Open DEFRA Marine and inland water hack

15 - 16 January 2016

ICOSS Centre, The University of Sheffield, 219 Portobello, S1 4DP


The Better with Data Society, Sheffield node of the Open Data Institute is arranging a mini-hackathon for 15-16 Jan, focusing on recently released Defra Open data, and in particular, on data on marine culture, biodiversity and environment with the aim of broadening opportunity for this resource to help understand life and living in waterways, coastal areas, wetlands, etc.

Background

In June 2015, the Environment Secretary unveiled DEFRA’s vision for open data to transform services and create opportunities for people in the UK making their living from food, farming and the environment. A large amount of data reserves have now been released and can be accessed through the data.gov.uk portal.

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The Hack

We hope to bring together participants from a diversity of backgrounds, and therefore extend a broad call to academics, software developers, designers, journalists, artists, industry, business, public sector representatives and any other stackeholders that have an interest in the theme.

We aim to culture a diverse, creative, inter-disciplinary collaborative working environment, with opportunity for contribution and peer to peer learning for all, regardless of expertise, so we really welcome participants of all levels and backgrounds.

We hope to tackle a diverse range of outputs, including products, services and insights.

Broad aims of the hack

  1. Increase awareness of available data At the very least, if these data are going to have an impact, people need to know what’s available.

  2. Establish usability of the data: The next prerequisite is that data are accessible and usable. The hack provides an opportunity for a variety of sectors to test the resource, and feedback to DEFRA on data quality, access and format issues. Tools to address issues are also a potential output.

  3. Produce outputs: The scope is broad, including apps, websites, visualisations, dashboards, statistical analyses, digital or other art, and the aim creativity, capacity building and impact.

Timeframe and Draft Programme

  • Mon 11 Jan (evening): Open Data Sheffield - early preview and roundup of the datasets available, including initial ideas: Register
  • Fri 15 Jan (from 1pm to evening): lunchtime lecture, data dive, team and idea forming.
  • Sat 16 Jan (day, early evening): hack, followed by show & tell and prizes. Register & further details