Effective use of data relies on good ethical foundations. While national data institutions have the power to issue papers, guidance, and create sound tools for evaluating ethical needs and setting standards, only the Government has the power to make legislation and issue binding policy requirements.

This talk explores the Government’s practice in one specific area – making legislation relevant to data and digitalisation – though a forensic review of relevant statutes and regulations made in 2020.

Dr Sue Chadwick will talk us through her year of statute-stalking, surveying both the content of the legislation made and the way it was made and applied. She will evaluate those practices against some established codes of digital ethics, including the ODI Data Ethics Canvas and the Government’s own Data Ethics Framework.

About the speaker
Sue is a Strategic Planning Advisor at Pinsent Masons LLP with a keen – some might say obsessive – interest in data and the way it will transform the property industry and challenge many of its established foundations.

As one of the ODI’s first ever research fellows she has spent the last year working with their Vice President Jeni Tennison, exploring digital ethics and their implications for planning decisions with a particular focus on human rights, equalities, discrimination, and established codes of practice. Her research is due to be published through the ODI in September.

Lecture Bounce 1ODI Fridays: Government legislation and data ethics1 06 21

What if we could play back all the CCTV ever recorded of us? Film maker Manu Luksch did just that with her sci-fi fairy tale film ‘FACELESS.'

Our lives are being captured in a multitude of ways: across social media, mobile and telephone communications, on the street. In the light what’s been reported this summer about the NSA, GCHQ and other governments, Manu’s film is particularly timely. 

Using CCTV footage of herself requested via the Data Protection Act and blocking out the faces of anyone else captured on it, Manu's film imagines a faceless world - with herself as the only woman with a face. Manu will be discussing our surveilled society and what the future might hold for us.

The trailer referenced in this podcast can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLzJCeGYgbg

ODI Fridays: FACELESS - what if all our lives were recorded? with Manu Luksch

On 27 September 2021, the ODI in partnership with the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI) at the University of Cambridge and the Center for Responsible AI at NYU (NYU R/AI) convened an online roundtable to explore experimentation in data policy and practice around how structurally under-represented communities in North America and the EU can be transnational emergent forces that renegotiate or reimagine the social contract under the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Provocation 5 – Dr Julia Stoyanovich – AI, Responsibly

Provocation 4 – Dr Adrian Weller – Faith and AI

Provocation 3 – Dr Rumman Chowdhury – Algorithmic bias

Provocation 2 – Dr Jeni Tennison – Experimentalism and equity

Provocation 1 – Dr Mahlet (Milly) Zimeta – Le Guin's left hand of data

Provocation 6 – Dr Aaron Franks – Community data

In this talk, Dr John Burton – Data Consultant at the Open Data Institute (ODI) – will discuss some of the background of the data ethics work at the ODI and describe what organisations are considering to make their data ethics practices more mature. He will show the work of the ODI on the data maturity model, and share some of the early feedback from our user research in this space. Finally, he will discuss where the organisation is going in the short term and how that may develop the ODI’s offering in this space in the coming months.

About the speaker
Dr John Burton has had a varied career, but the main theme has always been investigating complex data sets to find real value for people. He started off with a PhD in Astronomy, and have worked at Queen’s University Belfast, the Universities of Toronto, Leicester and Cambridge as a postdoctoral researcher and data scientist. He has been spending his recent career in the public and charity sectors at HMRC and AQA, with the latter being spent as the Head of Analytics and Data Science. In short, he loves data!

ODI Fridays: Data ethics in practice, where are we now?

Provocation 2 – Jarmo Suomisto, Project Manager, Helsinki 3D+

Hosted by Gavin Freeguard (ODI Special Adviser and data singer-songwriter), special guests from across the ODI discuss some contested data terms – all set to a festive ditty

12 Data Days of Christmas

How can open research help overcome the issues currently affecting the research community?

In this talk, Ashley Farley (Program Officer of Knowledge and Research Services and the lead of the Open Access team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) discusses the issues currently plaguing the research community – such as perverse incentives, publish or perish perceptions, and information overload – and how open research practices can provide a salve.

The solution focuses on building from community-led initiatives and imbuing the ecosystem with transparency, ending with a call-to-action to make history by changing the status quo. The time for open access is now and this presentation will explain why.

This lecture will be pre-recorded. Submit questions for Ashley Farley to answer during the Q&A section here by Monday 24 January: https://forms.gle/xZMrpJYsgi34KDxe8

About the speaker
Ashley Farley is the Program Officer of Knowledge and Research Services and the lead of the Open Access team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She has spent more than 10 years in both academic and public libraries, focusing on digital inclusion and providing access to scholarly content. She is a passionate advocate for Open Access and believes that free and accessible research increases and expedites innovation, helps solve problems faster, and ultimately saves more lives sooner.

ODI Fridays: Open research – making harmful habits history

CSVW is a standard for describing and clarifying the content of CSV tables. In this talk you’ll learn how CSVW can make working with CSV easier and connect you to a web of linked-data.

The humble CSV format is a popular way of publishing open data, and with good reason. It’s easy to create and edit, non-proprietary and machine-readable. It isn’t particularly standardised however and you’ll usually need to do some work to interpret the contents correctly.

The CSVW standard helps to solve these problems letting you focus on using the data. It also lets us interpret data in a global context by connecting tables together into a web of linked-data.

About the speakers
Robin Gower
Robin dreams of a day when data scientists can focus on analysis instead of spending their time preparing data!

To this end, he works as a Data Designer at Swirrl helping publishers to express their datasets with linked-data. He draws on 15 years experience consulting as an economist and statistician for the UK public and social sectors.

Robin a founding member of Open Data Manchester and wrote and maintains several open source software libraries.

He now lives with his family in Berlin, tinkering with electronics and brewing English ale.

Ross Bowen
Ross is all too familiar with wrangling data out of spreadsheets with his favourite programming language, R.

As a statistician who’s worked across several government departments, he is now revolutionising data publishing at the ONS as part of the Integrated Data Programme.

When Ross discovered the world of linked-data, he was immediately excited for its potential in helping people better explore and understand statistics.

At home in Bridgend you’ll often find him practising the piano or pretending to be a superstar DJ.

ODI Fridays: CSV on the web

In this podcast, we hear about the importance of community engagement from three participants of the second cohort of the ODI Microsoft peer learning network, an initiative which aims to give data collaborations working on significant societal challenges the opportunity to share and learn from each other. 

Host James Maddison, Senior Consultant at the ODI, leads the conversation with Laureen van Breen, Managing Director at WikiRate; Kisha Bwenge, Senior Community Building Manager at the Open Contracting Partnership; and Tim Robertson, Head of Informatics at GBIF.

The ODI Microsoft Podcast: The importance of community engagement to data collaborations

Provocation 2 – Nai Lee Kalema, Member, Tierra Común; doctoral researcher, UCL

Experimentalism/Ursula Le Guin roundtable: A Provocation On Valuation From Professor S Craig Watkins, University Of Texas At Austin. June 2022.

A Provocation On Valuation, Professor S Craig Watkins, University of Texas.Experimentalism/Le Guin

Provocation 1 – Juan Mateos-Garcia, Nesta

Keynote – Dr Patrick Noack, World Economic Forum

Introduction – Gavin Freeguard, Special Adviser, ODI

ODI Inside Business: How access to real time national data could help businesses recover from the pandemic

In this special edition of the Inside Business podcast, Stuart Coleman, Director of Business Development at the Open Data Institute (ODI) speaks exclusively to Fiona James, the new Chief Data Officer and Director of Data Growth and Operations at the Office for National Statistics (ONS)

How access to real time national data could help businesses recover from the pandemic

Ian Holt, Head of Developer Outreach at Ordnance Survey, explained and demonstrated what difference the addition of linked data sets has made to the organisation’s open map data.

Using examples and case studies, he showed what linked data makes possible for publishers and app developers, and what it might mean for those of us who use maps every day.

ODI Fridays: What Difference Does Linked Data Make To Maps? with Ian Holt

The Great British Public Toilet Map is an on-going project to map the UK’s public toilets using open data. It began in 2010 when only one council was publishing toilet data and is soon to relaunch with a database of over 5000 facilities. Gail Ramster describes an outsider’s pursuit of local council open data and the obstacles encountered, including Ordnance Survey licensing, FOI legislation and the need for a standard format.

Ramster is a Research Associate at Royal College of Art working on people-centred design research.

Friday Lunchtime Lecture: Excuse me, where is the toilet (data)?

Data Ecosystem Mapping (Spanish Edit)

Data Ethics Canvas (Spanish edit)

Is it possible there aren’t enough cats on the web? In this lecture, ODI’s Peter Wells explains how a bout of lunchtime whimsy led him to create an open data register of UK government cats. He talks about the tools he used to create the register and dashboard, how people can help collaboratively maintain them on the web and some of the lessons he learnt along the way. He also admits that it wasn’t all about cats and talks about how anyone can help strengthen data infrastructure.

About Peter Wells
Peter Wells is a open data policy expert and consultant at the ODI.

Friday Lunchtime Lecture: Creating a Web of Cats

Journalists have been slow to approach open data as a source of information, often relying on traditional approaches such as Freedom of Information requests.

In 2015, Jonathan Stoneman wrote a working paper “Does Open Data Need Journalism?” to show how things were slowly changing. With projects such as OpenCorporates and OpenPrescribing, access to data for journalists was becoming easier than ever.

But is it enough? And have there been too many missed opportunities for open data and journalism to truly live happily ever after?

About the speaker
Jonathan Stoneman is an ODI Registered Trainer, specialising in data journalism. He was a BBC journalist for 20 years, culminating as Head of World Service Training. Data work is the element of his freelance work which he enjoys most: he has delivered training to more than 600 BBC journalists, and likes nothing more than to curl up on his sofa with a good dataset!

Friday Lunchtime Lecture: Is open data and journalism a match doomed to fail?

ODI Friday Lunchtime Lecture: Why can’t I find data?

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.

Friday lunchtime lecture: Bad Data (and how to fix it)

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.

ODI Fridays: With great personal data comes great anonymity

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.

ODI Fridays: Can technology help reinvent national archives for the 21st Century?

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.”

ODI Fridays: Can Safetytech Save Lives?

Listen to podcasts from the Open Data Institute – discussing the impacts of data across areas including health, cities, the built environment, government and finance. Speakers also delve into issues around data ethics, trust, art, culture, corruption and accountability.

Popular tracks by The Open Data Institute