Disruptive ProactivityA trapeze does not make a circus
this is a draft – look forward to comments and areas where I’m completely wrong or massively unclear (which might be confused for wrong). I’m pretty sure that this doesn’t make much sense yet, but it’s a conversation that needs to be had wider.
_START__
The impacts of open data are only beginning to be felt. The volume of data being made available is increasing at an ever expanding rate. New users are coming to this all the time, asking what this is, and what can it do for them. And the people who have been here for a while are asking, what do we actually do with it and them.
As yet, we don’t really have good stories to tell those who aren’t programmers. We have a number of examples, TfL (with a record that’s variable to say the least), mySociety with TheyWorkForYou.com and FixMyStreet.com, whereDoesMyMoneyGo.org etc, but they’re indicative and canonical, but none is a breakthrough story that explains open data to everyone (TWFY works for some, but it’s open data via brute force and political brinkmanship). Until we can explain this thing to more people, the open-data community (both in the UK, and the equivalent internationally) will stay in the form it has now: performing to an empty tent, wondering why there aren’t very many others all trying to join.
A funny gross-stereotype in the environmental movement is a recruitment pitch of “The polar bears are drowning, the reindeer are starving, the panda is homeless; Our environment is degrading; We’re all going to die. Will you please join my group? No?? I must say it louder apparently. WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!… Where… where are you going?”.
We can replace the charismatic megafauna with the charismatic datasets: COINS, OS maps, Postcodes, Spending; and a request for yet more data (or money, or time).
We claimed we would do good things if we had those datasets. We were believed.
As a community, we have power now. And we have to do something with it.
With hindsight, it was easy, 2 (or 5) years ago, to say what other people should do, and what other people’s challenges around data and transparency were. Now we have to face some of our own as a result of the power we now have.
It is easy, to stand up from nowhere and say, “all data must be open”, but to answer a question “if releasing this one small piece of data would cost £1million, should it be released, and how is that explained?” is something we, as a community, should feel comfortable with our answer to. We need nuance.
We can no longer say that what we do is always potentially good; the good is reality, but so are the unanticipated downsides (search for theyworkforyou).
It’s also not enough for us open data fans to stand alone. The big challenges we face will not be solved by more code, or more data alone. We need to move from people who got some data released, to people who got something done in the community (and see slide 5 here)
Should we seek to get more people interested in the principles of “open data” – inwardly asking people to join our current act? Or should we be reaching outwards the wider cirus of the various campaigns which would benefit from this data, each according to their own interest, and show the power of it in practice.
Who can engage with data, and the related projects around them? Anyone who wants to. And we should become more welcoming ourselves so that anyone who wants to is able to help in various areas.
Innovation comes not just from new ideas, but from existing ideas and solutions in new contexts. Bringing those disparate groups together will enhance that, and add another evidence-based arrow to their campaigning bow.

If we consider the climate movement is armed only with peer-reviewed science, open data will only truly be successful (by one metric) when such a grassroots open organisation would be comfortable with a campaign banner reading “we are armed… with open government data”.
Martha Lane Fox has, as part of her RaceOnline2012 agenda, the target of getting more people online. Why do we, as a community, think that the only people who have something to contribute are those who know the difference between python and php. We need more people who can manipulate the data, how, is not something we should overly care about in the first instance. Spreadsheet skills are as important as coding skills – different, but equal.
We don’t need heroic coders: swinging in on a trapeze tapping out a regular expression as they fly past on the way to another project. The concern about “what happens when the geeks move on” should be invalid. Do we care about open data because it’s current and sexy? Or do we care because it’s a tool with which we can make the world better? Give me a spreadsheet and a place to stand, and and I can move the world?
To achieve the most benefit to society possible, we should move from our current focus on the one-act trapeze show, and join the rest of the NGO (and GO) circus working on a wide variety of issues in different ways as part of the various coalitions, networks, collectives etc. It is no longer enough for us to stand alone, on a platform of our own choosing, and say “agile scrum methods are better, give us your money and data”.
As a (mostly technical) community, we need to value wider and better things, especially those who come in with other skill sets.
In place of asking for more stereotypical heroes, we need more passionate human beings to work with us. Like Tom Steinberg (mySociety), Hadley Beeman (linkedGov), Lisa Evans (WhereDoesMyMoneyGo), Ellen Miller (Sunlight Foundation), Bryony Worthington (Sandbag); all names we (might) know, and the many more not listed that we don’t. The names can change, but the tasks are similar. As a disparate group, they’re working on, and leading the teams doing, the most innovative data based work that makes me feel optimistic about the future of open data. Not because it’s open data, but because they’re looking to achieve something in the world.
In that group of luminaries (who are probably somewhat unhappy at me classifying them as such), the most (only?) high level “computer geek” qualification is a Masters’ Degree in Computer Science. Most don’t program much or at all. Not because they can’t, but because the skillset and focus they bring is to produce a outcome of creating something they want to see in the world, of which code is one part. They constitute a by forming a small group of thoughtful committed people who care about that issue. Good programmers should be and are an equal in that team. We campaigned for open data for years, focusing on promise. What matters now is achievement. We can achieve more together than we currently do apart.
We need more people who can do regular expressions, but more than that, we need people who know regular expressions who want to stay around to work through the rest of the campaign that’s needed to add insight, input and time to the projects which achieve change in the world.
But that sort of organisational change – embedding opendata in the world – takes significant time and far more people than we have. The biggest issues are not generally technical; they are social; they are political; they are physical. And all the greatest technology in the world can be stymied by some obstinate sod who won’t help and on whose success it depends. More code is possibly not the best solution to the problems communities.
We need more and different people, and possibly new and different organisations. And I look forward to this with hope and optimism.
Through wider use of data, we can help others achieve the changes we’ve claimed open data can make in the world. They need our help to get there, with our trapeze, joining their circuses.
__ENDS__
I’m pretty sure this is unclear in many places, and wrong in some. I’d welcome your thoughts on what you think I said, so I can figure out where that differs from what I actually said.
Hey Sam,
Great post & many thanks for sharing in a draft form. A few reflections below:
**On Stories to tell**
There are more stories out there than we realise – but we’re not always tuned into them and able to tell them well. They’re often small stories, such as the parent accessing school admission appeals statistics to use in dialogue with a local official, or the planning/environmental report being sold to a local authority that is now improved/cheaper because the creator now has access to increased data resources for free.
Most data is as diverse as the things it represents. When we get beyond the ‘infrastructural data’ like geodata, and into things like local performance statistics, or information relating to specifics of people’s lives, we’re not looking for the killer application, but for the small but meaningful changes data can play a part in bringing about.
We might also want to think about what form the stories take. We tend to tell the stories as ‘Data did this’, when in reality TWFY, WDMMG etc. are all ‘Coders + Designers + some data/information did this’.
**A diverse movement**
Talk of an ‘open data movement’ can hide the diversity of the movement – and the many goals people have for opening up data. Not everyone involved is primarily interested in seeing data used by the world (some are interested in the economic gain from exploiting open data; others have a focus on other particular impacts of open data).
**Working on use as well as supply**
In terms of looking at the use of data, we definitely need to emphasise the ‘data is not just for developers’ point – to recognise the spreadsheet as the interesting data analysis tool that it is – and even to recognise that access to bare facts can be valuable in many contexts.
I wonder if in looking outwards to promote open data use we can keep an explicit open //data// focus? Or does taking open data to the world, as it were, only work as part of wider advocacy for open & agile working – which accepts the useful solution to a problem might be information or new processes as well as data?
Ah, running out of laptop battery. Hope the reflections above useful in some way. Again – really good post pushing the outward focus further in good ways
Sam, Thank you for a very thoughtful post following up from OCD Camp.
You make the point well that we can’t just have computer scientists being the only ones who understand government information and data.
Tim, I also agree that developers need to deliver operational services using “local performance statistics”, which is especially important for the NGO world. If any class of open data has the capacity to impact social outcomes, it is open charity data about local communities. Open data about the third sector will, for example, help rapid crisis response in local communities by directing donors to those addressing needs.
A major theme for me last week was the top-down vs. bottom-up approaches to open data on which I’ll be posting later this week in detail, but you may like to read more on “scrape vs. scrounge” approaches at http://davidpidsley.com.
Kindest regards,
David Pidsley
@davidpidsley
Sam, a great post.
As somebody with a masters in philosophy, a background in environmentan and social justice campaigns, professional experience of both community development and high-falutin’ policy, AND who has tried to meld all of this with my geeky obsession with OpenStreetMap, this all struck a nerve.
I might write this up more fully at some point, but I think there may – or should – be a point where the “open data movement” stops growing and is consigned to specialist meetups and conferences. What grows is the use and appreciation of open data everywhere else.
You’ll always have people who are interested in data for its own sake, and for the fun tools they can make with it. Lots of the cool hacks are essentially useless, but they’re fun for the hacker. That’s fine, that’s enough.
But one challenge is to seek out hackers with broader interests who are willing to help bridge between the world of open data geekery and some other community of interest. Currently there is just such a huge technical gulf for most activists, and most hackers reasonably enough want to just do their thing. They expect to be paid if they are to work on something that doesn’t excite their geeky instincts. Events like Rewired State are great but rather fleeting.
The other challenge is to spot the stories. Most likely, if a community activist uses open data they will still publicise their success story in their own terms – a local park saved, a better deal for workers negotiated, an increase in a road safety budget. So how do you spot open data success stories like those?
with a small group for a local park it’s hard. But with much larger campaigns, it’s pretty easy as those tell their stories. And people who go to both types of event see both and can pass it on (Will Perrin’s discussion of using Local Authority targets to get a crack-caravan sorted is a prime example of this).
To steal a metaphor from David Allen (of GTD fame), we need to work at different scale and levels: so we can manage the forest whilst hugging the trees. Right now, it feels like trying to hug the forest and manage the trees.
Great discussion. I think we need to sit with the people asking the questions and struggling to understand all of the data they have. ‘How do I tackle child poverty in our city?’ -> What data do I need to get to look at this issue? -> How can I add insight? (visual and/or apparent) -> Let me show the insight to the practitioners who work in this environment – Aha! they can show me the solutions!
Thanks for sharing.
We are also looking at the use of open data for campaigning and hope to work with others in the E-campaigning Forum to do some workshops and training in the new year.
Environmental data is the obvious candidate, as it has the urgency drive, the organised networks who can use it and special status in Freedom of Information.
you don’t need the computer science stuff to make a difference with data, just a spreadsheet and a simple chart. remember that much of th einteresting open data at a local level has never been available in public before so tiny manipulation can have huge impact
the open data folk are fab but need to talk with people on the ground who are actually campaigning for change and vice versa.
I wouldn’t start with broad brush campaigns like the environmental movment to be honest – get dirty on the ground with really specific local stuff. campaigns where there is traditionally no data at all for the citizen to make their case
across the country right now are dozens, possibly hundreds of campaigns to save community centres and libraries – have a quick think about what data woudl be most useful to the people
like this one (sign up to ning req) http://w14london.ning.com/xn/detail/3659643:Video:10432?xg_source=activity
crackavan slide 5 here
http://www.slideshare.net/bill_per/beyond-2010-open-data-in-action
if i see another visualisation……
also while we’re at it can someone explain how the classic reaper-sower/externalities problem is being solved with linked data and demonstrate what linked data can do to help me fight dogshit in kings cross
cheers
w
thanks for that Will. There need to be more examples in more sectors. That we don’t have them shows how far we have to go at talking about it (even if it’s already happening).
> fight dogshit in kings cross
I don’t have all the answers. I don’t even have many of them.
Knowing what i know now, a year ago I would have said pull up the targets for KX, and find which it is. And then show how it’s not being met (or is worse here than there, or there’s a school in the middle of the worst part), and is failing local people, and use that one fact into whoever is the best at cajoaling the council (the local paper, you, the local councillor-candidate of the other party). Framed as “this is what’s going on, here’s the fixmystreet link for all dogshit in KX and it’s all still there”. I’m not sure what the step-by-step process would be. And it depends on where you’re talking about. Dogshit problem is different to the cemex plant.
Dogshit outside a school is of a very different interest to dogshit outside a nightclub. I’m not sure whether the two would be treated the same way, unless both groups made the effort to make the same point at a slightly higher level. “my school is shit – the council thinks so”. Maybe this is something some of the political parties should be thinking of as part of their councillor stuff; starting with this post: http://www.kingscrossenvironment.com/2008/02/not-blinded-by.html
All of that is local campaigning, with some additional facts. but data doesn’t do a huge amount – once you know it’s there, that’s enough. Making the council care is a social problem.
Put a flag in it with their logo on?
Thank you, Sam, for this phenomenal post. I’m partly in awe of your overall assessment of how well we all need to work together, and simultaneously HUGELY relieved in reading it. My personal nightmare in open data (irrational though it may be) is that the entire world might leave all the work to me– but I’m only one person, with one set of skills. Because you mentioned me, I’m trying to fit myself into your metaphor… I may be a decent lion tamer (and I will work my hardest at it), but we need the rest of the circus to make the whole show worthwhile.
So I couldn’t agree more that we’ve reached the point where many skills are needed. We need data people to make use of the numbers coming out of government. We need UX specialists to make it understandable to various audiences. We need management, financial and marketing skills to make viable businesses out of the apps. (And in the case of LinkedGov, we need help from all kinds of people — including those in government — to make the data more useful.) And we do need to value all those roles.
But we also need visionaries — like you, as illustrated by this post — to remind us what we’re working towards. That’s incredibly useful to me, and to us as an open data community.
we are at cross purposes on dog shit
I know only too well how to campaign on the ground. if i had data on the numebr of dogs, prevealance of dogshit based disease, average number of cautions for dog fouling in my area veruss a rich area etcthen it makes it much easier
what i was getting at was Linked Data a la berners lee as opposed to non linked data in a few spreadsheets. how does Linked Data help me in any form of local activism. there’s enough data out there now for someone to have linked it all up surely to demonstrate how it helps.
I did wonder why I was telling you stuff you’ve told me.
Will answer your dogshit question in a second post on this topic.
About dogshit you may find interesting the work from some old friends in Seville, Spain. They used little flags with a modified council logo to visualise them. It did work quite well.
http://www.sindominio.net/fiambrera/sevilla.htm
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