SODU 2022

The Scottish Open Data Unconference (SODU) is back for a third year.

Since our inception in 2014 Code The City has consistently championed Open Data. Our trustees set up ODI Aberdeen, the only Scottish node of the Open Data Institute. As an organisation, and as individual trustees, we’ve worked to highlight the case to government for open data, to use open data, to make data open, and to educate others in the benefits and opportunities of open data. The highly-successful Open Data Scotland portal, built by a team of community volunteers to address a gap in Government provision, grew from conversations at previous SODU events and hack weekends which we hosted.

Why open data is important

Making data, particularly government data, open has very many benefits – from transparency to citizen empowerment; from providing fuel for innovation to improving government efficiency and much more. The Open Data Handbook is a great source of further background on this. In early 2020 the EU Data portal published a meta-study of the economic value of open data in early 2020. From this we extrapolated that the economic potential to Scotland, if OD publishing were done well, could be in excess of £2 billion per annum. Our trustee, Ian Watt published a research paper What is Open Data and Why Does it Matter? with the David Hume Institute which is available here under an CC-VY-SA 4 open licence.

A brief history of SODU

Back in 2020 we came up with the idea of a Scottish Open Data Unconference – an event which anyone with an interest in open data could attend (whether an activist or mildly curious; whether in Government, civic society, academia, or industry). The event was in part inspired by our hosting UK Open Data Camp in 2018 but our intention was that it would target our growing network. It wouldn’t just be about OD in Scotland but would look worldwide to help Scottish attendees develop their understanding of OD, create small networks to address challenges locally, help publishers connect with their data consumers and vice versa.

Then Covid got in the way – and our March 2020 event (for which we had 107 attendees signed up) was pushed back and run as an online event in September with just a third of that number. We repeated it online again in October 2021 with a similar number of attendees.

We’re now delighted that SODU 2022 is back as a physical event at the ONE Tech Hub, Aberdeen which is a great space for meeting and working together. We’ll also have high quality catering to look forward to! And we’re doing all we can to make it as safe as possible here.

What to expect

Based on previous attendance at SODU 2020 and 2021, and similar events we’ve run, we expect a broad mix of attendees. There will be a strong presence from civic society, with others from academia, the press and the IT / Data industry. W are also hopeful that we will see some attendees from government, given their policy / strategy / legislative obligation to publish data.

Each day will be different, depending on who is there and what they want to discuss (see format below). Some will attend to show their work or share research; others to run practical sessions. Some will offer informal educational slots; others will seek support for projects; and others still will seek or provide feedback on plans, or data provision.

The key to a successful event is the mix of attendees and people bringing a positive, open attitude, and a willingness to engage.

Format

This event will follow the open space format, where participants create the agenda each morning for the sessions that will happen that day. This is the time to pitch your questions to the many people who will be there, and to tell others about your project too.

Sessions in open space always work best when there is an interactive aspect so that the participants talk as much as the person chairing the session. This short video will tell you more about open space. The amazing thing is that it scales really well from 20 people to over 1000 people.

Booking

We’ve several types of tickets available.

• Weekend-long ones for students at just £15,
• General weekend tickets for just £25,
• Daily tickets at £15 for either the Saturday or Sunday, and
• Weekend online tickets for just £10.

And if the price is a barrier to your attendance just tell us and we’ll sort something out for you.

These events work best with a broad mix of attendees. No matter what your skillset, interest area or knowledge there is something for you – and something you can contribute. The write-ups of the 2020 and the 2021 events will remind you of how much can be achieved by a group of dedicated people over just a few hours!

Book here.

We hope that you can join us.

Ian, Karen, Andrew, Pauline, Bruce
Code The City
Charity SC047835