Simon Whitehouse has already written about the fuller discussion. Here I focus on building the relationship between developers and the council.

This is theoretical stuff, written from the point of view that you won’t get anywhere if you don’t treat people appropriately. The practical and political hurdles are many, and being from outside the sector I’m not qualified to comment on those; but needless to say they need overcoming before this model will work.

There have been a few schemes where developers have been rewarded with lunch or drinks for thrashing ideas around, but this is hardly sustainable. What happens to those ideas? How do you ensure your friendly developers don’t get disheartened or disillusioned?

In my opinion, there needs to be a genuine partnership between the developers and the council. This must be encouraged and managed by the council and must start the moment someone shows any interest.

The journey might look something like this:

[If it's worth it, I might turn this into a flowchart]

1. A developer visits the council’s open data platform, where they can search the ideas that are ‘Completed’ or ‘Under development’;
• OR they can offer an idea. If it matches existing keywords the developer is presented with possible duplicate ideas;
2. If there is no match the developer may submit an idea;
3. At this point the relationship begins. The developer’s idea is logged as ‘Potential’ and the two parties enter an agreement;
4. They must agree parameters for the development (these could be pre-determined requirements from the council, including deadlines and milestones);
5. Agreement of those parameters constitutes a pre-procurement agreement; in addition:
1. The council agrees to support the development until completion or until the agreement is terminated (see 5.4);
2. The council agrees not to use the developer’s idea independently;
3. The council agrees that the developer is not bound to develop anything at all;
4. The developer agrees that the council can terminate the agreement at any point if the basic parameters are not met;
6. EITHER: The council may offer an endorsement but no financial support
1. If the developer agrees then the product must not change without approval from the council;
2. The idea is now ‘Under development’;
3. If the product does change, or the council disapproves of any changes, the council may withdraw its endorsement;
7. OR: The council may now offer the developer a procurement agreement
1. If agreed, both parties are bound by it;
2. The developer’s idea now becomes ‘Under development’;
8. Only when the product is launched does it become ‘Completed’.

The point is that the relationship between council and citizen needs to change if anything meaningful is to come of sharing information.

Of course the council needs to retain some control over its own products, but it also needs to enter a proper, mutual arrangement with the developer if it is to keep their trust. A process such as the one outlined above should assist in that.

Such a process also ensures that the council only puts its name to products that meet its own standards. While a council can’t control how people use its open data it can control what it endorses.

If adhered to, this should help build confidence between the local authority and the development community. It should also enable a whole swathe of improvements to services, which otherwise the council would not think of or be able to develop.

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Dan Slee (Walsall Council) and Stuart Harrison (Lichfield District Council) and myself have compiled some arguments for open local data for people to use when faced with making the case for it.

We’ve also put together the Local Data wiki, so that this work can be continued collaboratively.

Visit Arguments for open local data

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Local council officers, bloggers and activists were brought together to help ‘generate ideas and understanding about what is needed to drive the local public data initiative at a local level’.

The release of raw data allows people to develop tools that the custodians of that data either don’t have the time, skills or remit to, or would never have dreamed of doing anyway. The Crime Statistics Quiz, for example, tests your perception of crime in your local area against the official statistics.

Releasing data also enables members of the public to point out errors, such as incorrectly mapped bus stops. This presents a good opportunity for citizens and state to work collaboratively for the the benefit of society.

Obstacles though are complex and numerous: risk aversion, personal agendas (such as job retention), concerns about quality control and fear of how the data might be used are just some of the challenges that need addressing. But challenges they are, and everyone on Monday seemed more than happy to confront them.

By the end of the day we had come up with a list of things we thought were needed (this list is from my personal notes and not the official record of the meeting):

• Data disclaimer for everyone to use;
• Clarity and guidance on the release of data;
• More clarity on ‘derived data’ (what it is, etc);
• Training;
• Repeats of this sort of workshop event;
• Business case;
• Stories of good stuff being done, that everyone can relate to, and presented accessibly;
• Research on usage and numbers;
• Budgetry incentives;
• New legislation, or better use of existing legislation, to encourage the opening up of data;
• Untangling of overlapping and seemingly contradictory legislation;
• A statutory right to data.

I have set up a blog for those involved to continue collaborating on this work: http://localdata.citizenshipfoundation.org.uk.

This post is a slightly revised version of one I posted on the Citizenship Foundation website.

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“The Open Database License (ODbL) is an open license for data and databases which includes explicit attribution and share-alike requirements.

“This license, the first of its kind, is a major step forward for open data. There are currently very few licenses available suited to data and databases and none which provide for share-alike (existing share-alike licenses such as the GPL, GFDL and CC By-SA are all unsuitable for data).”

Visit Open Database License (ODbL) v1.0 Released

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I manage the corporate website of a charity, but part of my remit is to ensure that new sites are commissioned with standards compliance firmly in mind. We also have a number of other sites, all of which were either commissioned independently at the behest of the associated funder, or were transferred to us from other organisations.

Each of our existing sites is managed by someone different, although in theory I have a sort of oversight (but not management) role for them. And as each manager has vastly different web expertise I have quite a big challenge in encouraging people to understand what these technologies do and persuading them of the benefits of compliance.

I’m trying to raise the issue by introducing a basic standards document (based on the BBC’s Accessibility Guidelines) and inviting discussion.

I would like to go further and encourage training, but it would be impossible at this stage to find the 50+ hours required for the Opera curriculum plus the hours to research and adapt it in the first place. However, if there was more momentum behind it from the sector it might be a more attractive option.

Any thoughts?

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