Open Data Institute Podcasts

Dr Wen Hwa Lee is the CEO of the charity, Action Against Age-related Macular Degeneration (AAAMD). The organisation is focused on tackling the leading cause of legal blindness in the developed world at its earliest stages. AAAMD is one of the partners delivering the INSIGHT Health Data Research Hub and the ODI is working with them to decide how the data made available by INSIGHT is shared. In this episode of the podcast, Dr Lee describes the potential that could be unlocked by INSIGHT and what motivated him, personally, to get involved. When the podcast was recorded, the Hub was known as the ‘Data Innovation Hub’

Described by The Times as ‘the world’s only Thrill Engineer’, performance artist Brendan Walker will give a broad overview of his creative digital projects from the last 20 years. Brendan’s projects often use live broadcast and recorded data from a mixture of sources that include: biomedical sensors, environmental monitoring and black box instrumentation. His projects span live performance and installation, and are just as likely to feature on the TV as factual entertainment, as they are to appear in art galleries and museums. About the speaker Brendan Walker is a Renaissance Showman – a technology-inspired performance artist. His multi-faceted thrill performances have provided popular entertainment for audiences from the Science Museum to Alton Towers, and his work has featured at V&A, London and MoMA, New York. Brendan originally trained and worked as an aeronautical engineer, before practicing as a digital artist and ride designer. Brendan is Professor of Creative Industries at Middlesex University and a regular broadcaster on TV and radio.

As a poet, I’ve always lived on intuition, imagination and inspiration. My world has often been something far removed from even the most remotest of clouds. So imagine my surprise when I was invited to compose data-related poems for the ODI. To try to find the abstract among the AI, the artistry amidst the analytics. Was it possible to find poetry within data? My talk will cover how my brief interactions with Data as Culture at the ODI allowed me to combine it with my love of classic poetry and find my own unique interpretation of the world. The result was Bring Me My Fire-Truck, which features in our 2020 exhibition Copy That? Surplus Data in an Age of Repetitive Duplication About the speaker Mr Gee has been performing poetry for 20 years. Perhaps best known as the “Poet Laureate” on Russell Brand’s notorious radio show, his work has featured in the Times, The Guardian and the New Statesman. He’s presented many series on Radio 4 and co-hosts a podcast called “The Magic Number”.

Data affects everyone. How it is collected, used and shared can have huge impacts – both direct and indirect – on people’s lives. Data and its (mis)use shape how companies profit, how we consume, even how governments see and serve their populations. But while some organisations are speaking more about responsible data and ethics, many members of the public still aren’t engaged. They see it as boring, dry or too technical to understand – let alone something they can have any real agency over. This is not their fault, but is often because they have not had enough opportunities to meaningfully engage. This needs to change. In this lecture, Anna Scott will talk through creative approaches to engaging people in data issues – from illustrated reports to artworks, games to shadow puppets. She’ll talk about the importance of embedding nuance and asking open-ended questions, inviting audiences to actively form their perspectives and seek more agency. Anna will also make recommendations for people looking to apply these approaches, from putting message before format to enabling good design. About the speaker Anna Scott is a content strategist, trainer and storyteller, specialising in data ethics and rights issues. She works with clients on finding creative, compelling ways to meaningfully engage people in data and tech, giving them more agency and choice for a better, fairer future. Anna used to be Head of Content at the Open Data Institute.

As more of our essential public and private sector services become digital it is vital that providers know exactly who is and isn’t using the services on offer. The only way to do that is to ask, but how can that be done in a meaningful, secure and anonymous way? A new report written by the ODI and funded by the Legal Education Foundation seeks to explain the problem digital services face, explore why and offer recommendations as to how the issue can be tackled by service designers, regulators and further research. Come and hear Dr Natalie Byrom Director of Research at LEF and Renate Samson Senior Policy Advisor at the ODI talk about this fascinating and critical subject. About the speakers Dr Natalie Byrom is Director of Research at The Legal Education Foundation where she leads work helping individuals to secure their rights. She has recently been seconded to Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service as Expert Advisor on Open Data and Academic Engagement, Her remit includes evaluating the impact of technology focused court reform on access to and fairness of the justice system. Renate Samson is Senior Policy Advisor at the ODI. Renate works across a wide range of subjects at the ODI from data rights to open cities and data institutions. She is the project lead on the Monitoring Equality in Digital Public Services report.

Open source design has a plethora of hurdles to leap before it could become fully adopted by the global design community. These challenges include exploitative ‘work for free attitudes’, how software doesn’t yet allow for robust and collaborative versioning across different designers and how the open source community as a whole is over represented by those with privilege, access and ability. Ushahidi builds humanitarian tools, remotely for some of the most marginalised people across the globe. Its lead designer Eriol Fox will talk us through how they’ve been piloting a series of design jams to solve the problems of how open source design can work by engaging through meaningful technology that makes a difference in the world. Come if you want to understand the impact design can have in the humanitarian and open source software sector and how to engage designers in humanitarian and tech for good causes. It’s ideal for anyone interested in the future of how OSS and humanitarian tech tools looks

With the cladding crisis causing many homes to now have no value and onerous leasehold terms meaning other homes which do have a value still can’t be sold, Bob Cratchit has had a bit of a rough year. Martin Boyd from the pioneering charity Leasehold Knowledge Partnership describes the long history of flawed housing data and why that always benefits Scrooge and hurts Bob Cratchit About the speaker Martin Boyd Chair of trustees for the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership who first published work on the size of the leasehold housing sector in 2014 showing it represented perhaps as few as 10% of homes, rather than the governments estimate which claimed leasehold homes represented perhaps a few as 10% of homes.

As part of our R&D project on digital twins, we chatted with Mark Enzer, Chair of the Centre for Digital Built Britain’s Digital Framework Task Group, about the purpose of digital twins, the national digital twin, and the spectrum of possible futures.

Lots of organisations are on a data transformation journey. They’ve written their data strategy and they recognise that interoperability is key – now they want different teams to talk to each other easily to achieve new and innovative things. Most organisations first try to start their data architecture from the middle – but this comes with its own problems. Simon Worthington, Founder of Register Dynamics will explain in this talk how most organisation’s data architecture already exists. People and teams in their organisations already have data models and are interoperating with others as part of their usual business. But how do organisations transform from ad-hoc, local-only thinking to a broad data architecture that is interoperable? Simon will explain how to find the architecture, untangle it and make it useful for everyone – including why doing it saves you time and money and lets new innovation happen. He’ll also introduce his tool Registers.app that helps make data interoperable, always up-to-date and easy to consume. About the speaker Simon is a technologist with years of experience applying cutting-edge data technology to meet real user needs. He has previously worked with the Government Digital Service as part of their data Infrastructure group and with other central government departments to help embed best practice with data. He is now a founder of Register Dynamics, a data consultancy on a mission to make data more useful for everyone, and the creators of Registers.app.

Machine learning is revolutionising healthcare provision and delivery, from mobilising previously inaccessible data sources to generating increasingly powerful algorithmic constructs for prognostic modelling. However, it is becoming increasingly obvious that if we do not learn from the mistakes of our past, that we are doomed to repeat them; if it isn’t already too late… In this (irreverent and misleadingly titled) talk, Dr. Bilal Mateen will discuss the importance of definitions, revisit a series of hard truths, and share the story of the world’s most complex and protracted game of 20 questions, all in an effort to highlight the importance of being able to tell the difference between good (data) science and a multi-million-dollar advertising campaign. About the speaker Bilal is a clinical data science fellow at the Alan Turing Institute, a clinical-academic trainee at Kings College Hospital, and an honorary researcher at Warwick University & The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.

Data and AI is changing the way we manage workplace risk. Discovering Safety are using data and analytical tools to generate new insight and solutions. Thousands of lives are still lost each year through workplace accidents and ill health. The Health and Safety Executive is leading the way in improving global health and safety performance through its new Discovering Safety Programme. Discovering Safety uses data and analytical tools to generate new insight and develop solutions to address key health and safety challenges for maximum global benefit. It applies expertise in data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning to health and safety contexts and is creating impact by working with stakeholders worldwide to derive insight that can be applied in local contexts to substantially improve health and safety and ultimately save lives. If you have an interest in data and AI and how these are changing the way we manage workplace risk come along and find out more about the Discovering Safety programme and how you can get involved. About the speaker Steven Naylor is a Senior Data Scientist based in HSE’s Science Division and is Associate Director on the Lloyds Register Foundation Discovering Safety Programme. His main area of expertise is in the application of data analytic techniques, including data mining for knowledge discovery, text mining, predictive analytics and statistical machine learning to generate intelligence from multi format data sources to support knowledge creation and inform decision-making.

Mike Rose has been working with the ODI and CABI to help the Ethiopian Government develop and implement a Soil and Agronomy data sharing policy. This talk is looking at how they approached this, how they ensured that they got as much buy in as possible and how they developed a policy – that landed well – based on the principles of FAIR data (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). Mike will also discuss his hypothesis that open data as an outcome is dead and we need to refocus how we approach open data going forwards. About the speakers Mike works with individuals, companies, and governments to help them to change in a digital environment. He has worked for the Environment Agency and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs delivering organisational change around data use and data sharing. As a data strategy consultant, he has provided advice and coaching to a range of clients including the Coop, the Ethiopian Government, and Sport England.

ODI Fridays are free lunchtime lectures for everyone. You bring your lunch, we provide tea and coffee, an interesting talk, and enough time to get back to your desk. Could ophthalmology be first branch of medicine to be fundamentally reinvented through the application of artificial intelligence? Ophthalmology is among the most technology-driven of the all the medical specialties, with treatments utilising high-spec medical lasers and advanced microsurgical techniques, and diagnostics involving ultra-high resolution imaging. Ophthalmology is also at the forefront of many trailblazing research areas in healthcare, such as stem cell therapy, gene therapy, and – most recently – artificial intelligence. In July 2016, Moorfields announced a formal collaboration with the world’s leading artificial intelligence company, DeepMind. This collaboration involves the sharing of >1,000,000 anonymised retinal scans with DeepMind to allow for the automated diagnosis of diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy (DR). In his presentation, Pearse Keane will describe the motivation – and urgent need – to apply deep learning to ophthalmology, the processes required to establish a research collaboration between the NHS and a company like DeepMind, the initial results of the research.

As politicians enter an intense period of campaigning, questions are being asked about how data about us might be used to micro-target messages. So now feels like the right time to revisit the About Data About Us report by ODI (for the RSA and Luminate) published in September. The interviews we carried out for the report indicated that people can have different attitudes about being micro-targeted with information that might affect their opinions, than they do about products they may want to buy. So how can we ensure data about us is used fairly, and that people have agency over how data about them is collected, used and shared? In this podcast, two of the report authors, Renate Samson and Anna Scott reflect on the work, and look ahead to a discussion about some of the issues it covers in next week’s ODI Summit.

The NSPCC is on a data ethics journey to ensure all interactions support their work to safeguard children, and this includes how they work with advertising networks. They started by looking at cookie tracking across our websites and understanding what is collected and where it goes. From data to people, this will be a practical presentation on the steps they’ve taken, what they’ve reviewed, the questions they’ve asked and their path forward. About the speaker As Head of Data for NSPCC, Dawn Hemingway leads a multifunctional team driving a significant process, technology and cultural change programme that places the supporter at the heart of every engagement. With more than 20 years of strategic, operational and technical experience gained working across a varied portfolio of clients in commercial agencies, Dawn relishes her role as Data Champion in a progressive cause-driven organisation, devising and delivering compelling data and marketing solutions to maximise performance and efficiency whilst empowering staff and volunteers and delighting customers and supporters.

Marius and Steve from Bristol City Council will be talking about city’s innovative approach to open data, with a focus on air quality data. Marius will describe the council’s engagement projects and collaboration with city partners and the role of open data in delivering on the commitments in the Mayor’s One City Plan as well as Bristol’s new Smart City Strategy. Steve will explain the context of air quality management in the city as well as the technical aspects of integrating a range of real time air quality data sources onto Opendatasoft’s platform and developing engaging information products based on the air quality data. About the speakers Steve Crawshaw is the council’s air quality officer. He has worked for Bristol City Council for 21 years and is currently supporting the development of the council’s Clean Air Plan. Marius Jennings is the council’s open data lead. His work has focused on the delivery of various smart city initiatives across the sub-region.

With ‘Big tech’ is seen as the catalyst, or even the source, of a wave of distrust in truth and institutions, this talk explores the role of technology in creating and maintaining trust. Deep fakes. Addictive technology. Data breaches. New technology and its (mis)use in the past decade seems to have resulted in a crisis of trust in institutions, and in truth itself. The fix will be slow, complex, and among many other things, we will need to put technology to good use to make things better. In this talk, ODI Head of Technology Olivier Thereaux will share highlights and learnings from recent projects on technology to support trust, including ARCHANGEL, a collaboration with the University of Surrey and The National Archives on guaranteeing integrity of digital records, as well as the ODI’s recent work on technology for data trusts. About the speaker As Head of Technology, Olivier leads the ODI’s work researching emerging tech, prototyping tools and services, and exploring the interplay of technology and policy. A graduate of École Centrale Paris, Olivier has worked as a technologist in France, Japan, Canada and the UK for nearly 20 years, focusing on the various facets of open technology: open standards, open source, open data and open innovation.

The idea that human perceptual systems, bodily and social knowledge can be explicated and used in interface design processes, training datasets and enhancing the experience of ‘end users’ runs across many areas including robotics, AI, surveillance and immersive VR. Artists, scientists and industrialists are all busy responding to the latest technology advances. The field of contemporary dance can be drawn into this discussion, particularly through a number of seminal projects initiated by leading choreographers, including Motion Bank. Based in Mainz, Germany, Motion Bank has worked with several dance artists, such as William Forsythe, to document, digitise and openly share ‘dance knowledge’. In this talk, examples from these projects will be shown to stimulate questions related to the ownership of such knowledge, humanising technology, safeguarding intangible heritage and a reflection on the potential loss of certain practices. About the speaker Scott deLahunta has worked on a range of projects bringing performing arts with a focus on choreography into conjunction with other disciplines and practices. He is Professor of Dance at the Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University and co-director Motion Bank, Mainz University of Applied Sciences.

The UK’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was enacted at the start of the century, and is a central plank of the UK’s openness agenda. Arguably if FOI hadn’t happened, there would be no open data. One aspect of FOIA that is often ignored though is how it works behind the scenes: who is involved in answering FOI requests? What resources do they have? How do they organise the logistics of dealing with what can be thousands of requests a year? What are the challenges of doing so successfully? Paul Gibbons is a former FOI Officer and has written a handbook for those who do the job of coordinating FOI compliance, for which he carried out research into the way that the job is done and what constitutes good practice in a relatively new profession. Anyone who has to answer FOI requests, who makes them, or is interested in the logistics of openness will want to attend this ODI Friday.

Everyone around me talks about data but I have no idea what data can do for me. Do I need to start from scratch to enter the ‘tech’ world or do I already have some basic skills that can help me take the first step? This lunchtime lecture is designed to provide you with an overview of the skills that are involved when working with data to help you identify where your strengths are and what you can do to improve them. As a bonus, you will gain a perspective of the potential skills sets you can train for to become more competent when working with data. Here is a sneak-peak if you are impatient to hear more. About the speaker This lunchtime lecture will be led by the ODI Data Trainer, Violeta Mezeklieva who defines herself as a mix of data driven business consultant & educator – and interest she has been curating for over a decade.

In this talk, Dr Becky Inkster will discuss some of the challenges and opportunities when working in the field of digital mental health. Becky will highlight the importance of ethics and the need for bringing imagination, integrity and inclusivity into digital mental health solutions. Becky is a clinical neuroscientist, seeking innovative ways to improve our understanding and treatment of mental health. She’s passionate about combining sectors on topics related to artificial intelligence, psychiatry, psychology, neuroscience, digital ethics, and culture. About the speaker Self-employed neuroscientist; co-founder of Hip Hop Psych; Advisor, Alan Turing Institute, Advisory Board, Lancet Digital Health; Advisor for Wysa, Talklife, Lyrical Kombat; Fellow, Department Psychiatry, Cambridge University; Facebook Global Advisor, Suicide Prevention and Mental Health.

Colouring London is an open data platform, designed by The Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis in University College London, to collect, collate, visualise, and make accessible, fifty categories of statistical data, for every building in London How many buildings are there in London? What are their characteristics? Where are they located and how do they contribute to the city? How adaptable are they? How long will they last, and what are the environmental and socio-economic implications of demolition? Colouring London is being designed to address these questions by crowdsourcing and visualising information on London’s buildings. About the speaker Polly Hudson’s PhD research looks at ways in which spatial patterns of demolition, when observed over long time periods, can help predict vulnerability and resilience in the building stock. Colouring London’ has evolved out of lack of data available to carry out this work, and has been co-designed with Tom Russell, the project’s tech lead. This builds on her work in the 1990s into free physical knowledge exchange centres relating to the building stock, and into public GIS interface design and city evolution animations. She has been a been a visiting fellow at The Centre for the Historic Environment, University of Oxford and has held public appointments at English Heritage, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, The National Lottery (charitable arm) and the RIBA.

London’s rapid growth is putting pressure on cultural infrastructure. London has lost 61% LGBT+ venues, 35% of grassroots music venues and it is estimated that 24%of artists’ workspace sites are at risk of closure. In this talk, hear the many challenges that are faced require a range of interventions to tackle them and how the Greater London Authority is using data to understand, protect and grow cultural infrastructure. About the speaker Rachael Roe is a Senior Policy Officer in the Culture and Creative Industries unit at the Greater London Authority. With a passion for placemaking, planning and practical tools, she delivers a range of research and programmes which aim to secure and expand London’s cultural places and spaces. Rachael has spent 15 years developing and delivering cultural policy across the City as well as in Gloucestershire.

The State of Open Data – Histories and Horizons is a new book that provides a review of the first 10 years of open data. Join Mor Rubinstein, Tim Davies and Carla Bonina to discover insights gained and the challenges still to be overcome as open data enters its second decade The book brings together over 65 authors from around the world to examine open data from historial, sectoral, and regional perspectives, uncovering the issues that will shape the future of open data in the years to come. About the speaker Mor Rubinstein leads on designing and managing projects that use 360Giving data, commissioning online platforms and tools, as well as collecting and sharing learning about data use. Previously she was Capacity team lead at Open Knowledge International and Project Manager of the Global Open Data Index, a benchmarking tool for open government data publication. Mor has worked on open data around the world with the Public Knowledge Workshop (Israel) and the Oxford Internet Institute and has written several papers on open data use. Tim Davies is an activist, researcher, and social entrepreneur, who has been working on themes related to open data since 2009. He was Research Lead for the first two years of the IDRC/World Wide Web Foundation’s “Exploring the Emerging Impacts of Open Data in Developing Countries” research network and coordinated the first two editions of the global Open Data Barometer. He co-founded Open Data Services Co-op in 2015 to support ongoing development of open data infrastructures, including the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) and data standards for corporate transparency. He was series editor for the Open Data Charter Open-Up Guides on anti-corruption and agriculture. A social researcher by training, Tim has been a fellow of the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society and has studied at the Oxford Internet Institute and University of Southampton Web Science Centre. He blogs at http://www.timdavies.org.uk and tweets at https://www.twitter.com/timdavies. Carla Bonina is a social scientist and an expert on digital government and social innovation in Latin America. Carla provides strategic advice to governments, international organisations and philanthropic investors, such as Avina Americas, the OECD, ILDA, and the World Bank among others. She holds a PhD in Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and is currently a lecturer at the University of Surrey’s Centre for Digital Economy.

Statistics from the International Labour Organisation illustrate an urgent picture: Every day, 6,300 people die as a result of occupational accidents or work-related diseases: more than 2.3 million deaths per year. This talk explores if Safetytech could be the answer. Data and digital technology are transforming the way whole industries operate. However, a huge challenge persists in transferring these revolutionary technologies to improve safety and reduce risks, particularly in the critical infrastructure industries which underpin our modern society like energy, food, shipping and transportation. The Lloyd’s Register Safety Accelerator was set up to help to accelerate the adoption and deployment of digital technology in industry for safety and risk purposes. In this talk, Safety Accelerator Manager, Serena Connor, will share highlights and learnings from the programme’s funded pilot projects aimed at preventing critical operational failures, reducing human errors and saving lives across energy, transport and food industries. About the speaker After graduating from Stanford University, Serena worked for Washington, DC-based PR firm, Tigercomm, specialising in renewable energy, clean tech and environmental advocacy communications, before joining the Future Cities Catapult in London. Serena now works with innovation consultancy, Tenshi, where she helps corporate and public organisations collaborate to solve challenges. She is currently working for the Lloyd’s Register Foundation as Programme Manager for the Lloyd’s Register Safety Accelerator – the world’s first global safety accelerator, “making the world a better place through digital innovation.”

This talk reflects on a two year collaboration between the ODI, the University of Surrey and the National Archives in creating technology to improve trust in digital archives. National archives are not immune to a climate of distrust in institutions – and yet, being trusted to preserve the history of a country without tampering with it, is their raison d’être. Increasingly shifting to the preservation of easily manipulated digital records, sometimes kept in the dark for decades before release, their role is rapidly changing and their viability increasingly challenged. In this talk, ODI Head of Technology Olivier Thereaux will share highlights and learnings from the ARCHANGEL project, a collaboration with the University of Surrey and The National Archives, and will show that, sometimes, “use some machine learning and put it on a blockchain” actually may be the right answer. (ARCHANGEL is funded by EPSRC Grant Ref EP/P03151X/1) About the speaker As Head of Technology, Olivier leads the ODI’s work researching emerging tech, prototyping tools and services, and exploring the interplay of technology and policy. A graduate of École Centrale Paris, Olivier has worked as a technologist in France, Japan, Canada and the UK for nearly 20 years, focusing on the various facets of open technology: open standards, open source, open data and open innovation.

To achieve their vision to be trusted with data by their customers, learn how the Co-op have practically applied data ethics to their planning around new products and services. Get practical guidance from the data team at the Co-op on how they’ve applied data ethics throughout the delivery life-cycle. The Co-op have used the ODI’s Data Ethis Canvas to frame the how to make sensible decisions whilst balancing value and risk appetite. This work has helped them build capabilities to meet regulatory requirements, facilitate a long-term information management culture and supports the Co-op vision to be trusted with data. About the speaker Danny McCarthy is a Data Governance Manager, and has over 15 years working with Data – analysis, BI & reporting, cleanse, migration, projects, warehousing, quality and governance at in the public and private sectors for organisations like GE, Royal London, Manchester City Council and has recently been applying Data Ethics into the design of new Digital products and services at the Co-op.

Linked data is full of promises, but its benefits have mostly been reserved for experts. If more people and organisations are able to link their data, they will be more visible, discoverable and easier to combine with other data among the web – take combining weather data with transport data if the weather affects our journey time, for example. ODI Members and software company OpenDataSoft will describe why it is important that more people can link their data together, and the impact this can have on the usage of their data. They will also introduce their new tool that helps data producers without little to no background knowledge to link data more easily, improving its discoverability and use. The talk may be of interest to anybody working with data and willing to improve its quality, visibility or discoverability. About the speaker Benjamin Moreau is a PhD student at the LS2N Digital Sciences Lab in Nantes while also working in industry at OpenDataSoft. His field of research is the semantic web and, more particularly, controlling usage in the web of data.

Companies across the world think they’re effectively anonymising data about people, but what if someone could reidentify who these people are? Discover the risks and learn about the ODI’s plans to help organisations mitigate those risks. Anonymisation is a set of tools, algorithms and best practices to remove personal information from a dataset while maintaining as much of the data’s utility as possible. In this lecture, Fionntán O’Donnell, the ODI’s Senior Data Technologist, will talk about how to take your data through the anonymisation process in this important, wide-ranging, yet nuanced, subject. In the ODI we believe data should be as open as possible. However, we also believe people who handle that data should do so in a responsible manner. Stewards of data must balance the good of opening and sharing data while handling the risk in sensitive data about people being exposed. About the speaker Fionntán O’Donnell is a Senior Data Technologist and researches how best to use artificial intelligence (AI) and data in fair, accountable and transparent ways. He’s been knocking about researching AI for over a decade now. Initially at the National University of Ireland Galway looking at the semantic web. Then he headed off to Ghent University to study deep learning back before it was even called deep learning. Then to Dublin in the ADAPT Centre, developing machine-learning prototypes in the innovation team. After that he got the boat to London where he worked for the BBC, designing machine-learning systems for News Labs and investigating what AI should mean for a public service broadcaster. He’s called a data technologist because his work is in the intersection between software engineering, research, design, and communication. It can be an odd intersection at times but he’s happy to be there.

With the Digital, Culture Media and Sport Committee recently calling for a new independent digital regulator and the government’s Internet Safety Strategy White Paper imminent, it’s a crucial time for digital regulation in the UK. Jacob Ohrvik-Stott discusses where the digital regulation debate is heading and outlines Doteveryone’s proposals for an Office for Responsible Technology. About Jacob Ohrvik-Stott Jacob Ohrvik-Stottis a Researcher at the think-tank Doteveryone, where his work explores digital regulation and the public’s relationship with digital technologies. Prior to joining Doteveryone he worked in energy and climate policy for a global professional engineering body and public engagement, where he ran youth panels, deliberative research and science festivals.

Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia and campaigner for an open knowledge society) once claimed that “The internet interprets any type of centralised planning as a malfunction and routes around it. The command-and-control model is doomed to failure here by the very nature of the network. This is inevitable”. Many of the pioneers of open data, such as Tim Berners-Lee and Richard Stallman, have shared this vision. Yet the world of finance is still predicated on the command-and-control model. A small number of giant banks control the market in commercial and retail lending, the insurance world is dominated by a handful of large players, who alone have access to the corridors of central banks and regulators. Dean Buckner, a retired specialist at the Bank of England, explains how the secretive nature of regulation threatens, rather than supports, the stability of the financial system. About the speaker Dean Buckner worked at the FSA and then the Prudential Regulation Authority and Bank of England for nearly 20 years, specialising in asset valuation and capital modeling in both the banking and life insurance sector. After he retired from the Bank in January 2018 he set up Eumaeus.org with Kevin Dowd of Durham University, a project to ‘keep an eye on’ regulatory institutions such as the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority and to campaign for regulatory reform, particularly around the need for the financial regulatory system to be more open.

Imposter syndrome is a big issue in the data sector, particularly in leaders. Everyone thinks they should know more about it. When leaders don’t confront impostor syndrome or seek help to develop their data skills it can cause blockers. They start working on assumptions, bring in expensive consultants etc. Simon Bullmore will discuss his own experience of imposter syndrome, and will share how data literacy can help by giving you a starting point that relates more to your own context and needs. About the speaker Simon is the co-founder of Mission Drive a digital agency that helps companies develop and implement growth strategies and data literacy programmes. With a background in business psychology, Simon has worked in data, business development and training for over 16 years. This includes leading the learning programme at the Open Data Institute (where he continues to work as an associate consultant), and the launch of Harvard Business School’s first European office.

watch the lecture here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQYdksc8W44&list=PL6DDzoHu1cx1ozmghXXCgzwHF8Ln8Tlv8&index=4&t=0s This talk will present a PhD research project, which is looking at how communities employ data-driven approaches to address urban sustainability issues in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Over the past year, Roza Vasileva, PhD Candidate at the University of Nottingham, has conducted expert interviews with 25 representatives from various stakeholder groups of the Tanzanian data ecosystem: government, donor institutions, local community organisations, start-ups, international experts and academia. This project aims to understand what processes take place on the ground when people try to take advantage of data and technology to transform Dar es Salaam into a ‘smarter city’, and what the challenges are. This PhD research is funded by Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training in My Life in Data and supported by the Open Data Institute. The Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) is based at The University of Nottingham and is supported by a £9.3 million investment from Research Councils UK, The University of Nottingham and over 30 industry partners. About the speaker Roza Vasileva is a PhD candidate in Digital Economy with a focus on using data for citizen-centric smart cities at the Horizon Center for Doctoral Training, University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. Roza has been an Open Data and Urban Innovations Consultant to the World Bank since 2012 and supported Open Government Data and Digital Government projects in over a dozen countries including Tanzania, Mauritius, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. As part of this work, she conducted and co-authored Open Data Readiness Assessments (ODRA) following the World Bank standard diagnostic methodology. Her research area includes using data especially open government data and citizen-generated urban data for designing citizen-centric smart sustainable cities. Currently she is conducting field work in Tanzania and Kenya looking at the data-driven community initiatives and how they are contributing towards smart urban transformation. She earned her undergraduate degree in Public Relations from Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia in St. Petersburg and a dual master’s degree in Public Administration and International Affairs at Maxwell School of Syracuse University as a Fulbright Scholar.

ODI Fridays are free lunchtime lectures for everyone. You bring your lunch, we provide tea and coffee, an interesting talk, and enough time to get back to your desk. We talk about smart homes as if they had already become a reality but for many they are a worrying trend towards data being hoovered up for advertising purposes elsewhere. Based on her book ‘Smarter Homes: how technology will change your home life’ author and designer Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino will speak about the relationships between people and technological advancements that have shaped our home lives and what this latest trend of ‘smart homes’ tells us about the future. About the speaker Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino is an interaction designer, product designer, entrepreneur based in London. She was named 1st in a list of 100 Internet of Things Influencers (Postscapes, 2016), 2nd in Top 100 Internet of Things Thought Leaders (Onalytica, 2014) and in the Top 100 Influencial Tech Women on Twitter (Business Insider, 2014), Smith & Williamson Power 100 (2017). She is the founder of the Good Night Lamp, connected lamps for your global friends and family. She is also the Director of designswarm a strategic consultancy focusing on the internet of things. Some of her clients include BBC R&D, P&G, British Gas, EDF R&D and Nominet, British Telecom and others. She is @iotwatch on Twitter

This talk highlights the findings in a foundational piece of analysis by Ctrl-Shift of the economic opportunities for the UK economy of personal data mobility, the market challenges and a framework to design for trust. Personal data mobility is a significant economic and policy issue. Enabling personal data to flow between entities in a trusted and lawful manner, that protects and respects the data protection rights of individuals, is widely recognised as critical to the growth of digital economies and the unlocking of significant public and social value. Data portability as laid out in GDPR lays out an important new right, however it opens up new risks and yet unproven impact on value creation or human behaviour change towards their data sharing. Data mobility provides the rails to make this market safe, easy and valuable, the key elements needed for market success. About the speaker Liz Brandt, CEO, Ctrl-Shift Liz has over 20 years experience in consulting and has spent the last 16 building and running innovative businesses that focus primarily on the digital interaction between business and consumers. Throughout here career Liz has worked both in and for large corporates and has developed deep skills and strong networks across private, public and the 3rd sectors. Since the beginning of her career Liz has worked at the disruptive edge, where business and technology meet. She brings deep and strong experience in the impact on business models and operating environments of the shifting landscape of consumers, digital, trust and value. Liz combines vision married with evidence and market knowledge, business strategy and operational implementation and the ability to bring together strong teams to deliver extraordinary results. Ctrl-Shift The opportunities for organisations arising from a new personal information economy are game changing. Ctrl-Shift is the world’s leading market analyst and consulting business helping organisations to capitalise on these opportunities. As trusted personal information sharing becomes central to the creation of digital value, we work with market leading organisations providing evidence, insight and advice to make sense of market trends, identify and size market opportunities, and lead innovation and change programmes for efficiency and growth.

Governments and publicly accountable bodies routinely make complex decisions that directly influence huge numbers of people – everything from future climate policy, transport planning and local budgets to pivoting an entire police force. But how do you meaningfully engage the public in decision making when there are numerous factors in play, complex constraints and different options for policy and service delivery? Asking the public: ‘Do you want us to spend more on roads or social care?’ is meaningless if you don’t have the context or expertise to respond. Delib has been directly addressing these challenges with online deliberation for years, as a way of breaking down some of the boundaries; increasing citizen participation in useful, well-informed processes. Ben’s talk will draw upon recent and historic projects to highlight the benefits, pitfalls and peculiarities involved. About the speaker Ben Fowkes is Commercial Director at Delib, a digital democracy company founded in 2001 that’s worked on everything from political satire to major policy crowdsourcing websites for the Whitehouse. He’s an experienced consultant that works with governments around the world, helping to design and implement digital platforms for public participation. Ben has delivered more talks than you’ve had hot dinners, and has strong opinions lightly held.

In a humanitarian emergency, maps save lives. MapAction is a UK based charity that provides expert mapping and information management support in the wake of emergencies all over the world. Consisting mostly of volunteers, MapAction aims to be on the ground within 48 hours, gathering information and making maps to ensure the right help gets to the most vulnerable people as soon as possible. Johnny Henshall will introduce what MapAction do, how they work and his experiences of being a volunteer for them. About the speaker Johnny Henshall is a MapAction volunteer currently training to become a deployable member of the team. As with the majority of MapAction’s volunteers, Johnny’s background is in Geographical Information Systems (GIS), in which he has a masters and 5 years experience. In recent years, Johnny has moved into web analytics and now works in the digital team at the British Red Cross. He is also an active member in the London Missing Maps community. In 2017, Johnny visited Nepal with MapAction to host a Missing Maps event aimed at mapping areas affected by flooding. MapAction fast facts Two current deployments Over 78 emergency responses attended 12 staff and over 80 volunteers Ready to deploy in 48 hours Responded to emergencies in 34 countries Training and preparedness activities in 19 countries

Headlines about the BBC’s Local News Partnership with regional publishers have focused on the employment of 150 journalists to cover council news across the UK. But another part of the Partnership is breaking new ground too — seconding journalists from the regional Press into the BBC to work with BBC journalists in a shared data unit, which is already generating agenda-setting stories through the UK Peter Sherlock will describe how the Local News Partnership fits into the UK’s data journalism landscape and the different models he sees. He will also describe the LNP’s commitment to transparency and how data sets are shared About the speaker Pete brings a passion for local content and an appetite to bring new ways of sourcing and telling stories to the role of Assistant Editor at the Shared Data Unit. He began his career working across several regional newspapers in London, before joining the BBC in 2010, where he has worked as a reporter, sub-editor and news editor for the website. Last year, Pete helped launched the Shared Data Unit, an innovative partnership between the BBC and the regional press

Zamila Bunglawala, JRF Fellow in Practice at the LSE International Inequalities Institute and Deputy Director of the Cabinet Office Race Disparity Unit, will be presenting the world’s first website to detail all Government data by ethnicity, published and unpublished, highlighting disparities between ethnic groups across areas including education, employment, health, housing and criminal justice. Developed in collaboration with academics, open data experts, community groups, NGOs central and local Government colleagues and members of the public, the talk will cover the following: Highlight how extensive user testing with diverse groups across the UK identified ways to make the presentation and navigation of the website data more accessible; Discuss if digitising data – focusing on open data quality, trust and users – empowers users, informs or transforms policy and programs, improves access, transparency and benefits experts, NGOs and services to tackle ethnic disparities and improve outcomes. Explore strategic questions currently in the open data space including who are the users; who can open data measure impact; challenge the inequalities data infrastucture and highlight policies developed. About the speaker Zamila is JRF Fellow in Practice at the LSE International Inequalities Institute and Deputy Director of the Race Disparity Audit in the Cabinet Office delivering the Prime Minister’s priority project and Ethnicity facts and figures website, a pioneering open data project, unprecedented in scale, scope and transparency. Through her national and international policy, strategy and programmes experience leading in senior roles – including No.10 Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, Cabinet Office, United Nations in Darfur, Sudan and Kathmandu, Nepal, Open Society Foundation, Brookings Institution and Young Foundation. She sits on the boards of UNESCO-UK, UK Research Institute, Concern Worldwide and Concern UK, and is a Fellow at both the London School of Economics and University of Manchester.

About the speaker Alistair Gentry is a writer and artist, currently research artist in residence at the ODI. Previous residencies include the ESRC Genomics Policy & Research Forum at the University of Edinburgh, and Cambridge University’s Centre for the Future of Intelligence. Many of his art projects are the result of extensive research in particular places, subjects and communities, sometimes over the course of many years. He also likes silly costumes, museums, absurdity, visiting the uncanny valley, and making machines do things their manufacturers wouldn’t approve of.

The Reform team will be presenting the findings of their report Sharing the benefits: how to use data effectively in the public sector, published this summer. The report demonstrates the potential of data sharing to transform the delivery of public services and improve outcomes for citizens. It explores how government can overcome various challenges to ‘get data right’ and enable better use of personal data within and between public-sector organisations. About the speakers Luke Heselwood is a Researcher at Reform and is particularly interested in policy areas related to social justice. He has co-authored reports on data sharing in the public sector and the use of blockchain for identity management. Before joining Reform, Luke was awarded a PhD from the University of Manchester, looking at the impact of Anglo-Chinese relations on 19th century British liberal ideas. Eleonora Harwich is Director of Research and Head of Digital and Tech Innovation at Reform think tank. Her work focuses on how tech innovations can help public services deliver better outcomes for people. She has particular interest in the public-sector applications of artificial intelligence (AI). She has led and co-authored papers on AI in the NHS and data sharing in the public sector. She is a member of the AI Programme advisory board for the Kent, Surrey, Sussex Academic Health Science Network. She is also the London Hub Lead of One HealthTech a volunteer-led network that seeks to promote diversity in healthtech.

Hear Carl Malamud of Public Resource share his efforts to make knowledge more broadly available on the Internet. Carl will discuss the battle to make government databases of patents, laws, and corporate filings available as well as a global campaign to make public safety codes mandated by law available to the public. Carl will also share his current efforts in India to make works of government, technical knowledge, and scientific knowledge available for all to use. About the speaker Carl Malamud is founder of Public.Resource.Org, a U.S.-based non-governmental organisation that has been instrumental in making public information, such as laws, available to the public. Carl created the first radio station on the Internet, is the author of 9 books, and is the recipient of the EFF Pioneer Award and Harvard University’s Berkman Award.

ODI Fridays lunchtime lecture: Adapting to the needs of modern data and intelligence work by The Open Data Institute

The Data Science Campus at the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) works at the frontier of data science and AI – building skills and applying tools, methods and practices – to create new understanding and improve decision-making for the public good. Its goals are to investigate the use of new data sources, including administrative data and big data, and to help build data science capability in the UK. The talk will show how data science is being used across government to support policy-making, operations, public services and statistics. Along with examples of data science saving over £500 million, the talk will explore how to support data science teams and build their capacity. This talk follows last week’s, from Darren Barnes of ONS and Dr Bill Roberts of Swirrl about their work across the Government Statistical Service to help people find, understand and use government statistical data. About the speaker Tom Smith is Managing Director at the Data Science Campus, joining the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in 2017. Tom has more than 20 years’ experience using data and analysis to improve public services. Working at the intersection of government, academia and industry, he has led data and research projects with hundreds of local and national public and community sector organisations, including the government’s English Indices of Deprivation. His primary research interests are in using data science to improve public services, machine learning, and assessing non-traditional data sources to improve our understanding of society and the economy. Follow @_datasmith on Twitter.

Do you work with data in government, provide it to government or use government data? In this lunchtime lecture, hear from ONS and Swirrl about their work on a project that reaches across the Government Statistical Service and aims to support you in finding, understanding and using government statistical data. The project flips the traditional way of organising government data on its head and considers data in terms of families: groups of related data collections, rather than in terms of which organisation it comes from. Its aim is to break down the barriers to finding, understanding and applying data from related datasets and to make collaborative work possible through comparable and interoperable data. About the speakers Dr Bill Roberts is CEO of Swirrl, the Data Publishers, and is an enthusiast for using the Web to share public sector data more effectively. As well as working with Swirrl on various government open data projects, he is an active member of the W3C/OGC Spatial Data on the Web Interest Group, where he is currently leading work on ‘Statistics on the Web Best Practices’.

When data is used effectively it can affect how we pay our tax, draw pensions and get our bins collected. New service delivery models – an Open Data Institute (ODI) project – was started in 2017 to increase the understanding of data-enabled service delivery models in local government, and to improve services encourage publishing more open data to improve public services. As part of the project, we awarded funding to four forward-thinking local government organisations to develop open data projects which explore how data could be used to improve public services – making them more efficient, innovative and citizen-focused. Since the beginning of the project, four local councils have redesigned services for their local communities by using open data The project is part of the ODI’s £6M three-year innovation programme, which has an overall aim to build data infrastructure, improve data literacy, stimulate data innovation and build trust in the use of data. In this talk ODI Consultant Izy Champion will talk you through the research, give examples of the innovative services created through the innovative use of data, and talk about opportunities to get involved with our project for 2018-19 looking at Service design learning materials About the speaker Izy joined the ODI as a Consultant in November 2017. She is working across our Research and Development programme, including as the lead on the ODI’s work on peer-to-peer accommodation, as well as working with our commercial partners. Her expertise covers service design, innovation and facilitation. She has a background in research and community engagement, and as a result she loves getting people excited about data. Before joining the ODI Isabelle worked in the social housing sector for 5 years, most recently as a Research and Innovation Lead at Viridian Housing. During her time there she led a range of projects including research on welfare reform, process mapping work across the business, and winning the Housing Series of the Open Data Challenge Series along with her team. Izy has an LLB in Law and French Law from University College London, and is currently studying for an MSc in Policy Research from the University of Bristol. When not reading about feminism and social justice, she takes pretentious film photographs and makes her own clothes.

ODI RDP3 podcast by The Open Data Institute

Bad data is everywhere. A CSV that doesn’t load, a spreadsheet that is badly formatted, a date column that has different formats, and so on. A lot of time is spent fixing these issues, instead of actually analysing the data. In this talk, you’ll hear about Good Tables, a tabular data validator that is able to check for issues like: All rows have the same number of columns There are no duplicate rows The data types are correct (e.g. a numeric column has only numbers, a date column has only dates in a specific format, etc.) It also allows writing custom checks using Python. Goodtables is useful both if you are a data publisher, by helping you to increase your data quality and facilitate the data reusability, and if you are a data user, by giving you a quick way to check the data for errors. It can be executed locally or via https://goodtables.io, a continuous tabular data validation service. You’ll also understand about how the Frictionless Data’s Data Package and Table Schema specifications can help you describe and load datasets. About the speaker Vitor Baptista is the engineering lead for the Open Knowledge International. Since joining in 2012, he worked on a range of projects related to open data, like building data portals using CKAN, improving fiscal transparency with OpenSpending, aggregating and releasing clinical trial data with OpenTrials, and more. His main interests are in how we can use data and data visualization to make better decisions to improve the world. He is currently based in Birmingham, UK.

In this emotive talk, author Graham Hogg shares his frontline experience of leading teams in Afghanistan and how connecting decision making to data enabled teams to adapt and overcome challenges. https://seeingaroundcorners.com/ About the speaker Graham began his career as a Royal Marines Commando Officer, specialising in Intelligence. Working in Afghanistan, the Southern Arabian Gulf and Sierra Leone, this experience led him to the belief that the level of cognitive diversity and connectivity in teams fuels understanding. He believes that in the data rich and complex business world leaders face today, using this to build understanding is and will continue to be the source of competitive advantage. As leader of Connectworxs, he is passionate about helping teams achieve foresight, by connecting their questions to data to business value, and sharing those insights across organisational silos. This will drive growth for organisations and build the right data-driven culture. Watch a video of Graham's lecture here https://youtu.be/paojVUhcMfA

An overview of our "community voices" podcasts exploring open standards for data.