This evening I’m at Open Knowledge Edinburgh Meet Up 19, at the National Library of Scotland on George IVth Bridge, organised by OK Scotland.
I’ll be liveblogging so, as usual, any corrections, tweaks, comments etc. are very much welcome.
Tonight’s event has a number of lightning talks including:
- Gill Hamilton (NLS): Welcome
- Pippa Gardner (Urban Tide): Scottish Government Open Data Training Pilot
- Allan Brown/Gill Hamilton: Identifying People in Scotland’s Post Office Directories
- Ewan Klein: The UK Local Open Data Index
- Fred Saunderson: The NLS Open Data Strategy
- Akiko Kobayashi: The Fountainbridge Community Wikihouse
- Jeremy Darot: Data Linkage in Scotland / Greener Leith‘s Edinburgh Open Data Map
Gill is starting us off with an introduction to the venue and the meet up – which is number 19. She is also giving a shout out to two Wikimedian’s in Residence: Sara from Museums and Galleries Scotland; and Ewan from Wikipmedian in Residence for Edinburgh University. And now over to Ewan Klein…
Welcome to old faces and new. We have four talks today, then a break, then three more talks. It’s very informal, you can ask questions and obviously there is chance to discuss and ask more later on…
Pippa Gardner (Urban Tide): Scottish Government Open Data Training Pilot
This is Pippa’s first visit to OK Edinburgh – I’ve been to the Glasgow one before a few times though. So this is basically a big plug for #scotopendata, https://scotopendata.eventbright.co.uk.
ScotOpenData is a free open data training pilots for public sector organisations across Scotland, funded by Scottish Government. We are running 28 courses over the pilot year and this is a pilot – we are interested in content, style, duration, everything. It’s being handled in a very open way. We can get round about 560 people in that year but that’s just a drop in the ocean of the sector and the people working with open data. We’ve run 5 courses so far, two more this week (Aberdeen and Inverness) so do pass on the message.
At the moment there is a 1 day course: Open Data Opportunity – an introduction to what open data is, the cultural changes not just the technical issues. That’s covering background, strategy, aims of Scottish Government, engagement. The 2 day course then goes into much more detail and covers more technical aspects.
The 1 day course is designed with the needs of public sector leaders, senior managers and data owners in mind – although we see a wider range of people coming along. It’s quite high level, not technical at all but talk best practice and engagement.
The 2 day course is about the publication process, the publication chain, platforms to use, APIs, licensing, etc. And one of the things we are finding already is that the 2 day course is more popular than the 1 day course. There is a massive appetite for this throughout the country, for that detail not just the “what is” aspect.
A really interesting journey so far. Started in October, running until September… Have first quarterly reporting coming up in the next few weeks. We have had 52% take up already. We have had strong representation form local authorities, NHS and a range of other public sector bodies so far. And we have used networks and social media to spread the word but do share onwards, all are welcome.
Feedback so far has included a lot of people reassured by knowing that there are others in the same boat as them – commenting that they feel they are “Not alone”, “struggling with limited resources”, and that there is a “great deal to gain from greater collaboration”. There is a particular interest in making business cases etc. We think the exchange of ideas and experience and networking is a hugely valuable part of these sessions and we need to think about how to sustain that network on an ongoing basis.
Q&A
Q1) What are the reasons people are giving for coming along?
A1) For the 2 day course the technical aspects have been really important, there is a real appetite for that. They want to know how to do it and how to coordinate across Scotland. The 1 day course is a lot about people starting out, de-mystifying, and really wanting a focus on benefit and business case – what can I use to take to my senior managers to make my case?
Q2) What is the eligibility here? Are community councillors eligible?
A2) As long as you have an association with an eligible public sector body it should be fine, but I can check. There is a list you can look at too. The only people we’ve had to turn away so far have been academic sector – their training is funded separately.
Q3) Has there been any follow up with participants?
A3) We ask questions through eventbright at sign up, we ask again at the end of the course, and then we do 3 month follow up. Some show a dip after the course – we think that may be about them judging their own skills and then reassessing them in light of learning more. But they are quite engaging workshops, getting people talking about what they will do when they go back…
Allan Brown: Identifying People in Scotland’s Post Office Directories
- Ewan Klein: The UK Local Open Data Index
- Fred Saunderson: The NLS Open Data Strategy
- Akiko Kobayashi: The Fountainbridge Community Wikihouse
- Jeremy Darot: Data Linkage in Scotland / Greener Leith‘s Edinburgh Open Data Map