ODI Lunchtime Lecture: The local authority that went ‘guerilla’

Most UK local authorities have embraced the concept of open data, slowly but surely opening up new data sets. Andy Radford, Transport Planner at Birmingham City Council, had a very different experience. Let him take you back to 2014…

“My colleague had masterminded a successful bid for a European Project, Opticities, and then abruptly left the organisation. My task was to open up real-time transport datasets in a matter of months, with very little budget and no background in open data.

“What followed did not follow a traditional route – the only goal was to get the data from our internal systems onto the internet as quickly as possible. Once that was done, I entered a world completely unfamiliar to the average local authority transport planner – working in partnership with SME’s, Universities, the ODI etc.

“The session will be particularly appropriate for local authority staff, but anyone working with open data or in the transport field should learn something useful. Not everything was a bed of roses – I learned some lessons the hard way, so that you won’t have to.

“This talk will tell a heart-warming tale of what can be achieved in the local authority environment with people who are willing to learn and have a can-do attitude.”