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The FCO Open Data Journey

The FCO Open Data Journey. Eleanor Stewart Head of Transparency 13 March 2014. June 2012. Almost least Transparent Department in Whitehall Not publishing any open data No one really knew what it was or why it was important. Foreign Secretary 2013.

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The FCO Open Data Journey

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  1. The FCO Open Data Journey Eleanor Stewart Head of Transparency 13 March 2014 UNCLASSIFIED

  2. June 2012 • Almost least Transparent Department in Whitehall • Not publishing any open data • No one really knew what it was or why it was important

  3. Foreign Secretary 2013 “It’s not just about publishing what we spend – it’s about showing British taxpayers what the FCO delivers with their money; sharing with British business more of what we know about the world, in support of the prosperity agenda; and opening up our policy-making to challenge so we can be sure that we have thought about all the angles.  It’s a cultural change for the FCO, but it will make it easier in austere times to show that we are delivering.” UNCLASSIFIED

  4. PM Commitments Daily • Energy Consumption Monthly • New Contracts over £10,000 • New Tenders over £10,000 • Spend over £25k • GPC over £500 • Names, Grades, Job titles and annual pay rates for senior Civil Servants in pay Band 1 Quarterly • Meetings with external organisations by Ministers Quarterly • Overseas travel undertaken by FCO Ministers Quarterly • Gifts given to Ministers in the FCO over the value of £140 Quarterly • Exception to cross-Government moratoria on spend in the FCO Quarterly • Major Project Authority Quarterly return details (2qtrs in arrears) Six Monthly • Open Data Strategy • Names, Grades, Job titles and annual pay rates for senior Civil Servants with salaries above £150,000 • Organogram and staff pay data for FCO staff in the UK Annually • Business Plan quarterly data summary • UK Consular assistance enquiries • Non-consolidated performance related payments

  5. Now : • Open Data Strategy was republished in August 2013 • Now publishing: • ODA (Overseas aid) spend & project documents • Treaties database; every Treaty UK has been a signatory to since 1832 • Consular data; service delivery details for Consular Services • Travel Alerts • Details of our posts across the world • Historical Records inc inventory of archive • Working on: • Gifts data ; register of gifts given to diplomats • Economic information • Human rights information • Wine Cellar data UNCLASSIFIED

  6. Hackday: • A hack day is a competitive event where a group of developers are brought to the same location and given a set of data, a challenge, an idea or a theme. • From 24-48 hours they undertake an intensive piece of research and programming resulting in working software which is then judged • Video available - http://vimeo.com/85305730

  7. FCO Alerts UNCLASSIFIED

  8. TINATAPI An API* that consolidates information useful to travellers by identifying areas of risk, travel alerts and human rights concerns (as measured by the objective CIRI criteria) to practical examples of exchange rates and makes it easy to consume. This API uses data from the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, human-rights.org, the UN, gather by the Guardian, the open exchange and other sources. * An API or application program interface, is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. The API specifies how software components should interact and are used used when programming graphical user interface (GUI) components.  A good API makes it easier to develop a program by providing all the building blocks. A programmer then puts the blocks together. UNCLASSIFIED

  9. Relations Tracker Having seen the data available from the FCO, they wanted to quantify the relationships that the UK has with the world using relevant data sets and a visual interface. The result is the start of an open source API that translates given data into a grade for each nation. They also created a visualisation of this data by porting it into a colour coded map where each nations' colour (from red to green) reflects the overall strength of that countries’ relationship with the UK. The scale is relative to all other countries UNCLASSIFIED

  10. FCO Data on the Operating Table A presentation on the usability or otherwise of the FCO data. UNCLASSIFIED

  11. Where are we going next? • Improve Quality of data we’re producing • Improve understanding of what data is and ownership across the department • Build on changing culture to being more open and precious about our information • Release more FCO data • Encourage more people to use the data we’re releasing

  12. Lessons we’ve learnt: • It’s challenging • It’s definitely not easy • It can be fun • It helps everyone • So be creative, be smart and open up your data; it’s worth it.

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