Open data is essential, but useless without context – that was the consensus at the local data session. A lively debate took place, where delegates heard from a range of speakers and their attempts to fill the niche in local data, creating “open data cities” and encouraging transparency
LIVE: Session 3A – Local data
Follow the developing the local data session at news:rewired – noise to signal with a CoverItLive blog from Wannabe Hacks
Links: Session 3A – #opendata at a local level
Some of the biggest stories of the last few years such as MPs expenses and WikiLeaks have been driven by information discovered in spreadsheets.
At the other end of the spectrum there is a whole host of open data available to regional and local journalists seeking to unearth stories of interest to their communities.
Here ahead of the open data session at news:rewired we take a look at how data has been used by regional organisations and some of the open data sources available in the UK.
news:rewired – hear more about ‘noise to signal’ from our speakers
We spoke to three of our speakers to give you a better idea of some of the issues that will be covered on the day.
Greg Hadfield, director of strategic projects, Cogapp, discusses his work on “open-data cities” and the benefits of open data to journalists, developers, and others; Robin Hamman, director of digital, Edelman, talks about innovation in social media strategy and where media organisations should start; and Matt Wells, blogs editor, the Guardian, explains why journalists should be making the most of social media platforms for news sourcing and verification
news:rewired speakers – in cartoon
To the surprise of some of our speakers, the excellent Drawnalism had been busy sketching during news:rewired last week.