Derilinx with the Open Data Unit, Dept of Public Expenditure and Reform held the Open Data Conference 2020 online on 2nd December 2020 from 10:00AM to 12:30.

This year conference was focused on the theme of “The journey from Open Data Publication to Impact – How the publication, reporting and re-use of data enables the delivery of improved public service.”

The Open Data Conference is open to all public servants who wish to learn more about the Open Data initiative, those working in the area of Open Data or with data in general. Open Data Liaison Officers in particular are encouraged to attend.

The conference included an opening from Minister Ossian Smyth, Minister of State for Public Procurement and eGovernment and contributions from renowned International Speakers who shared their perspective on best practice and the future of Open Data. It also included testimonials from local open data publishers and open data re-users, putting powerful and practical perspectives on how to progress the journey for publication to tangible impact.

Panel of speakers:

• Minister Ossian Smyth – Minister of State for Public Procurement and eGovernment
• Prof. Declan O’Sullivan – Trinity College Dublin
• Prof. Elena Simperl – Kings College London
• Dr. Edward Curry- Insight Centre
• Hugh Mangan -Business & Marketing Manager – Ordnance Survey Ireland
• Peggy Ryan and Sheila Moore – Tusla
• Liam O’Sullivan – Dublin Dashboard
• Deirdre Lee – Derilinx
• Rhoda Kerin – Open Data Unit – DPER
• Mark Warren – OGCIO – DPER
• Josh D’Addario- Open Data Institute
• David Hanley – Reform and Delivery Office – DPER

More info about the speakers here.

Agenda:

1. Opening and welcome
2. High Value Datasets – From Publication to Impact – International Perspective and Best Practice
3. Sharing on the Journey – Testimonials from Publishers and re-Users – Panel Discussion
4. Publication of Open Datasets, High Value Datasets, Legislative Development and Public Service Wide Initiative – Panel Discussion
5. International Perspectives on the Future of Open Data

More about the speakers

• Prof. Declan O’Sullivan is a Professor in Computer Science in the School of Computer Science and Statistics. He is the Director of Research in the School, a co-champion of the Trinity Digital Engagement interdisciplinary theme, and a Principal Investigator at the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) ADAPT Research Centre (http://www.adaptcentre.ie). Declan was elected as a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin for the quality of his research and contribution to college in 2019. He was awarded a B.A. (Mod) in Computer Science from TCD in 1985, an M.Sc. in Computer Science from TCD in 1988, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from TCD in 2006. Declan has 13 years of research experience in industry, having worked for IONA Technologies from 1995 to 2001 and from 1988 to 1995 with Broadcom Eireann Research. During this time, he achieved a successful track record as lead researcher, and in coordinating international research projects and the transfer of research into products.
• Prof. Elena Simperl is a professor of computer science at King’s College London in the UK. She is also a Fellow of the British Computer Society and a former Turing Fellow. Elena’s research interests focus upon the intersection between AI and crowd computing, in helping designers understand how to build socio-technical systems that combine machine algorithms with human and social capabilities. She had the chance to work in over twenty European and national research projects, often in collaboration with researchers and industry from other countries. She is currently leading ACTION, a Horizon 2020 programme that helps 15 citizen science communities around Europe fight pollution, and is also the principal investigator of Data Stories, an EPSRC-funded grant that develops concepts and tools to facilitate ease in everyday engagement with data. Elena’s interest in leading initiatives within the scientific community has also taken form through serving as chair and programme chair of the European and International Semantic Web Conference series, the European Data Forum, and the European Semantic Technologies conference.

• Hugh Mangan is the Business & Marketing Manager of Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) and has been with the organisation for over 10 years. He has a MSc in Spatial Information Management from DIT, a Diploma in GIS from UCC, a Diploma in Data Business and a Diploma in Management from the IMI and is a Graduate of the Irish Marketing Institute. Hugh is a strong advocate for using the best available data as an aid with decision making in both the public and private sectors, with a particular focus on importance of location information. Prior to joining OSi Hugh spent over 20 years working in the private sector, in a variety of marketing and sales roles with leading IT hardware, software and consulting firms.

• Cianan Clancy currently serves as Director of Scouting and Insight for Shipyard Technology Ventures where he is responsible for searching the globe for world class start up ideas and teams as well as investigating the hottest investment areas. Mr Clancy also currently sits on the Irish Government’s Open Data Governance Board. Prior to that Cianan was Group Head, Commercial and Customer Propositions for Independent News and Media Plc (INM) – Ireland’s largest media group. Mr Clancy has also held a senior role at IDCC, where he led strategy development and data analytics projects while monitoring and responding to EU and Irish legislation related to data governance, data management and security. During his time with Ireland’s largest eCommerce company, Paddy Power, Cianan led a team focused on creating compelling and original new product concepts. Prior to that, Cianan was a founding steering committee member of the Irish Centre for Advanced Data Analytical Research, co-founder of Beats Medical Group and a Strategy Consultant at Accenture.

• Peggy Ryan has been working in Children & Families Services since 2002. Peggy previously worked in the third level education sector for almost 20 years. Peggy holds the brief for Data & Management Information across a range of TUSLA services and is based in the TUSLA West region. The brief involves local, regional and national responsibilities. Peggy is co-leading the development of the TUSLA Outcomes for Children National Data & Information Hub project along with her colleague Sheila Moore.

• Sheila Moore is an Information Manager with TUSLA Children & Family Services in the West Region and currently holds the brief for Information Management across a wide range of TUSLA services in Donegal and Sligo/ Leitrim/ West Cavan. The brief involves local, regional and national responsibilities. She joined the HSE, Children & Families Services in 2002, having previously worked in ICT / Business Training in the private sector in the UK, Northern Ireland and Ireland. Sheila was a member of the CAWT cross border project, Outcomes for Children and the associated Data & Information sub group. Sheila co-leads the development of the TUSLA Outcomes for Children National Data & Information Hub project along with her colleague Peggy Ryan.

• Liam O’Sullivan is a software developer at the National Centre for Geocomputation in Maynooth University. He leads full-stack web development on the Building City Dashboards project, where the team researches how to effectively engage users with open data through the visualisation and mapping of various real-time, historical, and spatial sources. He has 20 years of broad experience as an engineer across the private and public sectors- in multinational companies such as EMC and 3Com Technologies, and as a lecturer and researcher of creative technology in Trinity College Dublin.

• Deirdre Lee is Founder of Derilinx, that has been leading Linked and Open Data developments since 2014. She has extensive experience in the provision of fully hosted and managed data solutions, as well as providing guidance and support for data sharing and Data Governance programmes. Deirdre’s ambition is to make it easy for people to discover, understand and use data. Derilinx is responsible for the development and provision of support to the Irish National Open Data Portal, which currently provides access to over 10,000 datasets from over 100 publishers. The Irish Open Data Initiative has been ranked 1st in Europe in the EDP Maturity Index study three years in a row. We are also proud to have the opportunity to work with a number of international organisations on key data-sharing and transparency projects. Derilinx built and supports The World Bank Group’s Energy Data Portal and Water Data Portal, as well as developing a suite of applications to empower users to interact and use the information. Derilinx also manages the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) Registry, the Smart Dublin Open Data Platform, and the Irish Open Health Data Portal. Derilinx is an active participant in European projects, currently participating in the Linked Linguistic Open Data project ‘Prêt-à-LLOD’ and the CEF Public Open Data project ‘Hale & Hearty’.

• Edward Curry is a research leader at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics (www.insight-centre.org) and a funded investigator at LERO The Irish Software Research Centre and a Lecturer in Informatics at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG). His research interests are predominantly in open distributed systems, particularly in the areas of incremental data management (e.g. dataspaces), approximation and unstructured events types, with a special interest in applications for smart environments and data ecosystems. Edward has published over 130 scientific articles in journals, books, and international conferences. He has presented at numerous events and has given invited talks at Berkeley, Stanford, and MIT. Edward has worked extensively with industry and government advising on the adoption patterns, practicalities, and benefits of new technologies. He is Vice President of the Big Data Value Association (www.BDVA.eu) a non-profit industry-led organisation with the objective of increasing the competitiveness of European Companies with data-driven innovation. In 2010, Edward wa a guest speker at the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium to an audience of 600+ CIOs and senior IT executives. Edward is a member of the scientific leadership committee of Insight, and a Lecturer in Informatics at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG).
• Rhoda Kerins is the Head of the Open Data Unit in the Department of Expenditure & Reform with policy responsibility for Ireland’s Open Data Initiative and the Open Data Directive. She leads the implementation of the national Open Data Strategy with responsibility for Ireland’s Open Data Portal.

• Mark Warren is an Assistant Principal Office with the Office of the Government CIO. Mark brings more than 10 years’ experience working in the area of Software Development with extensive experience in delivering large public sector wide systems.

• Josh D’Addario is a Senior Consultant for the ODI, working across various aspects of the organisation with a focus on private sector data sharing, smart data and international development. He has worked extensively on smart data initiatives such as Open Banking, Open Communications and Open Energy. Josh is passionate about using data to deliver tangible benefits to society, such as addressing the climate emergency or improving healthcare outcomes. He has been in technology consulting for over six years, working on projects ranging from performance analysis and improvement to technology and business strategy. Prior to becoming a consultant, he studied international business in London and economics in Canada.
• Since May 2016 Dave Hanley has been the lead official tasked with delivering the programme of Organisational Capability Reviews under Action 20 of the Civil Service Renewal Plan. Prior to that he spent some 25 years working in the various configurations of the Department of Communications, Energy & Natural Resources. During that time he was responsible at PO level for HR (including 2 decentralisation programmes), national energy policy and more recently digital policy, including leading on the National Broadband Scheme and the current National Broadband Plan. He has also had extensive policy involvement at EU level and significant corporate governance experience of both commercial and non-commercial State companies.The National Open Data Initiative in Ireland is led by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, and is a key part of reform activities aiming to build more open, transparent and accountable public governance in Ireland. Over 10,000 datasets are available on the Open Data Portal from a wide range of Public Sector publishers, including the Health Services Executive, the Central Statistics Office and Tusla.

Ireland has been highlighted as an Open Data Leader in Europe, ranking 1st for the third year running in the Open Data Maturity Report in terms of readiness and quality of data published, use, and impact.

The Open Data Strategy 2017-2022 builds on the substantial achievements of the Open Data Initiative and sets out a roadmap for the Initiative’s continued progress and development for the next five years.