Open Data Camp 4: bigger, better, wetter
I am slowly coming back to life after Open Data Camp. Being in Cardiff was amazing, if not for the weather, which is partly to blame for my current heavy cold. I have not been that wet since I walked up the Snowdon six years ago. Despite the weather, this Open Data Camp has been probably the most amazing we have run since starting in Winchester two years ago — with some caveats. Here are some stats coming from the participants who shared their data (>50%).
The highest participation ever recorded at an Open Data Camp
The most mind-boggling figure from this camp is the total number of attendees: we checked in 125 people on day one, and 103 people on day two (most of them, but not all, returners from day one). To put things in perspective, the highest participation on any day one had been at Open Data Camp 3 in Bristol, with a total tally of 93.
What’s more striking is the very low drop-out rate. We counted 134 unique attendees out of 147 tickets sold. In the unconference industry, a drop out rate of 30% is considered normal, and ours was only 9%. A 91% attendance level for a free event is something I would have never expected. It is testament not just to Open Data Camp being a great event — hey, I’m blowing my own trumpet here! — but to the community being very committed to attending.
Most of the UK was covered
Look at the pin map on the left (or play with Angharad’s interactive map). People who declare their travel origin are from all over the place: Sunderland to the North, Norwich to the East, Hastings to the South. However, the map on the right suggest the magnitude of attendance is higher somewhere in the South of the country. Let’s make a chart…
We can still do better, location wise
Looking at the data, it is evident that most attendees come from the English South or Wales. Is transport an issue? Potentially. However, one of the ideas behind Open Data Camp is in fact to bring Open Data around the country, rather than getting people to attend, so I would not be extremely negative about it. If anything, these chart suggest where to bring Open Data Camp next — if almost 70% of the attendees come from Wales and the South (including London), we should focus on making the next event happen where we only have few attendees: Yorkshire, the North East, Scotland, Northern Ireland.
Some people travelled a long distance
I had a huge grin on my face when I realised we had attendees from 4 continents. The non-European attendees were just 3, but their contribution was really useful. Hearing about Open Data in Seattle and Bangalore is certainly something that can make UK Open Data better.
The median distance travelled was 86 miles, which is more or less how far Southampton, Oxford, or Plymouth are from Cardiff.
Diversity
Of course, some thought needs to be given to the diversity of Open Data Camp. The organising team did relatively well on gender balance, with over half of the members being women. So I was a bit disappointed upon realising that overall the event saw twice as many men as women (I leave those who did not declare their gender here in the chart, as I think this might be another symptom we need to address). What was your feeling as an attendee?
Open Data Camp seems to be pretty well received among people of a diverse range of ages, but if there is anything we can do to improve please let us know.
We have no data about ethnic background at this stage, but it might be something we would need to monitor in the future.
On the way to Open Data Camp 5
It’s going to be difficult to beat Open Data Camp 4:
- the biggest Open Data Camp so far
- the first in a (former) parliament building
- the first with armed police
- the first in which I pitched a session (pushed by Jeni — and actually this was the first session I ever pitched at an unconference…)
When we started organising Open Data Camp in late 2014, I was skeptical: I thought this would be a one-off event and I was resigned that interest would move elsewhere. Instead, if I can summarise Open Data Camp 4 in one key learning point, I can say that interest in Open Data is getting hotter and hotter.
There were many users of data, new to the community, who are extremely keen on data releases and clear, open processes; there was an incredibly well attended session, “Open Data for beginners”, which had to be repeated due to demand; we had, for the first time, data journalists attending, interested in keeping pressure on the government to publish data timely and accurately; we had professionals who work in fact-checking, now using government data to partially automate their fact-checking processes.
Equally, there is a demand for better data, open standards, and clear processes by veterans of Open Data. Open Data shouldn’t come at a massive expense to the taxpayer, but I still think it is beneficial to the efficiency of the public sector if processes that generate data are made clear, de-duplicated, and documented — and the Open Data agenda has clearly been pushing in this direction.
It seems evident to me that Open Data needs to be consolidated — and, preferably, approach releases from a problem-driven perspective (as I somewhat suggest here) — but it is also evident that the community is becoming richer thanks to people belonging to different areas of expertise, interest, and activism, starting to join in. I look forward to continuing the discussion at the next camp.
