A chance to tell OPSI what we want
Our friends at the National Archives are making an energetic start to the new year, with a series of events to sound out what re-users of public sector information want from the custodians of our digital crown jewels. The first is a “barcamp” to be held in London a week on Saturday. (A barcamp sounds like one of those establishments on Old Compton Street, but apparently is a new kind of participatory “unconference”.)
Here’s the official announcement.
“The Office of Public Sector Information, part of The National Archives, is holding a conference to ask re-users of public sector information to shape the future of public sector information re-use. The event is open to anyone interested in public sector re-use and will take place on the 12 January 2008, at the Spey & Ness Rooms, City Inn.
“The aim of the web channel is to present public sector information with a commercial value in a user friendly way that will encourage its re-use and simplify its uptake, by improving interaction between departments and end-users. The format of the final channel will have been shaped by the user community contributions through the web channel forum (at http://www.opsi.gov.uk/forums/forums/index.asp) and this BarCamp ‘unconference’.
“The event follows the decision to launch a web-based channel as recommended by the Power of Information report that will “improve the Government’s responsiveness to demands for public sector information”. If you would like to attend the event you can register and shape the agenda by visiting http://barcamp.org/BarCampPOIR8.
“The ‘unconference’ will take place at Spey & Ness Rooms, City Inn, 30 John Islip Street, Westminster, London.”
Michael Cross will be there for the Free our Data campaign. Say hello!
- The following posts may be related...(the database guesses):
- OPSI opens web channel where you can ask for government data (20 September 2007; score: 32.88%)
- In today's Guardian: what the new OPSI rules mean (and don't mean) (6 April 2006; score: 31.7%)
- Ordnance Survey in the dock again with OPSI (26 October 2006; score: 24.15%)
- And now, OPSI sets up an "unlock that data" channel (7 July 2008; score: 22.27%)
- |In Thursday's Guardian: want to know where post offices are? Sorry, we can't (or won't) tell yoyu (13 October 2007; score: 18.66%)
January 12th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
And what a smashing event it turned out to be. Historic, even, in the context of the way government goes about building web services. I think we emerged with an expertly informed consensus on how to design, build and run a web channel to gather and assess requests for the re-use of public sector information.
OPSI is running two more events to help shape the project. The second is on 18 January, held jointly with JISC (), will engage with the academic world. The third event, on 28 January will be run by Intellect (<
I’ll report more fully later. But in the meantime, thanks to OPSI’s John Sheridan and Giorgia Meletsis for setting up the event and to everyone who gave up a rare sunny Saturday to enrich it.
January 14th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Are details of these follow up events available anywhere? I’m keen to go as I missed the first one but I can’t find any details on the second and third events.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Oops sorry, the second (an event with JISC for academics) was today, the Intellect event is on January 28.
January 15th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
OK – so is there any information about that anywhere?
January 15th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
it’s not on the intellect calendar, or OPSI website, or upcoming, and the BarCamp wiki hasn’t been updated post-event. Just wondering how anyone is supposed to actually go to these events!?
January 16th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Er, yes. To be fair, there was a note on the OPSI site
hwww.opsi.gov.uk/forums/forums/forum.asp?forumid=8
but I guess that reaches the already-interested.
Bit like this blog, really.
January 18th, 2008 at 11:35 am
I can see the invite to the 12th Jan event, but no information about the follow up events. Time to give up I suspect.