capture my interest for the future. Maybe this is beyond the remit of a QR code but it would be good to scan that and arrive at a contacts mini-site where I can subscribe to emails or do a Facebook like and a Twitter follow without having to go off and search for you on each of those platforms. There are now ways of liking and following without disrupting the browsing experience, can QR codes provide a pathway to something that uses the apps on our phones so we can do that on the move?

For the locals

There’s been some thought, and experimentation about whether local government can use QR codes to help deliver services. Two years ago Sarah Lay wrote about putting them on grit bins in Derbyshire and along with things like lamp posts they would make it possible to log an issue with that specific item straight away instead of pinning it on a map or describing its location. In West Yorkshire, Metro are sticking them on bus stops to give specific timetables. But of course, both cases really rely on getting their websites right in the first place (and when it comes to buses I think it better for councils to focus on having something as good as Shropshire’s bus timetables before getting distracted by sticking QR codes everywhere).

And those from out of town?

What role could QR codes play in helping to locate a visitor in a new and unfamiliar place? Step off a train or a bus and there’s usually a tourist information map nearby, adding QR codes wouldn’t be to show your location (because if you can QR then you’ll have maps) but to access content about the sites of interest they list – opening times, ticket prices, directions, special offers and exhibitions. Can QR point towards specific places that combine static and unchanging content alongside opportunities for real-time updates and flexible marketing.

Yesterday, today

Whenever we’re stumped by a question or curious about the history of something it’s becoming a reflex to check Wikipedia for a quick insight. The internet can give historical context to almost anything and in Birmingham the Civic Society are reported to be investigating how to use QR codes alongside blue plaques to connect a physical reference to someone with the story of their life (and this use of Wikipedia is something the QRpedia project is supporting in a variety of different contexts).

A digital ‘PTO’

But it’s not just history that can be found on the internet. The scope for being able to turn over the page and find out more and varied information about something is almost limitless. Hull has been celebrating the life and work of Philip Larkin and in honour of his poem ‘Toads’ there was a Toad Trail around the city. It was an incredible success in its own right but it sparks some thoughts about how QR might have added to the experience. Could they have connected those who came to see the toads more with Philip Larkin himself and his poetry? Could they have given a greater profile to the artist responsible for designing each toad? Could they have signposted people towards nearby businesses/attractions and offered specific special offers? Could they have turned the visit into a shared experience through checking in on the route, sharing their thoughts about each Toad or sharing their pictures (perhaps as simple as pointing to a Facebook page for each toad, in the mould of Dan Slee’s plea for many, not few).

In all these situations what is the desired interaction from having a QR code? If it’s only so people come to your website then the bare minimum of thought has to be about what content looks like on a tiny screen but life should be about more than bare minimums so it’s a shame we don’t see more inventive efforts at linking the physical and virtual. The question of how best to do that hasn’t yet been answered but it’s not going to go away. Maybe NFC, Blippar or Microsoft’s Tag barcodes will crack it but I’d be disappointed if QR codes fell out of favour before we could honestly say that we’d got to grips with their potential.

Have you seen any ludicrous examples of QR codes (that haven’t already made it onto wtfQRcodes.com)? Or have you seen QR codes used in a way that makes sense of their format rather than just tacked on the end? It will be interesting to see what the future holds in terms of the interconnectedness of all things.

I like QR - bm.wel.by - Thinking, thinking, always thinking