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DUG: More News

January 8, 2012
Letter to the Rt. Hon. Francis Maude MP - "The National Address Gazetteer: being run in the interests of Ordnance Survey, to the detriment of citizens and the private sector"
You can see this letter from DUG to Francis Maude here
In particular:
“...........For anyone outside the public sector, the prices for GB coverage and 100+ users range between £130,000 p.a. for the basic version to £189,000 p.a. for the full product. Even a single user would have to pay £24,000 p.a. These prices are prohibitive for almost all potential customers, and appear designed to protect OS’s existing policy of setting high prices for a small captive market.”
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January 7, 2012
ONS is seeking users' involvement in designing its website for delivering 2011 Census outputs
ONS is currently developing its website to provide access to 2011 Census outputs, which are planned to start in July. It is seeking users’ views during January & February.

If you would like to learn more, please contact julie.peters@ons.gsi.gov.uk before the end of January.
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January 6, 2012
RSS Open Meeting "Measuring Well-Being" - 8th March 2012, 5PM- c.7PM
Several DUG members have expressed interest in this topic: here’s a chance to catch up on developments at a 2-hour meeting after work – see the details here
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January 5, 2012
Job Vacancies – Sainsbury's (closing date 22 January 2012)
Here's the latest job advertisement, with Sainsbury’s seeking Senior Location Analysts:
http://www.demographicsusergroup.co.uk/jobs.html
Earlier Job Vacancy announcements can also be seen at the tab to the left.
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January 2, 2012
Happy New Year........... & here's a summary of our all activities in 2011
Looking back on the past year, you’ll find a summary of DUG’s activities during 2011 here

As you’ll see, it’s been another busy and successful year, with members sharing their experience in numerous ways, supporting the ONS in its case for what proved to be a successful Census, and the government both investigating the alternatives to another traditional Census, and continuing to promote the policies of Open Data: these initiatives led to Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, receiving this year’s DUG Award at the Royal Society in October.
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December 17, 2011
Andrew Dilnot confirmed as the new Chair of the UK Statistics Authority
Andrew Dilnot – a great advocate of making statistics accessible to wider audiences – has been appointed as the new Chair of the UK Statistics Authority, succeeding Sir Michael Scholar.

His “brilliant performance” before the Public Administration Select Committee can be seen at:
http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=9632
The appointment has now been endorsed by the House of Commons, and Andrew will take up the post in April.
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December 17, 2011
Google Public Data Explorer
If you are not already aware of Google’s Public Data Explorer, here’s some news:

“The Google Public Data Explorer makes large, public-interest datasets easy to explore, visualize and communicate. As the charts and maps animate over time, the changes in the world become easier to understand. You don't have to be a data expert to navigate between different views, make your own comparisons, and share your findings.
Students, journalists, policy makers and everyone else can play with the tool to create visualizations of public data, link to them, or embed them in their own webpages. Embedded charts and links can update automatically so you’re always sharing the latest available data.”
You can find out more at: http://support.google.com/publicdata/?hl=en
And some examples from around the world at: http://www.google.com/publicdata
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December 14, 2011
News of further useful statistics from DWP
Amongst all the free datasets flowing from government, and publicised on the very useful http://www.data4nr.net/ website, the following may be of particular interest:
National Insurance Number (NINo) allocations to overseas nationals entering the UK. These are only at Local Authority District level, but do give the countries of origin for the c.700,000 people who arrived in 2009. http://www.data4nr.net/resources/1112/
Workless benefit claimants at Output Area level (Updated for quarter 2 2011). These are unusual, in being down at Output Area level. http://www.data4nr.net/resources/1408/
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December 6, 2011
M&S – Steve Bond appointed as Director of the Customer Insight Unit and Loyalty
DUG members will be delighted to learn that Steve Bond has been promoted to Director at M&S.

As many of you will know, Steve was one of the founders of the group in 1998, and has been an active in encouraging and guiding our development ever since.

His new role will further add to DUG’s influence, especially within government.
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December 6, 2011
Autumn Statement – "The Government is making available for free a range of core reference data sets" – further news
Following up the news (29 November) about the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, you’ll find most detail about the new free datasets in this 13-page document:
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/open-data-measures-autumn-statement-2011
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November 29, 2011
Autumn Statement announcement - "The Government is making available for free a range of core reference data sets"
Here below is news about government moves on open (free) data – including Land Registry, Companies House, & the Met Office – and also the Public Data Corporation.

The tide is still flowing in favour of making more data free (although it’s not yet a total victory).

“The Government has today announced that:
To support the growth of high-value data businesses and make access to data easier for startups, the Government is making available for free a range of core reference data sets. In addition it is announcing the creation of a Data Strategy Board and a Public Data Group which will maximise the value of data the public sector buys from the Met Office, Ordnance Survey, Land Registry and Companies House.

Delivering on its commitment to establish a Public Data Corporation, Government has announced the establishment of a Data Strategy Board (DSB) which will seek to maximise the value of data from the Public Data Group (PDG) of Trading Funds for long-term economic and social benefit, including through the release of data free of charge.

Sending a clear signal of the DSB’s mandate, Government is announcing the release of additional core reference datasets for unrestricted use from the PDG, including, for the first time, weather observation and detailed weather forecast data and core data from the Companies Register.

The PDG currently includes Ordnance Survey, Met Office, HM Land Registry and Companies House. The Group will identify and deliver efficiencies and synergies to reduce the cost of data for users and re-users of data and provide additional funding for making data freely available.

This change clearly separates the commissioning and provision functions of public data, rebalancing the incentives to release more data for free, as well as strengthening the capability of Government to commission data for its own needs.
This announcement signals a significant step towards making additional core reference data from the Met Office, Ordnance Survey, HM Land Registry and Companies House available and free at the point of use
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For further information on the wider announcement please see the following link:
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/news/open-data-measures-growth-review “
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November 12, 2011
Open Data initiative moves into the world of consumers' personal data – "Midata"
The Government has announced a ground-breaking partnership with 26 organisations to deliver a new era of consumer empowerment. The businesses, consumer bodies and regulators involved are all committed to working with Government to achieve its vision for “midata”, launched today. And all are endorsing the key principle that data should be released back to consumers. “midata” is a voluntary programme the Government is undertaking with industry, which over time will give consumers increasing access to their personal data in a portable, electronic format..........”
You can read more about it in a press release from the Department for Business Innovation & Skills: http://www.bis.gov.uk/news/topstories/2011/Nov/midata which includes a list of 19 companies (including E.ON) who have committed so far.
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November 2, 2011
DUG’s annual conference: presentations, & the winner of our 2011 Award for “Better information from government” is…………Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office
DUG’s annual Conference, held at the Royal Society on 12 October, was a great success.

The presentations are now on the website (see tab to the left).

Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, came to collect our Award “for his enthusiastic promotion of the policies of Open Data, and investigating alternatives to another traditional Census”. The citation reads:
“Commercial companies have been making the case for better access to government datasets for more than a decade. Public pressure has grown, but it is vital to have strong ministerial direction to make progress. Francis Maude is giving this, vigorously promoting both better access to existing government data, and also the exploration of new sources which would make another traditional Census unnecessary. Members of the Demographics User Group strongly welcome these developments, which will increase the efficiency of services to their customers, and fuel innovation.”
The event was reported in a Cabinet Office Press Release:
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/news/top-companies-commend-francis-maude-open-data
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November 1, 2011
Neighbourhood Statistics Update (Datasets, New Atlas of Deprivation, Local Profiles, plus Rural/Urban info)
Here’s the latest news from ONS’s Neighbourhood Statistics team:
New Datasets
• Tax Credit Claimants 2006, 2007, 2008 (Lower Layer Super Output Area)
• Resident Population Estimates by Broad Age Band, 2010 (Middle Layer Super Output Area)
• Benefits Data, February 2011: Working Age Client Group; Incapacity Benefit/Severe Disablement Allowance Claimants (Lower Layer Super Output Area)
News and Information
• The Atlas of Deprivation (based on the 2010 Indices of Multiple Deprivation) is now available as a download from the NeSS website.
• An update to the Local Authority Profiles is now available. These profiles help authorities better understand the economic, social and environmental picture of their area.
Also, on urban / rural matters:
• Podcasts – two video presentations on rural and urban areas have been released: one summarises an article on measuring the differences, the other gives guidance on using and mapping rural/urban classifications.
• A google map showing the Rural Urban Definition for England and Wales is now available. The map is based on the definition used in a recent Regional Trends 43 article and can be navigated by typing in an address or postcode.
• A user survey on the proposed options to update the urban areas dataset and rural-urban definition classification for England and Wales has been launched and will run until 25 November. [see KD’s next message below]
http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/Info.do?page=news/newsitems/ness-update---septemberoctober-2011.htm
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October 27, 2011
ONS's plans to revise urban area boundaries and the rural-urban definition/classification following the 2011 Census
A project is considering how the urban areas dataset and rural-urban definition/classification for England and Wales might be updated following the 2011 Census to ensure that they remain relevant and fit for purpose. ONS has a “user engagement document”:

http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/Info.do;jessionid=9d95TpYRJYHjsr48NrMD5Q6xKKLpTFsZvMbJLMzh2Tr1yRhv0pmK!1653616029!1319737521905?m=0&s=1319737521905&enc=1&page=analysisandguidance/analysisarticles/rural-and-urban-areas-comparing-lives-using-ruralurban-classifications.htm&nsjs=true&nsck=true&nssvg=false&nswid=1280
.............which they suggest reading before filling in their survey.
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October 27, 2011
ONS's Launch of the "Beyond 2011" – alternatives to another Census – User Requirements Consultation
As we await the first results of the 2011 Census next July, here's news of "Beyond 2011" – ONS's investigation of whether other data sources might be used instead of holding another traditional Census.
This consultation is focusing on the needs of users of information (rather than possible sources of data). You'll see that there's a consultation document, & also some workshops.
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/about-ons/consultations/open-consultations/index.html

Also, by way of background, you might be interested in the attached paper "Beyond the 2011 Census in the United Kingdom, with an international perspective", written by four members of the MRS's Census Geodemographics Group.
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October 26, 2011
The demand for, and feasibility of, a UK-wide Index of Multiple Deprivation – UKSA report
This topic had arisen at DUG meetings – with interest in not only those areas that are most deprived, but also implicitly those at the other end of the spectrum too.

I’ve just spotted that it has recently been investigated by the UK Statistics Authority, which has published this Brief.

The UKSA’s headline conclusion is “At the current time, the Authority does not see a sufficiently strong case for the development of a UK-wide IMD by government to justify the additional resources needed, but we have concluded nonetheless that some further steps would help meet the needs of users with an interest in deprivation across the UK.”
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October 23, 2011
Presentation slides from ONS's 2011 Census September roadshows
Here's a message from ONS which starts:
“I am confident that we have achieved a response rate of 94 per cent nationally and over 80 per cent in every local authority. Across London, the estimated response rate in most London boroughs is between 5 and 15 percentage points better than in 2001, and across the capital as a whole I am also confident we have reached a response rate of over 90 per cent.” - Glen Watson, 2011 Census Director - July 2011

How this was achieved, what happened in the field operations, and what happens between September 2011 and the delivery of the statistics were all questions answered in a series of nationwide roadshows held in September 2011. Topics included:
• the field operations challenges and successes (this includes info on the address register)
• from questionnaire to datasets - ensuring the quality of census information
• delivering the census data: how, when and what; what's next?
Here’s a link to the presentations:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/census/2011/the-2011-census/census-consultations/planned-events/index.html
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October 23, 2011
Retail research: (1) Geography of e-commerce; (2) Deep discount food retailing
Following DUG’s September meeting, Professor Martin Clarke at the University of Leeds has sent news of retail research: (1) Geography of e-commerce; (2) Deep discount food retailing
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October 11, 2011
Cabinet Office Consultations – Open Data, and the proposed Public Data Corporation - DUG's responses
Following the earlier news (see August 4 news) here are DUG’s responses:
Open Data
Public Data Corporation
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October 9, 2011
"There's a wealth of data out there – why not let us use it?" – article in the Guardian
It’s good to see yet more support for freeing up government data (especially postcodes) from Ben Goldacre in his latest article in the Guardian (8 October):

“Bad things happen when problems are protected by a forcefield of tediousness. Here is an example. Data is the fabric of the modern world: just like we walk down pavements, so we trace routes through data, and build knowledge and products out of it. The government has lots of data that has already been collected, because it has needed it to run the country properly: simple stuff like maps, postcode areas, land ownership, procurement data, endless weather readings, and so on.
Right now a fight is happening in Whitehall, with two factions in government: one group thinks we should give this data away for free, as a matter of principle, because it will make good things happen; the other thinks we should restrict access, and sell it. A consultation is under way. Despite a positive ministerial introduction, each of the three options it gives for releasing data is foolishly restrictive. Here's why that's a problem.......”
Read more at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/07/wealth-of-data-locked-away
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October 3, 2011
"The time is right for a single national address database" – Opinion in "Database Marketing"
Peter Sleight, Chair of the Association of Census Distributors, is pushing the case for this in an excellent article in September’s Database Marketing.

http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1tzou/DatabaseMarketingSep/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=
& click through to page 12.

September 21, 2011
ONS Census News Alert - Workshops on 2011 specialist outputs
Here’s news from ONS about four workshops taking place in October & November:
To date consultations on the design of 2011 Census Outputs have concentrated on the main statistical series of outputs. The 2011 Census design team are now planning to hold four workshops on more specialised products and services. These are:
Small populations (concentrated in particular areas) – 24th October 2011
Analytical products – 25th October 2011
Origin and Destination outputs – 26th October 2011
Microdata – 11th November 2011
If you interested in attending one or more of the events, please see:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/census/2011/the-2011-census/census-consultations/planned-events/index.html u
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August 30, 2011
Launch of ONS's new website
ONS’s has gone live at http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/index.html
The headlines are:

• Information published on the new website. There is a 'Welcome to the new ONS website' section in the carousel at the centre of the website home page. This includes tips on finding content, plus information on how the website has changed and why ONS made those changes.

• Tutorials on YouTube. Tutorials on finding information on the new website are available at www.youtube.com/ONSstats . These include tips on searching, finding publications, using Key Figures and browsing to find statistics on a particular topic.

• Census. You can access census information from the Guidance and methodology tab and also from the Related links panel on the home page.

• Support for users – Customer Contact Centre. Help is available by emailing info@statistics.gov.uk or phoning 0845 601 3034. If you wish to send any feedback on the new site, this should also be sent to info@statistics.gov.uk .
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August 18, 2011
"Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity" – report by McKinsey
You may find this report a heartening read:

“The amount of data in our world has been exploding and analyzing large data sets—so-called big data—will become a key basis of competition, underpinning new waves of productivity growth, innovation, and consumer surplus, according to research by MGI and McKinsey's Business Technology Office. Leaders in every sector will have to grapple with the implications of big data, not just a few data-oriented managers. The increasing volume and detail of information captured by enterprises, the rise of multimedia, social media, and the Internet of Things will fuel exponential growth in data for the foreseeable future........”

And

“Analyzing large data sets—so called big data—will become a key basis of competition, underpinning new waves of productivity growth, innovation, and consumer surplus as long as the right policies and enablers are in place. Research by MGI and McKinsey's Business Technology Office examines the state of digital data and documents the significant value that can potentially be unlocked. However, companies and policy makers must tackle significant hurdles to fully capture big data's potential – including a shortage of skilled analysts and managers.....”
You can download the report at: http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/publications/big_data/index.asp
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August 11, 2011
AGI’s conference, 20-22 September 2011, Nottingham
Here’s news of the Association for Geographical Information’s GeoCommunity '11 event:

“AGI GeoCommunity is the largest and most comprehensive independent conference in the UK digital mapping and data calendar. The conference provides tangible insight and leadership in current geographic information and location based issues via a range of keynote addresses and conference papers, a showcase exhibition, as well as by hands on training and face to face delegate networking. The event is already a 'must attend' for decision makers, practitioners and thought leaders from all aspects of the public and private sectors.”
You can find out more at http://www.agigeocommunity.com/ which includes the Conference Programme and its multiple streams, and also Delegate Fees and Registration.
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August 8, 2011
MRS seminar on 2011 UK Census – 4 July 2011: presentations now available
You can now see the presentations from this seminar (see earlier details below, 20 April) at: http://www.mrs.org.uk/networking/cgg/july2011_census.htm

They include news from ONS, Annette Dellevoet’s presentation on location planning at Sainsbury’s, and also Martin van Staveren’s detailed review of 2011 Census questions and the changes since the Census in 2001 (which will be very useful for reference when we start to get results later next year).
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August 4, 2011
Two Cabinet Office Consultations launched today – Open Data, and the proposed Public Data Corporation
Today the Cabinet Office has launched two consultations relating to government data.

1. Open Data policy in UK Government: see www.data.gov.uk/opendataconsultation

2. Data policy for a Public Data Corporation (from the Cabinet Office & BIS): see http://discuss.bis.gov.uk/pdc/

You can see a video of a short upbeat presentation by Francis Maude in the Cabinet Office press release:
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/news/how-should-government-become-even-more-open

It’s great to see such momentum behind this, although the minister does mention that there will be charging for some data.

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July 29, 2011
Google maps adds London Transport directions
“Google Maps has now included public transport directions for London travel on its website and mobile app. The directions on the web will help guide you from A to B in London with step by step directions, including which Underground station or bus stop to go and how long each step of your journey will take. Using the mobile app you are able to get directions from your current location using the GPS on your phone, meaning you can constantly stay on track in the British capital..............”.
See more at:
http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/google-maps-adds-london-public-transport-directions-984575
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July 29, 2011
ONS's Census News Alert – Latest Update, + roadshows in September
Here’s the latest news from ONS about its plans for 2011 Census Outputs:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011-census/produce-deliver-data/2011-census-outputs It includes:

* Analysis of the recent consultation on Outputs. We had expressed our views on May 12 – see below.

* The proposed running order for outputs. The first statistics – at Local Authority level – are expected in July 2012, followed by univariate counts at Output Area level as the next priority, which is good news.

ONS is also planning a series of roadshows throughout England and Wales in September 2011:
"To give all our stakeholders an opportunity to ask questions, find out what happens next and obtain details of the release of census data. Roadshow presentations will be published after the events have been completed. The attached flyer gives full details, including locations of what should be a series of very informative events. Book now to ensure your participation."
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July 21, 2011
News from Data4nr of more free datasets – Accessibility (to Supermarkets, GPs, etc)
Data for Neighbourhood Renewal continues to announce more new datasets:
http://www.data4nr.net/

The ones which are likely to catch the eye of DUG members are those on Accessibility from the Department of Transport, e.g. http://www.data4nr.net/resources/836/
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July 14, 2011
Census 2011: Conference on its impact and potential, Manchester, 7- 8 July 2011 - Presentations
Last week’s Census conference in Manchester had lots of speakers across a wide range of topics.
Most of the presentations are now on the web at: http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/sars/conference2011/

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July 13, 2011
ONS Income Estimates – Map mashup - enter a postcode.........
ONS is now presenting its small area Income estimates as a map mashup: http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/HTMLDocs/incomeestimates.html
There’s a further link to “Download data and more information”, which includes “These estimates provide the average household income for small areas within England and Wales. It is the income a household receives from wages and salaries, self-employment, benefits, pensions, plus any other sources of income. These estimates are produced at Middle Layer Super Output Area (MSOA) level.”
Our ex-ONS friend Chris Denham has commented: “This map is a breakthrough for ONS as a mash up of National Statistics with Google maps – with an underlay of streets, plus Street View for a 'walk through' of any locality (drag the yellow pegman), or satellite imagery. The map is searchable by postcode or place name, and has a choice of four measures of household income. Clicking on an MSOA will create a pop up of data for the area.”

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July 10, 2011
Government to publish new data on health, schools, courts and transport
The Cabinet Office has announced (7 July) the release of more key data on the National Health Service, schools, criminal courts and transport:

“This represents the most ambitious open data agenda of any government anywhere in the world. The new data will reveal clinical achievements and prescribing data by individual GP practices, the performance of hospital teams in treating lung cancer and other key healthcare conditions, the effectiveness of schools at teaching pupils across a range of subjects, criminal sentencing by each court, and data on rail timetables, rail service performance, roadworks, current road conditions, car parks and cycle routes in an open format for use by all.”
More details are given at: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/news/government-publish-new-data-health-schools-courts-and-transport
Amongst the list of datasets, the following caught my eye as of potential interest to various DUG members:

• Prescribing data by GP practice to be published by December 2011.
• Information about schools & their pupils.
• Data on current and future roadworks on the Strategic Road Network to be published from October 2011, and subject to consultation to extend this during 2012 to Local Authority Streetworks Registers maintained under statute.
• All remaining Government-owned free datasets from Transport Direct, including cycle route data and the national car park database to be made available for free re-use from October 2011.
• Real time data on the Strategic Road Network including incidents, speeds and congestion to be published from December 2011. Office of Rail Regulation to increase the amount of data published relating to service performance and complaints by May 2012.
• Rail timetable information to be published weekly by National Rail from December 2011.
• Government procurement card spend data
…… and there may well be other nuggets of value to you.

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July 10, 2011
MP's turn down the nomination for the next Chair of the UK Statistics Authority
Here’s news from the Financial Times on 7 July of the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee rejecting the civil service’s nomination of a successor for Sir Michael Scholar as the next Chair of the UK Statistics Authority:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e525ac1c-a874-11e0-8a97-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1RbmpGtL6
Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative chairman of the committee, said: “The panel appointed to make the selection seemed to be very much like the regulated choosing their regulator.” The Independent reported that MPs had questioned whether the nominee – Dame Janet Finch – would be a "stooge" for the Government.
It’s the first time such a thing has happened, and could signal that the new Chair will have more independence, and greater influence over the producers of statistics across government.

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July 5, 2011
Good news of 2011 Census response rates / coverage in England & Wales
ONS’s Glen Watson, Census Director, spoke in public for the first time yesterday about response rates:

• Confident of hitting the 94% national response rate target [similar to 2001]
• Over 80% in every Local Authority [important both technically & politically – Kensington & Chelsea was only c.65% in 2001]
• > 90% in Greater London as a whole [better than last time, reflecting the benefits of targeting]
Also:
• The voluntary (NB) Census Coverage Survey has a c.90% response. [Amazing, and really important when ONS comes to estimate & impute those people who were missed].
All in all, very encouraging for ONS coming up with plausible final numbers.

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July 2, 2011
2011 Census Outputs – Scotland
Following our response to the Scottish Census Office’s outputs consultation (see below, 3 April), here below is news of the detailed tables that they are planning to produce:
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/census/censushm2011/preparations/consultation-and-research/formal-consultations-supplementary-work/feb-2011.html
You’ll also see that the “General Register Office” has now been joined into the new “National Records of Scotland”.

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July 2, 2011
2011 Census – successful data collection - & ONS's planning for outputs
With the Census data collection apparently having been carried out successfully (we should get more news next week),
ONS has just announced its current plans for outputs:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011-census/produce-deliver-data/2011-census-outputs/index.html
A proposed running order for outputs is due this month, with a full outputs prospectus & release timetable in March 2012.
The first statistics – at Local Authority level – are expected in July 2012, followed by Key Statistics at Output Area level as the next priority (which we’ll welcome) later in 2012.
Meanwhile, consultation continues on some of the more specialist outputs, including workplace statistics, and commuting & migrant flows.

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July 2, 2011
Francis Maude's speech to the CBI annual business summit – further commitment to Transparency & access to public data
The text of a recent speech by Francis Maude, minister for the Cabinet Office, to the CBI, includes:

“The other side to the Transparency agenda is about boosting the economy. Firms in areas as diverse as life sciences and insurance have told us that better access to public data would help them grow their businesses. And dozens of bright new apps and websites have sprung up on the basis of public information published so far. A new study from McKinsey estimates that across Europe the enterprise and productivity benefits of open public data assets could be worth 250bn euros a year. Look across the Atlantic at the multi-billion dollar American health informatics industry, and that doesn't seem far-fetched.”

“The Prime Minister will shortly be publishing a letter outlining our open data philosophy, and detailing several extremely significant - and potentially controversial - new datasets that we will be publishing from next year, in the areas of health, education, transport and criminal justice. I can't pre-empt him by saying more here, but urge you to believe, as I do, that they are part of a fundamental change for the better in the way we use, scrutinise and provide all our public services.”
Watch this space....

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June 22, 2011
Cabinet Office minister's second seminar on “Developing Census Alternatives”
Following the meeting held in November, Francis Maude was as good as his word and held a second meeting yesterday.
ONS gave a presentation which focussed on their comparisons of DWP and NHS data with their estimates – the results were encouraging, and well received.
There was lots of discussion, with the key points from Francis Maude including:

• Recognition that the future of PAF in the National Address Gazetteer is an important issue
• “If data sharing between government departments is bogged down by legislation, we can change the law”
• The importance of looking at commercial data sources as well as government (although I’m not sure that the distinction between VARs such as Experian, and companies such as DUG members with customer data is always realised)
• This isn’t simply looking towards an alternative to a 2021 Census – it needs to be incremental, testing data on the way.
All in all, another encouraging session – but ONS will have to push ahead fast if they are to make real progress.

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May 28, 2011
Open data / LinkedData at DCLG – the English Indices of Deprivation and more… & the 2011 Census?
If you are interested in the potential of Open data / LinkedData might like to know that the 2007 and 2010 Index of Multiple Deprivation datasets have now been released in full LinkedData form, albeit on a trial/prototype basis. You can read an article about it at:
http://openviz.wordpress.com/2011/05/23/open-data-at-dclg-the-english-indices-of-deprivation-and-more/
Perhaps such an approach help with our access to big files of 2011 Census stats later next year….

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May 27, 2011
Data4nr updates – some new free datasets for small areas
“Data for Neighbourhoods and Regeneration” http://www.data4nr.net/introduction/ “identifies and signposts the datasets available for targeting, monitoring, priority setting and performance management at a neighbourhood level.”
Some recent ones which might be of interest to DUG members for targeting local areas, or perhaps for modelling (they are all at Lower Super Output Area level), are:

Income Support (IS) (Updated for November 2010) http://www.data4nr.net/resources/370/
State Pension (Updated for November 2010) http://www.data4nr.net/resources/406/
Fuel poverty sub-regional statistics (New, Available for 2008) http://www.data4nr.net/resources/1457/
Population estimates by broad age band http://www.data4nr.net/resources/527/
Child Benefit (Updated for 2010) http://www.data4nr.net/resources/405/

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May 27, 2011
Census 2011: Conference on its impact and potential, Manchester, 7- 8 July 2011
If you really want to get immersed in preparing for the arrival of the 2011 Census results next summer / autumn, here’s the event for you – a 2-day Conference in Manchester, organised by the ESRC (with Professor Dave Martin taking the lead).
For more information and booking please go to http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/sars/conference2011/

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May 18, 2011
"Chancellor of the Exchequer wants businesses to take advantage of big data", + news of National Address Gazetteer
It’s good to see that the Government is still committed to pushing ahead in opening up more data:
George Osborne, at the Google Zeitgeist meeting on Monday, spoke of the great social & economic benefits that could come from open data, and “We will have a specific focus on open data over the coming months, to ensure that we maximise the business opportunities at hand”.
Read more at:
http://www.itpro.co.uk/633490/osborne-expects-big-business-from-big-data?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Itpro%2FNews+%28IT+PRO+-+News%29
Also, at a meeting last night, Francis Maude (Minister for the Cabinet Office) when questioned by DUG about the new National Address Gazetteer being made freely available to all – not just the public sector – stated that “This is unfinished business”.

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May 12, 2011
ONS 2011 Outputs Consultations, 2nd Round – DUG's responses
Following the News on February 8 below, here are the responses now sent to ONS on behalf of DUG:
1. Outputs. Please see the document attached
2. Geography. Our reply simply:
- expressed support for ONS's Geography policy, subject to Workplace Zones being an additional option, rather than a replacement for OAs for workplace stats
- welcomed the proposed geography products, and confirmed that we would be content with best-fit wards.

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April 25, 2011
AGI / DUG User Needs Workshop on the UK Location Programme - 9 June

Here’s news of a joint Association for Geographical Information / DUG event, and we would really appreciate your support by attending if at all possible.

Title: Growing Location-based Applications in Retail, Financial Services and Transport sectors: How can the UK Location Programme help?
Time: Thursday 9th June, 9.30-16.00
Place: School of Economic Science, 11 Mandeville Place, London W1U 3AJ
Cost: NOW FREE (due to generous financial support from the UK Location Programme)
The event will provide a golden opportunity for commercial companies to provide input to the direction of the UK Location Programme http://location.defra.gov.uk/ . A lot of Government effort is being put into developing powerful web services for geographical data discovery, geospatial data view and download, but there is an awareness by the UKLP, and its Location User Group – where DUG is represented by Mike Whitelegge of M&S – that such initiatives should benefit users not only public services, but also the private sector.
Details of the programme and registration are at:
http://calendar.agi.org.uk/ViewItem.html?integral=0&cal_item_id=990&dtwhen=2455722&style_sheet=userStyle.css&checkafter=1303284363568
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April 21, 2011
Making data accessible – Guardian Chalkboards

Following the discussion at our most recent meeting about taking data and making it easily accessible for the public, here’s a great (football) example provided by Lee Madden at Barclays: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/mar/07/liverpool-manchester-united-chalkboard-analysis
Note the "make your own" button. Lee’s done just that – see attached.
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April 20, 2011
MRS seminar on 2011 UK Census – afternoon, 4 July 2011

Here’s news of a seminar on the 2011 Census.

You’ll see that the great line-up of speakers includes Annette Dellevoet of Sainsbury’s.

The announcement below includes a link to a booking form.

http://www.mrs.org.uk/networking/cgg/july2011_census.htm
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April 6, 2011
Population 24/7 – Tracking individuals by phone

Following Professor David Martin’s presentation on Population 24/7 at the most recent DUG meeting, Norman Bekker at Whitbread has alerted me to this:

A German politician went to court to make Deutsche Telecom divulge all the information they held on him. He won and was given a 36,000 line spread sheet. The German paper Die Zeit then produced this Google earth related application using the data supplied. Open the link and see what your phone can reveal: http://www.zeit.de/datenschutz/malte-spitz-data-retention
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April 3, 2011
2011 Census: GRO Scotland Consultation – DUG’s Response

Following our response to the previous consultation (see the posting on May 6,2010) GRO Scotland has been seeking further views:
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/census/censushm2011/preparations/consultation-and-research/formal-consultations/feb-2011.html
Having made lots of general points (most of which were accepted) before, this consultation goes into detail about table designs. The general approach is to reproduce what was provided in 2001 whenever possible, and add new tables for the new Census questions.
Here is the response that has now been sent to GRO Scotland.
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March 24, 2011
English Indices of Deprivation 2010 published today

Several DUG member companies are likely to be interested in the latest Index of Multiple Deprivation – both the highest and lowest ranking areas.

It “combines a number of indicators, chosen to cover a range of economic, social and housing issues, into a single deprivation score for each small area in England. This allows each area to be ranked relative to one another according to their level of deprivation. As with the 2007 and 2004 Indices, the Indices of Deprivation 2010 have been produced at Lower Super Output Area level, of which there are 32,482 in the country.”

http://www.communities.gov.uk/communities/research/indicesdeprivation/deprivation10/
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March 14, 2011
Public Data Corporation – DUG's letter to the Cabinet Office

An earlier message (23 February) reported that the government has announced the idea of setting up a Public Data Corporation to “open up opportunities for innovative developers, businesses and members of the public to generate social and economic growth through the use of data”, and that there was an informal public consultation.
Following the workshop held by the Cabinet Office and the Shareholder Executive on 4 March – it was good to see some DUG members there – this letter has been sent from DUG.

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March 5, 2011
Press coverage: Two stories about the 2011 Census (& DUG) in Marketing magazine, plus a 3rd in the Daily Mail

Marketing magazine (2 March) had a two stories this week on the 2011 Census which mention DUG:
“Government targets UK brands in quest for census data” (front page lead story in the printed edition)
http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/News/MostEmailed/1057488/Government-targets-UK-brands-quest-census-data/
“Census: marketing tool or obsolete?”
http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/bulletin/dailynews/article/1057539/?DCMP=EMC-BreakingnewsfromMarketing
The Daily Mail (2 March) then picked up the news, and gave the story its own (typical) treatment:
“Could 2011 see the last-ever census? Supermarket loyalty cards may be used instead”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1362046/Could-2011-census-Supermarket-loyalty-cards-used-instead.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
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February 28, 2011
"The Demography of Ageing and Official Statistics" Northern Ireland 17-19 August 2011

An International Association for Official Statistics conference will be held in Belfast between 17th and 19th August 2011. The draft programme can be seen here.
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February 23, 2011
National Address Gazetteer – OFT decision; plus news of a Public Data Corporation

Following our letter (see news item 4 Jan) the Office of Fair Trading has now announced that it has “cleared national addressing database joint venture”:
http://www.oft.gov.uk/news-and-updates/press/2011/18-11
Whilst it fails to recognise the potential use in the private sector, and there are lots of loose ends (such as the future of the Postcode Address File), at least it opens the way for the file to be created, even if free use is currently restricted to the public sector.
On this issue, the Department for Communities and Local Government has replied to our letter to Francis Maude (see news item 21 Dec), and includes the phrase “.....we are continuing to work with the relevant bodies to identify if there might be additional benefits to making addressing data available for free.” So we will continue to make the case.
On a wider front, the government has announced the idea of setting up a Public Data Corporation to “open up opportunities for innovative developers, businesses and members of the public to generate social and economic growth through the use of data.” There is now a public consultation, which closes on 11 March: http://pdcengagement.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/pdc/

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February 9, 2011
MRS afternoon seminar "Using Data and Technology to Manage Customers across Multiple Channels" - 15 March 2011, London

Here’s news of an afternoon seminar organised by the Market Research Society’s Census & Geodemographics Group:
“In today’s fast moving, technological environment, with increasingly sophisticated consumers, marketing issues are becoming ever more complex. With consumers shopping online, whilst browsing Facebook and watching TV, there are many pitfalls for the marketer that must be avoided, and there is much to understand about the multi-tasking customer, especially in bridging the gap between online and offline activity. The Changing Interface of Marketing seminar, chaired by Barry Leventhal – Director of BarryAnalytics – aims to address these issues and potential pitfalls with presentations from an impressive line-up of speakers:
Steven Plimsoll, Acxiom – Linking Social Media to marketing activity
Heidi Thompson, CACI – The Art of Good (Customer) Conversation
Nigel Wilson, Experian – Search, online competitor intelligence and the role of segmentation
Dave Evans, Information Commissioner's Office – Data Protection, targeting, and fairness”
More details, including the booking form, are available at:
http://www.mrs.org.uk/networking/cgg/changing_interface_marketing.htm

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February 8, 2011
ONS Census News Alert – 2011 Outputs – Consultation, 2nd Round

The Census itself is almost upon us (27 March), and ONS is having a second round of consultation on Census Outputs.
http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011-census/consultations/open-consultations/2011-output-consultation---main-statistical-outputs---second-round/index.html

The deadline for responses is 29 April.
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January 25, 2011
ONS's Wealth and Assets Survey – now analysed using the Output Area Classification (OAC)

You may remember that ONS published its new Wealth and Assets Survey at the end on 2009 (see news item 11 Dec 2009 below).

I'm delighted to report that not only has the survey been coded with the OAC geodemographic classification, but there's a paper "Exploring the geographical distribution of wealth using the output area classification" in the latest Economic & Labour Market Review (Jan 2011). http://www.statistics.gov.uk/articles/elmr/elmr-jan11.pdf - pages 59-78.
You'll see some dramatic profiles of the variations in Total, Property, Pension, Financial and Physical Wealth by neighbourhood type.
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January 14, 2011
Data on Car Parking from Betts Consulting

Just in case not all of you are aware of this as a data source, here is news from Ian Betts about his information on car parks.
The anoraks amongst us will be interested to see a grand total of 13,795, of which 91.58% are postcoded.
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January 14, 2011
ONS's latest 2011 Census News Alert – inc. a Roadshow on plans for Outputs

Here’s an alert from ONS which includes news of its further consultation on 2011 Census outputs. You may want to book a place on one of the roadshows if you'd like to keep up with current plans.
http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011-census/news-and-events/events/index.html
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January 4, 2011
ONS Spending Review – User Consultation – DUG's response

Here is our response to ONS's consultation about its spending priorities (other than the Census, which is ring-fenced).
You'll see that the answers focus very much on our primary interests, when seeking to target consumers and local markets.
"Our general view is that when seeking to make cuts ONS should seek to use statistics from administrative sources (which also offer small area statistics) rather than large sample surveys (which may be then be carried out less frequently). This may also help with another of our goals: more timely statistics."
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January 4, 2011
National Address Gazetteer – letter to the OFT
Following our letter to the Cabinet Office (see 21 Dec), here is a related letter to the Office of Fair Trading.
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December 22, 2010
data.gov.uk, & "Open Government Data – from a DUG user point of view"

Here is a presentation given at a TNA meeting on Transparency on 7 December. Slides 1-9 give the context, & 10-13 focus on the website, a shopping list of datasets, and some current issues.
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December 21, 2010
Letter to the Rt. Hon. Francis Maude MP: Transparency, and the new National Address Gazetteer – free use shouldn't be limited to just the public sector

With many thanks to DUG Contacts for their comments on an earlier draft, here is a letter just sent to the Cabinet Office.
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December 16, 2010
Mapping the US Census

Here’s some news spotted by Pablo Mateos at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at UCL.
The New York Times has just launched a Census Atlas based on the ACS (American Community Survey 2005-2009) http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer which illustrates the sorts of presentation that should become available for our own 2011 Census.
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December 16, 2010
Neighbourhood Statistics Monthly Update – December 2010 – inc. house prices

Here’s a link to the latest update from Neighbourhood Statistics.
http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/Info.do;jessionid=ac1f930d30d51613d3d1924044e98c05f7d785ecbdf3?m=0&s=1292405583961&enc=1&page=news/newsitems/ness-monthly-update---december-2010.htm&nsjs=true&nsck=true&nssvg=true&nswid=614
The Recently Released Datasets include:
"Changes of Ownership by Dwelling Price, 2009, drawn from the Land Register.
The data provides information on the total number of changes of ownership of dwellings, with statistics on the prices paid. These figures are broken down by four specific types of dwelling:
Detached / Semi-detached / Terraced / Flat
The statistics are available down to Middle Layer Super Output Areas within England and Wales."
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December 5, 2010
ONS's 2009 Living Costs and Food Survey (was the EFS) – Household Expenditure analysed by OAC

ONS’s latest (2010) Family Spending report includes some analyses using its geodemographic Output Area Classification, OAC. See pages 99-112 at:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_social/family-spending-2009/familyspending2010.pdf
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December 5, 2010
National Address Gazetteer Database announced – but only the Public Sector gets it free at the point of use

An announcement has now been made in parliament about a definitive “National Address Gazetteer Database”, see: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wms/?id=2010-12-02a.85WS.4
It includes: “The products created from the national address gazetteer database will be made available free at the point of use for all public sector bodies under the centrally funded public sector mapping agreement. Commercial customers will be able to license the data in the same way as they do for the Ordnance Survey and local government products they use today.”
This is a good technical step forward, and is really welcome for the public sector, BUT.... everyone else, including private sector businesses (2.3m in all) and also the public (NB) are outside the tent.
This doesn't square with the government's Transparency policy (including the mooted new Public Data Corporation’s mission "to drive the release of core reference data for free re-use”), so there are still battles to be fought.
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November 1, 2010
DUG’s 2010 Conference – feedback, presentations

Here's more news of our Conference “How efficiency savings could trigger innovation in Insight” which was held at the Royal Society on 13 October:

* Feedback - this was our biggest conference so far, and to quote panellist Carol Tullo from The National Archive: “There was a tangible energy to the day, probably not unrelated to the pace and momentum of the policy and government agendas in this area and the great interest and excitement in helping shape all this.”

* The presentations are now on our website – see the tab to the left.
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October 31, 2010
Press Release – GlaxoSmithKline joins the Demographics User Group

We are delighted that GSK has joined DUG. Here’s the Press Release.
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October 30, 2010
News of a government statement on a national address register

DUG gave evidence about the 2011 Census to the House of Commons London Regional Committee in the last parliament.

The new Government’s response has just been announced, and includes the following encouraging news:

“Recommendation 14 of the report was on the need for the census address register being developed by the ONS for the 2011 census to be maintained after the census. The previous Government failed to deliver a definitive address register, despite the demands for such a register and the associated costs of inefficiency in maintaining a number of similar registers. This Government are working with the parties concerned and will look to deliver a definitive register. Considerable progress has already been achieved. The work ONS has done will form part of the solution.”

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October 24, 2010
Public Spending Review – ONS & the 2011 Census, & Beyond 2011

The early unconfirmed headlines from the government’s spending review for the ONS are:

* Census funding has survived intact, and the ONS has in addition got the funding for outputs (i.e. post April 2012).

* ONS have also got funding for "Beyond 2011", and this is to be discussed at a meeting with Francis Maude at the Cabinet Office on 18 November.

* Outside these items there will be a 5% cut in ONS funding per year in real terms which they plan to meet partly through efficiency savings and partly through real cuts.
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October 15, 2010
House prices, & some data on Income from HMRC

Land Registry – Property prices (but only at County / UA level):
Property prices (Updated for August 2010)
http://www.landreg.gov.uk/houseprices/

HMRC – 5 files concerned with people on low income, down to Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA), + Personal Incomes from tax records (albeit at Local Authority District level). This is encouraging, given that HMRC has traditionally lagged behind as a source of data.

Child Tax Credit (CTC) (Updated for 2008)
Child Tax Credit (CTC) - Lone parent recipients (Updated for 2008)
Out of work families with children (Updated for 2008)
Out of work lone parents with children (Updated for 2008)
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/ctc-small-areas.htm

NI 116 - Proportion of children in poverty (Updated for 2008)
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/child_poverty.htm
Personal Incomes from tax records (Updated for 2007/08)
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/income_distribution/menu-by-year.htm#314

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October 15, 2010
DUG Award – to Professor Nigel Shadbolt and Sir Tim Berners-Lee for data.gov.uk

This year’s DUG Award for “better information from government” – which this year is in memory of Andrew Tasker – has been scooped by Professor Nigel Shadbolt and Sir Tim Berners-Lee for the innovatory government website data.gov.uk.

You’ll see in the attached Press Release comments from:

Steve Bond (who chaired this year’s Conference):
“Commercial companies have been making the case for better access to government datasets for more than a decade. Public pressure continued to grow, but it was the appointment of Professor Nigel Shadbolt, and Sir Tim Berners-Lee, to advise on data transparency that proved to be the catalyst for radical change, with the launch of data.gov.uk in this year. Members of the Demographics User Group (DUG) are delighted with the progress, which will inform society, increase the efficiency of service delivery, and fuel innovation.”

Professor Nigel Shadbolt:
”Tim and I are delighted to accept this award on behalf of all those who have helped to make data.gov.uk a reality. Government Open Data supports transparency and accountability, it promotes efficiency and innovation – in short in makes the UK work better.”

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October 11, 2010
Putting Location-Based Ads to work

Here’s some news from the USA – see below – spotted by our friends at UCL.

“Ads targeted to a person's location are an advertiser's dream. The reality is more complicated.......”
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/26427/?nlid=3609&a=f
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September 17, 2010
MRS CGG conference - Targeting for multi-channel marketing conference - 24 November 2010

Here’s news of a conference organised by the MRS’s Census & Geodemographics Group.
http://www.mrs.org.uk/networking/cgg/targeting_multi-channel_marketing.htm
Last year’s event attracted a large audience, and you’ll see that there’s a good line-up of speakers.
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September 17, 2010
OAC conference - news of free access to the OAC-coded British Population Survey, and to software for coding customer files

The OAC Conference was a great success.
Here’s a link to all the presentations, which included news of the OAC coding of the British Population Survey (an alternative to the Target Group Index) & a presentation by Prof. Martin Callingham:
http://areaclassification.org.uk/2010/09/07/place-based-budgeting-making-efficiency-saving-with-oac-in-an-age-of-austerity/
Also, the team at UCL has developed OACoder, a tool for affixing OAC to postcoded files:
http://areaclassification.org.uk/2010/09/07/oacoder-postcode-coding-tool/
Do give it a try!
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September 17, 2010
ONS's Revised Super Output Area Mid-Year Estimates for 2001-2008

ONS has produced updated population estimates for small(ish) areas.

The revised Lower Layer and Middle Layer Super Output Mid-Year Estimates for 2001-2008 have been released today as experimental statistics on the National Statistics website. They are available to download from:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=14357
These estimates are also available on the Neighbourhood Statistics website at:http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/
User feedback on these estimates is very much welcome as this may assist in making improvements to future estimates.
The following link takes you to the Small Area Population Estimates project page, where future updates about developments and releases will be made:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/sape
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September 6, 2010
DWP stats - at Output Area level at last

Here’s news of Out of Work benefits at Output Area level for England & Wales.

Whilst this might not appear directly relevant to most DUG members, it’s potentially important in:
• Implicitly highlighting prosperous areas where very few people claim worklessness benefits
• Setting a precedent that central government departments can use their administrative files to create statistics down at OA level (far more useful to us than Super OAs or other higher areas such as wards or LAs): we’ve been pushing for this ever since ONS’s Neighbourhood Statistics started.
The announcement reads: “The Department for Work and Pensions have published data on the number of people receiving ‘out of work’ benefits – Jobseekers Allowance, Incapacity Benefit, Employment Support Allowance and people on low income benefits, down to Output Area level. These new data will enable the identification of very small pockets of worklessness, as well as providing more detail on the nature of worklessness in these areas (by benefit type).”
http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/tabtools/census_output_area_data/index.php?page=census_output_area_data
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September 1, 2010
ONS User Engagement Consultation - DUG's response

ONS has sought views on its strategy for engaging with users.

The attached reply on behalf of DUG - thanks for the input from DUG Contacts - makes the case that ONS pay too much attention to government departments, and that they need to change the culture, setting customer service as their top priority.
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August 2, 2010
Department for Transport - Accessibility Indicators down to LSOA level - Food stores, etc.

The Department for Transport has published updated statistics on the Core Accessibility Indicators for 2009 for England – these include accessibility to food stores, and town centres.

The Indicators provide a number of measures of accessibility by public transport, walking, cycling and car to eight service types: primary schools, secondary schools, further education, GPs, hospitals, food stores, town centres and employment centres – and are available down to Lower Super Output Area Level.

Here’s the detail: http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/ltp/coreaccessindicators2009
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July 29, 2010
"Ordnance Survey Leading The Way On Government Transparency"

The Department for Communities and Local Government has issued a Press Release which starts:

“The national mapping agency is the pioneer in a new era of information transparency by Government, Communities Minister Baroness Hanham said last week.
Three months after launching the OpenData initiative, Baroness Hanham said Ordnance Survey is leading the race to make public data freely available and accessible........”
You can read it all at: http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/37518
Given OS’s bitter resistance over the last decade to opening up free data, this spin is truly boggling. George Orwell would have been proud.
But, better late than never, and it’s good to see the new Coalition strongly committed to making public data freely available.
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July 29, 2010
Job vacancies – Tesco & Boots

For details, see the tab to the left.
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July 27, 2010
2011 Census to proceed as planned – Ministerial Statement

The UK Statistics Authority has just issued a brief Press Release:
“The UK Statistics Authority welcomes the Government’s decision to proceed with the existing plans for the 2011 Census in England and Wales, set out in an answer by the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Rt. Hon. Francis Maude MP, to a Written Parliamentary Question.
The Office for National Statistics’ preparations for the Census on 27 March 2011 will now press ahead with all speed.
The Statistics Authority is determined that, with the full support of the Government and all the other parties concerned, the 2011 Census will be the success that the country needs it to be, and will provide the information about our population which can only be derived from the full-scale Census, which has now been confirmed.”
http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/news/2011-england-and-wales-census.html
So it appears that Francis Maude – despite previous hostility – has now been convinced. Phew.
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July 22, 2010
OAC conference – PM, Monday September 6th, 2010 – free

Here’s news of this year’s OAC (Output Area Classification) conference. The programme is pasted below. The emphasis is on use in the public sector, but it includes sessions on the British Population Survey (an alternative to the TGI), and Open Data, Free Tools, and there will no doubt bee wider discussion & ideas. There is more information on the OAC User Group website: http://areaclassification.org.uk/

You can book (no charge) at: http://oac.eventbrite.com
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July 12, 2010
"National Census to be axed after 200 years" – Daily Telegraph – DUG's letter published

Our letter has been published in today's Daily Telegraph:

"Counting the population
SIR – The Government has decided that next year’s Census will be the last (report, July 10). Hitherto, censuses have provided detailed counts of the population that are vital for both public and private organisations when deciding where to target investment, and for the public, to inform democracy. Census returns released after 100 years are also of interest to family researchers.
Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, is right to examine different and potentially cheaper ways to count the population. In particular, the Government’s own extensive databases would be much the best starting point, learning from the experiences of several Nordic countries.
However, to announce a decision to scrap future censuses before proving that alternative sources are adequate is reckless.
Keith Dugmore
London SW1"
& can be found on their website at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/7884088/Reducing-our-Armed-Forces-will-leave-Britain-dangerously-reliant-on-our-allies.html
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July 3, 2010
UN / Eurostat Census meeting – papers on Censuses overseas

For those of you interested in Census information for countries outside the UK, here's news of the "Joint UNECE/Eurostat Group of Experts on Population and Housing Censuses", which takes place in Geneva, 7-9 July:
http://www.unece.org/stats/documents/2010.07.census.htm
You'll see papers from many countries, including one from me on "Disseminating Census information to maximise use and value", which highlights the need for a better balance between statistical disclosure risk, and utility, guided by Jeremy Bentham’s view: “It is the greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong.”
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June 21, 2010
British Population Survey – coded with geodemographics, including OAC

Here’s news of the British Population Survey (a commercial survey, a bit like the Target Group Index), which is now coded with OAC and other geodem classifications.
http://www.thebps.co.uk/#/segmentation/4540464055
You’ll see the word FREE (I understand that only the most recent year is charged).
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June 19, 2010
News of an open license for a NSPD postcode lookup file

Here's news from the OAC User Group:
"An open license for the non PAF version of the National Statistics Postcode Directory postcode lookup file is now available. The terms of which enable a user to:
• Copy, distribute and transmit the Data
• Adapt the Data
• Exploit the Data commercially whether by sub-licensing it, combining it with other data or by including it in your own product or application
This is great news as it includes OAC as one of the variables and makes address lookups a much simpler process. We shall update the tutorial guides on the website soon to reflect this change"

The ONS website goes into more detail, starting:
"The NSPD is released quarterly in February, May, August and November and NSPD products are supplied with various elements of Postcode Address File (PAF) data depending on the level required. These extracts are available as Full PAF or Part PAF options. Additionally, an ‘Open’ version, containing no PAF elements (and not attracting Royal Mail royalties) is also available......."
See more at: http://www.ons.gov.uk/about-statistics/geography/products/geog-products-postcode/nspd/index.html

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June 19, 2010
More free data: a) Transport for London; b) Postcode grid references & lat / long

APPSI have just alerted me to more free data:

1) Transport for London - as reported in The Guardian:
"Transport for London has opened up huge swathes of its data for free re-use by developers keen to see what they can do - and build - with it. After years of lobbying by developers who have wanted to be able to exploit the data - which, being publicly funded, logically belongs to the public too - TfL today acknowledged its willingness to listen to what people want to do as the London Data Store, headed by Emer Coleman, announced the datasets that will be provided.........."
Read all about it at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/jun/15/london-datastore-tfl-data-free

2) Geopostcode:
"An API for retrieving geographic information (grid reference, latitude and longitude) relating to postcodes. Data is available as XML or JSON" http://data.gov.uk/apps/geopostcode

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June 10, 2010
UKSA interim report "Strengthening User Engagement" – DUG's response

Here is DUG’s response to the UKSA consultation. It makes the case for going further than just better user dialogue, with UKSA's monitoring role being more proactive, the government statistical service becoming more customer focussed - and adding a proposal to rename the Government Statistical Service the National Statistical Service – to reinforce the need to serve all customers, not primarily those in central government.

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June 8, 2010
Independent newspaper – The real cost of a compromised census will be inaccurate data – DUG's views quoted

ONS has just alerted me to an article in last Saturday's Independent:

"With less than a year to go to the 2011 Census, is Francis Maude about to change the rules? In opposition he was strongly critical of the Census, describing it as burdensome, intrusive and poor value for money. Now he's in charge, as Minister for the Cabinet Office. He's also central to the programme of Government cuts that the coalition has promised. So demographers and statisticians are worried that he may make good on his promise to "scale back" the Census even at this late stage........

.....if he doesn't make any changes when he's now in a position to, he's going to have to eat a lot of words. He's already had a warning from the Demographics User Group, a private-sector body that represents heavy-hitters such as John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, Nationwide and Alliance Boots, saying that they regard the Census as of "fundamental importance" when making decisions about opening new stores, the products to be stocked, and the customers to be targeted. A late decision to cut the number of questions would disrupt existing plans and contracts, save little money – or even add to the cost – and result in reduced and inconsistent information between England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, says Keith Dugmore, director of the group........."
You can see the full article at:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/nigel-hawkes-the-real-cost-of-a-compromised-census-will-be-inaccurate-data-1992013.html

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June 8, 2010
Big role for supermarkets in regenerating poor communities – report by Demos

Yesterday's Guardian reported: "Demos sees big role for supermarkets in regenerating poor communities" & argues for tax breaks for supermarkets if they can turn sink areas around: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/07/demos-supermarkets-poverty-regeneration-pride
& here's the link to the Demos website, where you can download the full report Civic Streets: http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/civicstreets

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June 5, 2010
Victory for campaigners as coalition releases data deluge

Today's papers have further news of the new government releasing more data into the public domain.

The Guardian's article http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jun/04/government-spending-database-special-report focuses on COINS (Combined Online Information System) and information on government spending, whilst Charles Arthur reports "A flood of data is on its way ... but we will need to make sense of it"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jun/04/coins-treasury-public-sector-data
Much of this won't be immediately relevant to us, but it does confirm the new government's general policy that government information should be in the public domain.
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May 26, 2010
Experian partners with The Local Data Company

Here’s some news from Experian about The Local Data Company (who presented to our meeting last September, and are used by several DUG member companies):
http://www.localdatacompany.com/press-releases/2010/5/26/experian-partners-with-the-local-data-company.html
You’ll see that it’s referred to as partnering, rather than continuing Experian’s recent history of buying small companies.

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May 20, 2010
Database valuation

Several members have been interested for some time in how a value might be put on their customer databases. At DUG’s most recent meeting Mark Perrett (E.ON) mentioned his recent discussions with Call Credit, who are researching the topic.

Mark has also unearthed two earlier documents from the Institute of Direct Marketing:
http://www.theidm.com/marketing-events/calendar/idm-data-council-valuing-your-database/
* White paper - Database Valuation: Putting a Price on Your Prime Asset.
* A case study in the valuation of a database prepared by Valuation Consulting.

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May 18, 2010
Ordnance Survey free "opendata" – more vector mapping released – 1:25,000 scale

Following up the news of 10 April, OS has now released another map dataset: "OS VectorMap™ District". It's nominally at 1:25,000 scale, and in both vector & raster formats.

Details are given at: http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/products/vectormap/district/index.html

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May 18, 2010
Letter to the Rt. Hon. Francis Maude MP: The 2011 Census – its importance to commercial companies

The new Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude has in recent months actively made the case to reduce the scope & cost of the Census (& one of the options now being mentioned is to scrap it completely). We have therefore sent him this letter to get the commercial users’ case for the Census in front of the new government without delay.

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May 6, 2010
2011 Census Output Consultation – Scotland – DUG’s Response

See our response to GRO Scotland here

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April 10, 2010
Ordnance Survey free "opendata": what does it actually include?

Following up my message of 3 April, here's the Guardian's Data Blog answer to the above question:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/apr/02/ordnance-survey-open-data
If you have any obs about this treasure trove - maps, boundaries, postcode grid references, gazetteers - or, indeed, a wish-list of more government data you'd like to push to be made freely available, do get back to me.

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April 4, 2010
Job Vacancies – advertisements by DUG members

Several members are seeking staff – see the “Jobs” tab on the left.

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April 3, 2010
Major Government announcement – Ordnance Survey – significant datasets now FREE

Following the consultation on Ordnance Survey the Government has published its response:
http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/corporate/pdf/1528263.pdf
The Guardian’s Free Our Data report http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/apr/01/ordnance-survey-maps-download-free starts off:
“It is the biggest shakeup in the Ordnance Survey's 260-year history: you can download maps as detailed as 1:10,000 scale, or collect a list of locations appearing on maps at the 1:50,000 scale, or a conversion system for postcodes to grid references – free for personal or commercial use.”

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April 1, 2010
London Regional Committee's first report, London's population and the 2011 Census

Here's the report http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmlonreg/349/34902.htm from the House of Commons committee to which we gave evidence. I'm pleased to see that DUG gets quoted.

You'll see strong support for the Census, but also the predictable concern about the dangers of a low 2011 Census response in London - and the need to target effort.

Also: "The Committee welcomes the creation of a national address register for the Census, which will greatly improve accurate delivery of census forms, but say it is 'barely credible' that this valuable resource is not to be maintained after 2011. The report recommends that the Government acts urgently to resolve the intellectual property issues which are preventing maintenance of the register past 2011."
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March 31, 2010
Orange joins DUG

Orange is the latest company to join the Demographics User Group (DUG), whose membership already includes major companies across a range of sectors.

Orange is one of the largest mobile operators in the UK, with a current consumer base of 17million. It has a wealth of internal data in its analytical environment, from point of sale through to individual call record - who, when, where, and how often a customer calls.

Orange’s Strategic Insight's team's main responsibilities are to provide: Customer segmentation; a behavioural view to increase value, loyalty & enhance the customer experience; bespoke deep dive analytics from a customer led approach for the whole of Orange.

Anthony Mawby, Head of Strategic Insight, stated "We are very pleased to be joining DUG, and are looking forward to sharing experiences of data, analysis, and insight with other major companies from a range of different sectors including retail, financial services, and energy."
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March 27, 2010
Department of Transport's 350,000 public transport access points "NaPTAN" – available free

Following my message back in September (see below), and the DfT then saying that commercial users have to pay, I've now checked about the data being part of the (free) www.data.gov.uk initiative. Here's the answer that I've received from the DfT:
"Thanks for your email. I had a quick look at the data.gov.uk website and snapshot bus stop location data is available to download at: http://data.gov.uk/node/8473
I've clarified the use of this data with colleagues at Transport Direct, and the snapshot data is freely available to all for use. However, this is snapshot data and so will already be out of date, as changes are made to the bus stop data almost on a daily basis. Therefore, if commercial users wanted to access more up-to-date information, then they would need to request a license and follow the procedures as set out on the NaPTAN website: www.dft.gov.uk/naptan .
I understand that updates will be made to the data held on the data.gov.uk website, but am not sure of the frequency of these."

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March 24, 2010
Prime Minister's speech: "Building Britain's Digital Future" (more news of free data, inc. Ordnance Survey)
See: http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page22897
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March 13, 2010
Google Street View - now extended to UK coverage

Google's Street View has now increased coverage for the whole UK: http://maps.google.co.uk/

To quote a geographer at UCL: "It is pretty amazing – just drag the little yellow man onto the map of the UK.....".
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March 13, 2010
Consultation on Ordnance Survey – DUG's response, + extra comment

Here's DUG’s response to the Department for Communities’ consultation on OS.

APPSI has also made a heavy duty response (led by David Rhind): http://www.appsi.gov.uk/content/binary/APPSI-response-to-GI-Consultation.pdf

I'm very pleased that our own original description of the address register situation as a "national scandal" [Copyright DUG] is now ubiquitous.
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March 4, 2010
Sharing customer data & insight with government – report now published by ONS
ONS commissioned Demographic Decision to carry out a project on “Information collected by commercial companies: what might be of value to ONS?”. This is to help them with both their current population updates, and also planning 2011 Census coverage.

I’m very grateful to several DUG members and other companies who have made time to discuss this. The report is now complete, and ONS have just made an abridged version public: http://www.ons.gov.uk/about-statistics/methodology-and-quality/imps/updates-reports/current-updates-reports/index.html

ONS are now considering the recommendations as part of their Improving Migration and Population Statistics programme, and their planning for the Census next March. I hope that this leads to further steps forward in sharing data and insight across the public / private divide.
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February 28, 2010
DUG's new LinkedIn networking site – please make the most of it to exchange news & views!

We've now set up a community communication / social network site, and I'm really grateful to Lee Madden of Barclays for getting us started.

Here's the link: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2745168&trk=anet_ug_grppro
You'll see that "This Demographics User Group Network site is open to both members and non-members (commercial companies, public services, academic, etc.) to exchange news and ideas"

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February 20, 2010
As well as ONS's Consultations on 2011 Census Outputs, we now have Scotland's too

Following ONS's announcement of its Census Consultations for England and Wales (see earlier message below), we now have an announcement from GRO Scotland:

"This consultation is intended to provide the basis for developing, over the course of 2010, an agreed set of final specifications of the main outputs from the 2011 Census that meet the needs of a majority of users and make the best use of data collected. It also seeks views from users on a number of issues relating to census outputs including:

•pre-defined tabular outputs;

•comparisons of 2001 and 2011 census results;

•data delivery formats;

•outputs geography – including which intermediate geographies users need and what demand exists for workplace zone statistics; and

•timetable for release of 2011 Census results"

Read all about it at:
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/census/censushm2011/preparations/consultation-and-research/formal-consultations/spring-10-consultation.html

The closing date is 14 May

February 7, 2010
2008 stats on Dwelling Stock by Council Tax Band - at Output Area level

Data for Neighbourhood Renewal has alerted me to the following new statistics now available on ONS's Neighbourhood Statistics website:

* Dwelling stock by council tax band (Updated for 2008) - down to Output Area (OA) level for England & Wales: http://www.data4nr.net/resources/53/

We now have datasets for each year since 2001, which in principle enables the tracking of changes in numbers of dwellings and their status (Bands A-H) for very small areas.
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February 1, 2010
Evening Standard reports DUG evidence at House of Commons Committee

Our evidence to the new House of Commons London Regional Committee for its inquiry into “London’s Population and the 2011 Census”, led to an invitation to give evidence at its first hearing today.

I'm pleased to report that we've got some excellent press coverage in tonight's Evening Standard:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23801132-lack-of-data-on-londoners-is-harming-investment.do

January 22, 2010
Tim Berners-Lee unveils government data project - data.gov.uk

Pushing forward the Making Public Data Public initiative, the BBC reports the big news that:

"Web founder Sir Tim Berners-Lee has unveiled his latest venture for the UK government, which offers the public better access to official data.

A new website, data.gov.uk, will offer reams of public sector data, ranging from traffic statistics to crime figures, for private or commercial use......"

You can read the full report at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8470797.stm

& see the new website at: http://www.data.gov.uk/
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January 18, 2010
DUG Training Course “Developing as an analyst” run for a public service organisation for the first time

This course, developed and presented for DUG by Stewart Robbins, Head of Customer Knowledge at E.ON, has been run for DUG member companies several times.

Friends in public sector organisations have also expressed interest, and on 18 January it was run for the Department for Transport. Here’s their feedback:

The delegates to this course, all of whom had a background in statistics, expected to end the day as more effective analysts. They wanted to learn how to identify customer requirements, and how to fulfil these in the most relevant way. The day lived up to their expectations:

“Lots of helpful advice in determining what stakeholders require”
“Highlighted the need to take time to think about a problem and then to think about a solution”
The delegates appreciated the trainer’s knowledge and the lucid and engaging way in which he delivered the course:
“Had good relevant experience, delivered material at good pace. Engaged well with participants”
“Good range of examples………..opportunities to ask questions”
“Kept course relevant and interesting”

Summing up: “Excellent course with lots of practical suggestions. Covered good range of topics in about the right level of detail”

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January 14, 2010
House of Commons London Regional Committee – London's Population inquiry – DUG's Evidence

We’ve been invited to provide a submission to another House of Commons Committee.
I’ve sent a note with the following key themes:

• The importance of good population statistics to commercial companies
• The need for several different measures of “the population”
• The currently crucial importance of the Census as a source
• The 2001 Census serving as an alarm bell to focus on coverage in 2011, leading to 3 priorities for improving coverage and quality:
- Create a definitive address register – for 2011, and beyond
- Target difficult areas for hand delivery, and collection, of Census forms
- Use administrative files for quality checking 2011
• Looking further ahead, more use should be made of administrative files for statistical purposes, aiming towards the creation of a population register, validated by a final traditional Census in 2016 (rather than waiting until 2021).
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January 12, 2010
OBiT's not-for-profit sharing of deceased names - 25 organisations now participating - might you join too?

Many of you will know Emma Reid, who was a very active member of DUG when she was at Saga, and who now has her own consultancy Greysells, which focuses on the over 50's.

Emma also initiated OBiT - the Stop Dead Consortium - to encourage organisations to pool their records of deceased people on a not-for-profit basis.

Its major benefits are the reducing the existing costs of cleaning lists, reducing the costs of wasted mailings, and preventing distress to the bereaved.

I'm very pleased to report that 25 organisations are now pooling their information - contributing to a file of 4.7 million deceased names. These organisations include DUG members Boots and M&S, but obviously Emma is keen to extend the list further. If you, or colleagues in another part of your company, are interested, do get in touch with her via http://greysells.co.uk/
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January 7, 2010
Boris Johnson launches London 'Datastore' with hundreds of sets of data

Guardian Technology has trailed this story:

"The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, will on Thursday launch a website hosting hundreds of sets of data - including previously unreleased information - about the capital, as part of a new scheme intended to encourage people to create "mashups" of data to boost the city's transparency and accountability. Channel 4 will also be offering up to £200,000 through its 4ip fund to help develop the most innovative uses of the data."

Read more at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/06/london-datastore-launch-johnson-mashups

The formal launch takes place at the end of this month, but the GLA is already seeking users' views: http://data.london.gov.uk/

It's good to see that Boris Johnson is as enthusiastic about "Making Public Data Public" as Gordon Brown (even if Lord Mandelson is reluctant).
PS. A postscript to my earlier message - you can now see Boris promoting the case for free data (but also struggling with Skype - it's a hoot):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjcZOefdmXE&feature=player_embedded#

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January 1, 2010
ONS's Census News - Latest Update, including Consultations on 2011 Outputs - Statistics and Geography
ONS has announced two consultations which are really important to us:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011-census/consultations/index.html

* Output Consultation: Main statistical outputs

This goes into considerable detail. It takes the 2001 tables as a starting point (which makes life simpler), and then highlights the impacts of changed questions (e.g. Type of Central Heating, and Ethnicity), and the opportunities created by the new questions - Second Residence & Language (& also National Identity, Citizenship, Month & Year of Entry, Intention to Stay, and Number of Bedrooms).
I shall start to review the particular priorities that we've argued for in earlier consultations (e.g. Workplace stats, OAC, Social Grade, Multivariate counts, etc.) but it will be really helpful to get your views on particular 2001 tables (or, failing that, topics) that have been valuable to you, including mainstream stuff on age, sex, tenure, NS-SEC, etc.

* Census Output Geography Consultation

This consultation is less demanding. ONS are already committed to keeping existing Output Areas wherever possible, and I'm assuming that we shall continue to support that vigorously. 3 issues are raised:
- A new geography for improved reporting of business statistics and statistics relating to the workplace [Sounds beneficial, as long as we continue to get simple workplace counts for all OAs, plus the few OAs with big working populations are split further?]
- An upper layer of Super Output Areas (USOAs) [Of no use to us?]
- A request for exceptional instances of current OAs and SOAs, as designed for 2001, that do not fit present criteria for statistical zones [No objection to a bit of tidying up?]

We have a reasonable amount of time (the closing date is 26 March), but it would be good to get your initial thoughts by the end of January, and then I'll produce a first draft.

These ONS consultations do, of course, apply to England & Wales. Scotland and N Ireland will be announcing their own consultations shortly.

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December 31, 2009
Letter in the Daily Telegraph - "Liberating Royal Mail data will generate tax revenues"

Following the FT's report "Mandy and Gordon - the unravelling" (over PAF), the Daily Telegraph also ran the story.
I wrote on our behalf, and the letter (somewhat altered) was published yesterday 29 December:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/6901342/A-different-American-election-result-in-2000-would-have-changed-everything.html & scroll down to the letter.

I'll also send the original letter to Lord Mandelson's Department, to make sure that they realise the opposition to his view.

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December 29, 2009
Andrew Tasker - some very bad news

I'm very sorry to have to break the distressing news to you that Andrew Tasker died at the weekend.

Some of you will be aware that Andrew was diagnosed with cancer early in November, and, despite immediately starting a course of chemotherapy, chaired our strategy day on 18 November, and joined our awayday in Bristol on 3 December. I'm sure that we are all shocked to learn how swiftly he has died, and, for those of us lucky enough to know him well, to remember what a fine person he was.
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Annette Dellevoet at Sainsbury's subsequently wrote the following appreciation of Andrew:
In June 1998 Andrew helped to found the Demographics User Group (DUG) along with Keith Dugmore and representatives from Whitbread and M&S. DUG lobbies the government on behalf of commercial users of government statistics as well as sharing methods and techniques and offering analytical training to its member companies. Andrew was an active and enthusiastic member of the group speaking at DUG conferences and running several training courses. It is a measure of his contribution that DUG retained him as an honorary member when he became a consultant. Despite his worsening illness Andrew was an animated contributor to the last DUG meeting on 3rd December. He will be greatly missed by all his DUG colleagues, who valued his wise advice, friendship and support, and have sent many messages of appreciation.

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December 27, 2009
New free datasets - House prices, Household Income estimates, Supermarket accessibility, & LA comparisons

Here's news of several new free datasets from government:

Dwelling prices by dwelling type
"This dataset provides the total number of changes of ownership of dwellings provided by the Land Registry including the type of dwelling and the dwelling price"
http://www.data4nr.net/resources/50/

Income: Model-Based Estimates
"New model-based estimates of average household income have been produced for England and Wales at Middle Layer Super Output Area (MSOA) level"
http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/Info.do?page=news/newsitems/income-model-based-estimates.htm

Accessibility - Supermarkets
"The Department for Transport has published statistics on the Core Accessibility Indicators for 2008. The Indicators provide a number of measures of accessibility by public transport, walking, cycling and car to seven service types" - one of these is Supermarkets:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/ltp/coreaccessindicators2008
and
http://www.data4nr.net/resources/836/

The Places Database
"Is now available offering downloads of spatial data from national to local level covering crime, retail floorspace, health, transport etc." The stats are at Local Authority level & above.
http://www.places.communities.gov.uk/

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December 24, 2009
"Mandy and Gordon - the unravelling" (over PAF), + Consultation on Ordnance Survey

Yesterday's Financial Times contained an article http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4afe99e0-ef44-11de-86c4-00144feab49a.html about Lord Mandelson resisting Gordon Brown's announcement about Making Public Data Public.
The article drags in PAF (rather than just postcodes & grid references), which hasn't been mentioned before.

The article also mentions the consultation on Ordnance Survey being delayed, but this morning I've just been alerted to: http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/ordnancesurveyconsultation
Being faced with 91 pages from CLG makes your heart sink, but at least it's out before Xmas, rather than delayed, which would have increased the risk of the standard 3 month consultation period running into the election buffers.

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December 11, 2009
ONS's new Wealth and Assets Survey published

This is a new survey from ONS which I think may be of interest to many DUG members. Here are some headlines:

"Private household net wealth in Great Britain totalled £9 trillion in 2006/08, according to the Wealth in Great Britain report published today by the Office for National Statistics. The report presents results from the new Wealth and Assets survey, which found that wealth held in property and private pensions each account for 39 per cent of the total amount of private net wealth. Net financial wealth and physical goods, such as cars and antiques, each accounted for 11 per cent.

The report also shows how wealth was distributed across households. Median household net wealth was £204,500 in 2006/08. The least wealthy half of households accounted for only 9 per cent of wealth, while the wealthiest 20 per cent of households had 62 per cent of total wealth. The least wealthy 10 per cent of households had negative total net wealth.

Estimates of wealth varied across Great Britain. The wealthiest area was the South East of England with a median household wealth of £287,900. The area with the lowest median was Scotland with £150,600."

You'll find more details including the 174-page report at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=15074

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December 9, 2009
Financial Times - "Data giveaway aims to bolster growth"

The Financial Times (8 December 2009) reports the latest exciting news of Making Public Data Public:

"Masses of mapping, weather and public transport data that the government currently sells are to be given away in a move that ministers hope will create scores of new businesses whose earnings will boost both the economy and taxes.
In a revolutionary initiative, a range of Ordnance Survey, Met Office, public transport and postcode data will be made available for commercial reuse. The step will cost the organisations involved many tens of millions of pounds in current income but John Denham, the communities secretary, said it could create billions of pounds worth of business over the years as entrepreneurs found new ways to deploy it........"

Read the full article at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cdcc60a2-e399-11de-9f4f-00144feab49a.html
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November 20, 2009
Public Administration Select Committee - Census Questions - & DUG mentioned on Radio 4

The House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee held its session on 2011 Census questions yesterday.
The MPs focused on Sexual Orientation, Migration & Religion - & of course we witnesses raised Income.
The hearing can be viewed on the web at: http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/public_administration_select_committee.cfm
& the transcript should be published in a couple of weeks too.

Radio 4's Today programme picked up the story this morning (c.6.45) & included a clip DUG's views on a question on sexual orientation ("well down our list of priorities").#

#. This exchange started:
Q: What do you think about sex?
A: It's OK (laughter)
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November 20, 2009
Making Public Data Public - more news

This news, which is potentially of great significance, is moving fast.

Here's the latest instalment from the Guardian's Free Our Data Campaign, which starts:

"The Free Our Data campaign has scored a major victory, with the announcement by the government that it intends to make Ordnance Survey maps free for use online by any organisation – including commercial ones – at resolutions more detailed than commercial 1:25,000 Landranger maps from April next year.
The announcement of the opening of a consultation on the plan by Gordon Brown at Downing Street on Tuesday, as part of a seminar on making public data public – set in the wider context of public service reform, under the "Smarter Government" umbrella – indicates that the ideas underpinning the campaign have now been taken on board at the highest levels of government........"

Read more at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/19/ordnance-survey-maps-free-online
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November 17, 2009
Breaking news: Better access to Ordnance Survey data

Here's what looks like significant news from the Advisory Panel for Public Sector Information (APPSI). It's picked up a CLG press release which starts:

“The Prime Minister and Communities Secretary John Denham will today announce that the public will have more access to Ordnance Survey maps from next year, as part of a Government drive to open up data to improve transparency. Speaking at a seminar on Smarter Government in Downing Street later today, attended by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt, the Prime Minister will set out how the Government and Ordnance Survey, Great Britain’s national mapping agency, will open up its data relating to electoral and local authority boundaries, postcode areas and mid scale mapping information”………

We’ll no doubt learn more detail - and whether the OS dam has finally cracked - in tomorrow’s press. (The Guardian tried to contact me this afternoon).
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November 13, 2009
Department for Transport - National Public Transport Gazetteer

Following my message in September about public transport access points (see below), the Department for Transport has also announced its National Public Transport Gazetteer: " A topographic database of towns and settlements in the UK providing a common frame of reference for UK Public Transport Information schemas. The appropriate naming of towns and places is vital for providing effective place and stop finding in all modern on-line journey planners and other Passenger Information systems".

Detail can be found at: http://www.nptg.org.uk/
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November 12, 2009
Conservatives seek to cut 2011 Census questions; + House of Commons Committee hearing

Here's some potentially serious news about the 2011 Census.

Nick Hurd MP, the Shadow Cabinet Office minister has written to the head of the UK Statistics Authority (Sir Michael Scholar) saying "We do not believe that the 2011 Census can have the size and scope that has been proposed, particularly since we believe that many of the proposed questions are unsuitable........and urge you to scale back its cost and scope in order to save money and reduce its intrusive impact on citizens".

The Public Administration Select Committee is now to hold a session next Thursday 19 November on the 2011 census questions. Fortunately, I've been asked to give evidence at the hearing, along with Prof. Phil Rees (Leeds University) & a representative of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
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November 6, 2009
Appointment of new head of ONS - Stephen Penneck

I'm delighted to report that Stephen Penneck - winner of the DUG Award this year - has now been appointed as the new boss of ONS.
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October 31, 2009

2011 Census plans across European countries

A conference on Population and Housing Censuses across Europe took place in Geneva last week (28-30 October).
All the papers are available at: http://www.unece.org/stats/documents/2009.10.census.htm

The great majority of the 100+ participants were from the Census Offices as suppliers, but I had the chance to talk about "Meeting the needs of Census users in the United Kingdom’s private sector".

For me, the headlines of the conference were:

Data collection:
* The increasing use of administrative registers (good news), although traditional Censuses are still in the majority; there's also increased use of sampling (bad news for small area stats)
* The importance of comprehensive address registers, to get maximum coverage

Outputs:
* Progress on harmonising topics / questions
* BUT, geographical detail is very variable
* Eurostat are interested in Regions & LAs (rather than small areas), and are getting bogged down in trying to deliver multi-dimensional tables (their planned hypercubes run into problems of disclosing info about individuals)
* I made the case (& got it recorded) that the major interest of UK users is for the smallest possible areas, even if for limited variables. This got picked up, with the focus for a meeting next year on dissemination and geo-visualisation.

If you are interested in pursuing the availability of data for other European countries, do get back to me.

Keith Dugmore
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October 16, 2009

DUG's 2009 Conference - News

Here's news of our Conference "Insight and the recession – How we can achieve more and better for less” which was held on 8 October:

* Feedback - this was probably best summarised by Rob Harris, Head of Branch Knowledge at Barclays: "The value this conference has added, and the benefits to my team, are alone worth the annual DUG subscription"

* The presentations are now on our website (see the tab)

* The DUG Award for “Better information from government” was scooped by Stephen Penneck of the Office for National Statistics for the decision to code the ONS’s sample surveys with its OAC geodemographic classification. To quote the citation: "DUG's Conference Board sees this as an excellent example of government using existing sources to create valuable new information at modest cost, which is so important in the current economic climate."

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October 15, 2009

Statistics User Forum conference - 19 November 2009

Here below are details of this year’s Stats User Forum conference on “The measurement of progress”.

The world is changing. The financial crisis has shown that the gains from an excessive focus on debt-fuelled economic growth were short-lived and failed to deliver a sustainable increase in well-being. The pursuit of ever larger economies led to environmental degradation and global imbalances rather than a reduction in poverty, an increase in social justice or a happier society. Post-recession, leaders and their electorates will strive for a greater focus on sustainability to ensure that future gains will be longer-lasting. But what will be the new goals and how will progress towards them be monitored?

See more details at: www.rss.org.uk/sufconference

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October 14, 2009

BBC - Bringing the fight for data home

Following in the trail of the Guardian's long-running Free Our Data campaign, we now have coverage from the BBC:

" Bringing the fight for data home.
The data held by local councils has become the latest target of digital activists. They are keen to get at the information so citizens can put it to their own uses.
Before now the push to get at official data has concentrated on central government. Moves to open up that data took a big step forward in early October when a few web developers were invited to a trial of the data.gov.uk site."

Read more at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8297572.stm

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October 6, 2009

Postcode news: UK (bad) & Republic of Ireland (good)

We have both bad & good postcode news today:

1. Legal threat closes postcode feed (in the UK) - news from the BBC

"Websites that help people find jobs or hospitals have been hit by legal action threatened by the Royal Mail. The threat was issued against the company supplying them, and many other sites, with postcode data. Royal Mail said the legal action was threatened to stop "unauthorised access" to the postcode data." Read on at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7700621.stm

2. Online retailers welcome postcode system for Republic of Ireland - news from Retail Week

"Retailers have welcomed the revival of plans to introduce a national postcode system in the Republic of Ireland and believe the move should help catalogue and online businesses operate efficiently there. Other than Greece, Ireland is the only EU member state that does not have an established postcode system, which means that offering a home delivery service is a complex and often expensive challenge. But last week the Irish government said it intends to introduce codes comprising digits and letters in 2011.". There's more at:
http://www.retail-week.com/multichannel/online-retail/online-retailers-welcome-postcode-system-for-republic-of-ireland/5006857.article

You'll find further detail & comment at:
http://www.insideireland.ie/index.cfm/section/news/ext/postalcode001/category/1087

http://www.greenparty.ie/news/latest_news/ryan_announces_new_post_code_system_for_ireland

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October 2, 2009

MRS Census & Geodemographics Group Seminar - Targeting for multi-channel marketing - Monday 23rd November (afternoon)

The next CGG seminar has just been launched, on the important topic of Targeting for multi-channel marketing.

When: afternoon of Monday 23rd November
Where: MRS, 15 Northburgh Street, London EC1

Here's a synopsis of the topics to be discussed, followed by a link to the MRS website - for further details and online booking.

Today's consumers live in a multi-channel maze, targeted by advertising, direct marketing and sales calls. And in the online world, they also receive email marketing, search engine ads and web site offers. With such a range of offline and online channels at their disposal, how do companies select their marketing resources most effectively and measure the ROI? And is there still a role for geodemographics in targeting across offline and online channels?

This half -day seminar will discuss these topics and look at data for targeting, whether online or offline, and some of the latest analytic techniques being applied to multi-channel media. Further details and online registration are available at:
http://www.mrs.org.uk/networking/cgg/multi_channel.htm

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September 30, 2009
DUG Conference, The Royal Society, 8 October 2009
"Insight and the recession – How we can achieve more and better for less”

9.30 Registration and coffee

10.00 Chair’s introduction. Richard Alldritt (UK Statistics Authority)

10.15 Demonstrating the value of insight at O2. Andrew Day (O2)

10.45 ONS’s business case for the 2011 Census. Glen Watson (ONS)

(11.15 Coffee)

11.40 Using OAC to create new insight from the Expenditure & Food Survey. Professor Martin Callingham (Birkbeck College)

12.10 Google’s vision for more and better information. Kelly Allison (Google)

(12.40 Lunch)

14.00 Parallel workshop sessions:
A) Triangulation: what’s the scope for comparing more information derived from company customer records and government administrative files? Facilitators: Martin Bellingham (The Children’s Mutual) and Roma Chappell (ONS)
B) How can we demonstrate the real value of customer and citizen segmentation? Facilitators: Ian Symis (Boots) and Sara Jones (DCSF)
C) What makes for a successful insight / research & information team? Facilitators: Mike Whitelegge (M&S) and Jenni Venn (Coventry City Council)

(15.30 Tea)

15.50 Workshops – summaries of views

16.10 Panel Session: More and better for less – how we can improve insight and its impact during the recession
Featuring views from Professor Mike Batty (UCL), Steve Penneck (ONS), Andrew Tasker (Optimum Locations & DUG), and Keith Dugmore (DUG)

16.45 Chair’s closing remarks, and The DUG Award 2009

17.00 Reception

The presentations will be posted on www.demographicsusergroup.co.uk
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September 12, 2009

Department of Transport adds 350,000 public transport access points to Open Street Map
The Department for Transport has recently released data from the National Public Transport Access Node (NaPTAN) database to be put on Open Street Map (OSM). The data contains details of some 350,000 public transport access points in Great Britain including bus stops, railway stations, tram stops and ferry terminals, and meaningful text descriptions of the stop point and its location.

See lots more detail at:
http://blog.okfn.org/2009/08/20/where-is-the-nearest-bus-stop-uk-department-for-transport-adds-naptan-data-to-open-street-map/
It is also stated that Ordnance Survey has no rights to the data, and adds a comment: "This is excellent news - and big kudos to the DfT for donating the data! We hope that other departments consider following suit and adding their geodata to OSM!"
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September 12, 2009

Guardian's Free Our Data - Ordnance Survey under fire again

Charles Arthur has written two more articles about Ordnance Survey - the most recent one is a cracker:

3 September, 2009: "Ordnance Survey business model costs appear in leaked presentation"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/sep/02/ordnance-survey-business-model-costs-leak

10 September, 2009: Don't write it down: Ordnance Survey kept no notes of talks with 'expert'

"You have an important study that will be part of your case to a government minister considering the future of your organisation. You have found someone to review it. Would you commission them without swapping letters or email, and without taking any notes of their observations afterwards?
If you're Ordnance Survey, then it seems yes, you would. In a response to a Freedom of Information request – part of a series of requests Guardian Technology has made since May – OS revealed that after it prepared an internal study comparing international models of funding mapping agencies, it asked an "internationally recognised expert in geographical information and national mapping" to review it.
But in an admission that makes the preparation of this potentially key report look rather slipshod, OS said in response to a further FoI request that "a copy of the report was provided to the person concerned and engagement on this matter was conducted orally with no permanent record made of these conversations".........

Read on, at http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/sep/11/free-our-data-freedomofinformation

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August 28, 2009

ONS's latest Population & Migration estimates - UK population grows to 61.4m; birth rate rising

Here below is the latest population news from ONS.
You'll probably have seen lots of press coverage today, e.g. "New baby boom for Britain" (Daily Telegraph):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/6100469/New-baby-boom-for-Britain.html

[what a surprising web address / index!]

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August 19, 2009

"Data Strategy" - MP attacks "scandal" of Census address data

Read all about it at:

http://www.data-strategy.co.uk/Main/News/Articles/9b84c5ab2d314b46aae64f7547c8f1ba/MP-attacks-%27scandal%27-of-Census-address-data.html

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August 7, 2009

Jil Matheson appointed as the new National Statistician

I'm delighted to report that Jil Matheson has been appointed as the new National Statistician.

The official announcement is at http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/news/appointment-of-the-national-statistician.pdf

The scope of the job has been increased, with a wider remit across government, and involvement in the recruitment of a new Director General for the ONS.

Jil has been very supportive of DUG for many years, and at last year's Conference she was on the panel session.

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July 30, 2009

Guardian's Free Our Data - "Government advisors criticise OS's strategy"

Charles Arthur writes:

"Ordnance Survey's proposed business strategy has been strongly criticised by the government's Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information (APPSI), the body that advises ministers on how to encourage wider reuse of public sector data. Separately, OS has finally released an almost unredacted version of its internal report comparing international funding models for mapping agencies – but has declined to name the "internationally recognised expert" who checked it, saying the person wants to remain private......"

and concludes with:

"..............Separately, OS responded, at the end of the last possible day under Freedom of Information Act rules, to Guardian Technology's request for a copy of its internal report on funding models. Almost all the data redacted in the first version has now been released – but nothing seems to back up the statement in May by Sir Rob Margetts, OS's chair, that it showed that moving to a free data model would in the first five years cost "between £500m and £1bn". Guardian Technology will seek to ascertain the basis of Margetts's claims, and any more information about the identity of the expert who checked the study – such as, for example, whether they are an employee of Ordnance Survey."

You can read the full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jul/29/free-our-data-ordnance-survey
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July 15, 2009

Seven out of Ten Woolworths stores still empty

Here’s a news item from The Local Data Company:

"We recently undertook some research into what happened to over 800 Woolworths stores following Woolworths demise in January - below is some of the commentary from the press:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article6695205.ece

http://www.retail-week.com/property/in-town/70-of-old-woolworths-stores-still-lie-vacant/5004439.article

http://itn.co.uk/63820fae409ac3b6119964fb906539ea.html

http://www.teletext.co.uk/regionalnews/anglia/c7e9a62136faeb94acf8d3b0307b5371/Woolies+stores+still+empty.aspx

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5i0B2uY7HUZLFMXa7uT_oRisfBdgw

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July 11, 2009

National Address Register - support from MPs & the UK Stats Authority

Getting a definitive national address register is one of DUG's priorities, and we are making progress.

At the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee session on the Census on 25 June Gordon Prentice MP questioned the head of ONS & quoted our submission:

"But these organisations [Royal Mail, Ordnance Survey and Local Government] hold intellectual property rights on the information that they are making available and you have to buy this information from those three organisations. I have been reading the submission that we have from the Demographic User Group and they say that it is scandalous - I thought I had copyright on that word - that you are spending all this money pulling together this information to create an address register and it is only going to be used once; it is only going to be used for the next Census and it is not going to be made available to commercial organisations and other people who could use that information. That really is scandalous, is it not?"
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmpubadm/uc742-i/uc74202.htm

On 8 July the Chair of the UK Statistics Authority, Sir Michael Scholar, wrote to the Minister of State for Housing, John Healey, making the case for establishing a national address register.
http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/reports---correspondence/correspondence/index.html

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July 2, 2009

"Ordnance Survey redacts public data in controversial report"

The Guardian's Charles Arthur's latest instalment:

"A controversial OS study, released in a censored version, leads to a single conclusion: the original was incomplete and fundamentally flawed.......
Are the land mass, population and GDP per capita of the US, Australia, Canada, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway and New Zealand – as well as the legal form of their national mapping agencies – commercially confidential information? If you believe the UK's mapping agency, Ordnance Survey, certainly. Those details were redacted – blacked out in the manner of an MP's expenses – in the copy of a key study it carried out and released to the Guardian under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act last week.....
Ed Parsons, the former OS chief technology officer who is now Google UK's geospatial technologist, dismissed the report: "OS's 'Research' Report reads like a poor MSc thesis. Why no user perspective?" "

Read all about it at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jul/01/ordnance-survey-censored-report-released

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June 25, 2009

"Ordnance Survey responds, at last, to Freedom of Information request"

The Guardian's Charles Arthur reports:

"The Ordnance Survey consulted mapping agencies in Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden and the US in compiling its study into possible financial models, it has revealed. However, OS considers that "there are no wholly equivalent organisations ... given [our] range of scales of mapping and other activities", according to data that it released under a Freedom Of Information (FOI) request from the Guardian.

Attention was immediately drawn to the identity of an unnamed "internationally recognised expert in geographical information and national mapping" who OS said had reviewed its study and "agreed with the analysis and conclusions......."

Read all about it at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jun/24/free-our-data-ordnance-survey

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June 18, 2009

OAC User Group free seminar: Developments in Geodemographic Visualisation

The OAC (Output Area Classification) User Group is going from strength to strength, and has arranged the following meeting in September:

* Seminar: Developments in Geodemographic Visualisation

* Objective: The aim is to present a number of innovative developments in visualisation methods and technology which can enhance interpretation of geodemographic classification. This seminar is aimed at both a professional and academic audiences and will be interest to all users of geodemographics.

* Programme:
– Understanding Through Visualisation (Dan Vickers, University of Sheffield) – Effective Communication (Laura Edwards, Local Futures) – Geographic Visualisation (Alex Singleton, University College London) – Data Visualisation (Aidan Slingsby, City University) – 3-D Visualisation (Duncan Smith, University College London)

* Time & Date: 1.30pm, Tuesday 15 September 2009

* Venue: Royal Statistical Society headquarters, 12 Errol Street, London, EC1Y 8LX

* Further details & Registration: http://areaclassification.org.uk/2009/06/16/visualisation/#more-208

I expect that places will be snapped up quickly, so do register (not me - see above!) now if you'd like to attend.

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June 18, 2009

Guardian's Free Our Data campaign - 2 more good articles today

Today's Guardian has two articles by Charles Arthur:

1) Commercial rival to take on Ordnance Survey with its own map data

“Ordnance Survey has a new challenger: a privately owned company – UKMap, part of the GeoInformation Group – that aims to provide local authorities and private companies with large-scale topographic mapping and an address database for British cities, created entirely separately of the government-owned agency…………..
……its arrival means there are now three organisations vying to produce maps of the UK: Ordnance Survey, which derives roughly half its income from licences by taxpayer-funded organisations; OpenStreetMap, a volunteer effort using advances in GPS technology to create a "wikimap" used by some local authorities (and by the Guardian for its Open Platform offering); and now The GeoInformation Group.”

(See the full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jun/17/free-data-ordnance-survey-maps/print )

2) Let Sir Tim lead the fight for free data

“….Gordon Brown has tasked Sir Tim Berners-Lee with getting government-collected data into more accessible forms, and hence available to more of us…….. Sir Tim nailed his colours to the mast in a riveting talk earlier this year, where he built on Hans Rosling's already thrilling work at Gapminder to emphasise the value of getting data out there into the hands of people who can think of useful, innovative, imaginative things to do with it; he got the audience to chant "Raw data now! Raw data now!"…… [Even we haven't done that]

(See the full article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jun/17/charles-arthur-free-data/print )

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June 5, 2009

ONS advice on measuring change in small areas

ONS is providing some good advice on analysing change in small areas at:
http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/Info.do?page=analysisandguidance/analysistoolkit/analysis-toolkit.htm

You can also get hold of a free copy of their Change over Time Analysis (CoTA) Viewer on CD at:
http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/Info.do?page=analysisandguidance/analysis.htm

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May 16, 2009

ONS admits to getting its sums wrong with overstated retail sales - FT 16 May 2009

Following the discussion of members' doubts about ONS retail stats at our Awayday in December, the Financial Times (Saturday 16 May 2009) reports:

"One of Britain's most closely watched economic indicators has heavily overstated the quantity of high street sales over the past two years, the Office for National Statistics admitted yesterday. Britain's supplier of official statistics conceded that since the financial crisis began in August 2007, it has overstated the volume of retail sales growth by 56 per cent."

Read all about it at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/97faf9b2-41b3-11de-bdb7-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

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May 16, 2009

Shop vacancy rate in towns rises to 12% - FT 16 May 2009

The Financial Times (Saturday 16 May 2009) reports:

"The number of empty stores in the UK's high streets leapt three-fold in just six months as a growing number of retailers were forced out of business by the worsening economic climate.
High-profile casualties such as Woolworths contributed to a rise in vacancy rates from 4 per cent to 12 per cent in the six months to the end of March. Vacancy rates in terms of floorspace are lower, at 10.8 per cent.
Barnaby Oswald, managing director of the Local Data Company, which surveys 675 town centres across the UK, said that the number of businesses closing has increased significantly since last summer"

Read all about it at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b7a7955e-41b3-11de-bdb7-00144feabdc0.html
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May 8, 2009

Ordnance Survey - "new" business strategy - further criticism in The Guardian

Following the news of Ordnance Survey's "new" business strategy (see below), the Guardian has two more articles critical of the government's plans:

* Budget misses free chances (Michael Cross, 30 April 2009):

"The government has thrown away an opportunity to boost the digital economy through a "free data" regime. Announcements made with the budget dashed hopes of radical reforms to the "trading fund" status of state-owned information businesses.
Even worse, the plans do not deal with "derived data" - one of the most contentious fields in intellectual property creation, whereby the creator of a product claims ownership of any IP built with it. Ordnance Survey's aggressive annexation of "derived data" - any detail, such as a cycling route, created using an OS product - has riled a number of people in the commercial sector. "Derived data is the elephant in the room," says Ed Parsons, Google UK's geospatial technologist..........."
Read all about it at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/30/government-digital-economy

* Break down the boundaries in Ordnance Survey (Charles Arthur, 7 May 2009):

"The government's decision to consult the public on its reorganisation of Ordnance Survey - announced with the budget last month - is proving popular with would-be users. The proposed reorganisation, however, is not.
Comments on the web page, where the consultation is open for feedback are running overwhelmingly in favour of more freedom for OS data............"
Read all about it at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/may/07/ordnance-survey

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April 26, 2009

Ordnance Survey - "new" business strategy announced

Triggered by the Budget, a "new" business strategy has been announced for Ordnance Survey.
(I put the "new" in quotes. The strategy has at least avoided the madness of a rumoured privatisation, but has not gone for the radical option of freeing the data to increase both use and consequent economic activity. Rather, having hit the internet and Google Maps icebergs, it is another attempt to rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic).

Here are the headlines, followed by Michael Cross's Free Our Data view in the Guardian:

1) The OS Announcement

"The strategy aims to improve ease of access to geographic data and services for both commercial and non-commercial use, whilst also striving to maintain a balance with the need to stimulate innovation in the geographic information market and make data more widely available. This means that Ordnance Survey will continue to be self-funded and earn revenue by licensing its data, but it will make sure it is easier for customers and other businesses to access its data and services.

The strategy focuses on five key areas:
• Promoting innovation – with an enhanced free OS OpenSpace service to allow experimentation with digital information and a clear path from this service to greater commercialisation;
• Reforming Ordnance Survey’s licensing framework – so that it is much simpler to use Ordnance Survey data and services in other applications;
• Reducing costs over time – to ensure that Ordnance Survey continues to offer value-for-money;
• Supporting the sharing of information across the public sector – to enable better public policy and services;
• Creating an innovative trading entity – to explore commercial opportunities around providing a better platform for consumers to access Ordnance Survey products.

The new strategy will be developed further and implemented over the coming 12 months but the five key areas above are being opened up for comment from Ordnance Survey’s customers and other stakeholders."

Full details of the strategy and how to comment can be found at: http://strategy.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/

2) Guardian Free Our Data article: Government ducks free data decision (23 April 2009)

Michael Cross refers to the headline finding that "a model where a user pays a licence fee for OS data continues to be the most effective way of balancing the need to increase the availability of geographic information to the wider UK economy and society while maintaining the quality of OS data". He considers the extension of OS’s OpenSpace service as a win for the Free Our Data campaign. However, he believes that the new subsidiary company set up to “ensure that OS is sustainable for the medium term and value is generated for the taxpayer" implies that this "innovative trading entity" has been established with an eye to privatisation – although, he points out that Iain Wright, shareholder minister for OS says this is not the case.

The full article can be accessed at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/23/state-owned-digital-information

I'll be interested to hear your views. In particular, have you got opinions about OS OpenSpace?
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April 19, 2009

"Social Trends 2009" published
You probably saw some lurid headlines on Wednesday's newspapers - the latest Social Trends report has been published.
Amidst all the comment about social change in Britain, the report is often a good first start for finding out what are the key data sources for particular topics.
You can download it (or bits of it) free from: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/socialtrends39/
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April 9, 2009

UK Statistics Authority report on migration statistics
This report has just been published. It is policy stuff, rather than providing new stats now, but its recommendations (Pages 8-11) reflect our views on the need for an address register, & more use being made of government administrative data:

"We recommend that, in the light of the complex dependencies involved, discussions about matters such as the future of the Census beyond 2011, the longer term maintenance of a national address register, related developments (such as identity cards and a population register) and the best way to improve migration statistics, should now be taken forward together at the highest level. Discussions should involve the Statistics Authority and ONS and the relevant government departments – notably HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office, Department for Communities and Local Government, Home Office, Department for Work and Pensions, and the devolved administrations."

You can download the full report at:
http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/reports---correspondence/reports/migration-statistics--interim-report.pdf
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April 8, 2009

European Geodemographics Conference - 1 April - Presentations now available

This MRS conference broke new ground, looking at the availability of demographic data across Europe.
The presentations are now available on the MRS website at: http://www.mrs.org.uk/networking/cgg/euro_conference_prog.htm
A report on the conference – including the action points for the future – will be posted on the website in the next couple of weeks and there will be an article in the June issue of GeoConnexion.
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March 18, 2009

Google Street View

Google Street View - providing recent photos - has just been released: http://maps.google.co.uk/ There's coverage of Greater London and c.20 other cities. Drag the person icon onto the road that you want to see.
Early reactions from DUG members:
"Already tested it out in Manchester - very impressive - will make mapping exact city centre locations much more accurate."
"We were looking at this this morning, looks fab ..we have been virtually wandering around Nottingham and Edinburgh."
"We had an enjoyable 5 minutes finding Tony Blair's house and discovering that they haven't pixellated the policeman's face outside. Google seems to hit the nail everytime at the moment !!!"
"We spent a good 20 minutes on this earlier - absolutely fantastic stuff - love the zoom feature, the 360 toggle, and there is a good coverage across a lot of the major towns and cities (and Scunthorpe). Picture quality and load rate seems to be very impressive."
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March 10, 2009

Availability of services at Output Area level
Here’s news of a new dataset from the Commission for Rural Communities (in England):

“Service availability and accessibility has been a key rural policy issue for many years. In order to monitor changing levels of service availability, this indicator combines datasets that show where outlets of particular services can be found, with postcode level information on the distribution of households to calculate numbers of households within distance of key service indicators.”

Looking at the link: http://www.ruralcommunities.gov.uk//projects/ruralservicesseriesdata/overview
• The input data includes the locations of banks, building societies, ATMs, supermarkets, pubs, etc.
• The output data appears to be for all Output Areas, not just rural ones (the data file is very large)
• The website includes some maps
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March 5, 2009

Guardian - Free Our Data - The price of un-free data: one-off census address list will cost £12m
Michael Cross, writing in The Guardian, is adding to the pressure for the ONS's 2011 Census address file to be made freely available:

"The cost of creating a national list of addresses for the next census has risen to £12m, the government has admitted. The figure – £2m up on previous estimates – is the latest revelation of the true cost of "unfree" data across the economy....The Office for National Statistics has to build its own address database for the 2011 census in England and Wales (Scotland has its own parallel exercise) because none of the three existing, state-owned address databases is comprehensive enough.......Attempts to create a unified list have failed because of arguments about intellectual property. The three list-owners – local authorities, Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail – all treat address lists as their commercial assets."

See Michael's article at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/05/free-data-addresses
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March 4, 2009

Power of Information Taskforce Report published

This report (written by some influential people in government) has just been published.

It calls for action in several areas where the Taskforce believes significant improvements can be made to government's use of digital technologies. These include:
* freeing up the UK's mapping and address data for use in new services.
* ensuring that public sector information is made as simple as possible for people to find and use.

Looking at Recommendation 7 in particular:
"It is the Taskforce's view that 'freeing up' geospatial data should be a priority. The Ordnance Survey requires urgent reform. Recent announcements of cost reductions at the Ordnance Survey point the way to wider reforms. This reform should include at a minimum:
* Basic geographic data such as electoral and administrative boundaries, the location of public buildings, etc should be available for (re)use free of charge to all.
* There should be simple, free access to general mapping and address data for modest levels of use by any user.
* Voluntary and community organisations pursuing public policy objects should benefit from straightforward standard provisions for ensuring access to geospatial data at all levels of use.
* Licensing conditions should be simplified and standardised across the board and, for all but the heaviest levels of use, should be on standard terms and conditions and should not depend on the intended use or the intended business model of the user.
* The OpenSpace API, similar to but currently a constrained version of Google Maps, should become the primary delivery point for the Ordnance Survey's services.
* Creation of a freely available single definitive address and postcode [file] available for the UK for (re)use."

All this is heading in our direction (albeit in difficult economic & political times).

Read more at http://poit.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/poit/

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January 28, 2009
Experian in the news
Here's a story in yesterday's Times - "Lord Taylor tried to aid credit-rating agencies access to business" - which includes mention of Experian.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5601428.ece

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January 24, 2009

How geodemographics is being applied across an ever expanding Europe

MRS CGG Conference - 1 April 2009, London

This year's Market Research Society Census & Geodemographics Group conference focuses on European data, and on how analytical techniques such as geodemographics are being used across Europe to help organisations to optimise their definitions of target markets.

This will be considered from a number of perspectives, ranging from data availability through to business applications, and will drive towards setting an agenda of priority actions required to fill existing gaps in the European data landscape. The programme includes speakers from CACI, Eurodirect, & Experian.

For full details and to book your place, see: http://www.mrs.org.uk/networking/cgg/euro_conference.htm

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January 21, 2009

Dwelling stock by council tax band, 2007 - statistics for small areas
(From a message to DUG Contacts)
Data for Neighbourhood Renewal has alerted me to the following new statistics now available on ONS's Neighbourhood Statistics website:
* Dwelling stock by council tax band (Updated for 2007) - down to Output Area (OA) level for England & Wales: http://www.data4nr.net/resources/53/
We now have datasets for each year since 2001, which in principle enables the tracking of changes in numbers of dwellings and their status (Bands A-H) for very small areas.

If you've done any analysis, I'll be pleased to hear.

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January 8, 2009

Guardian - Free Our Data - Royal Mail is wiping many rural homes off its postcode database

(From a message to DUG Contacts)

Here's Michael Cross's latest article in today's Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jan/08/scotland-applecross-royal-mail-highlands-paf-postcode-address-file

It includes:
"Royal Mail says it has a policy of removing addresses from the database when houses are unoccupied. "If the postie can no longer reach the delivery point, or if a house is obviously completely unoccupied, the postie informs us and the address is removed from the PAF. If it later becomes occupied, it would be put back on""

He then goes on to point to the feuding over address files between Royal Mail, Ordnance Survey and local government.

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December 21, 2008

Members' Locations - latest news

(From a message to DUG Contacts)

I'm pleased to let you know that our new member Boots is planning to join in our initiative to share information about locations, and that we are also planning quarterly updates.
For the record, the current list of sharers is:

* Abbey
* Argos
* Boots
* Co-op
* John Lewis
* M&S
* Sainsbury's

In addition, Tesco have pointed me to a SatNav link which may be helpful:

http://www.tesco.com/storeLocator/satnav_download/

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December 18, 2008

The Times 18 Dec 2008 - Analysis: Why retail figures don't add up

(From a message to DUG Contacts)

Following our discussion at our Awayday, I've been alerted more doubts about ONS's retail stats.
Here's the link:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article5364630.ece

[This was the first message on our new website]