WE WOULD LIKE TO

ASK YOU a QUESTION

Of What value is Parliaments

data?
who are we?
Tracy Green Head of Strategy
Margaret Hardie Principal Data Architect
Zeid Hadi data.parliament Development
Manager

Data and Parliament we have LOTS of DATA!

but...
Is it of USE to anyone ?
Does it have any VALUE ?
Can it DO anything ?

for YOU
.ME
.DEMOCRACY ?

Before you answer

LETS ASK MEN IN WIGS!

They should know, right?

What do men in wigs have to do

with parliamentary data?

What happened in 1771?

In 1771 Brass Crosby, who was Lord Mayor of the City of London , had brought
before him a printer called Miller who dared publish reports of Parliamentary
proceedings. He released the man, but was subsequently ordered to appear
before the House to explain his actions.
Crosby was committed to the Tower of London, but when he was brought to
trial, several judges refused to hear the case and after protests from the public,
Crosby was released.
Parliament ceased to punish the publishing of its debates, partly due to the
campaigns of John Wilkes on behalf of free speech. There then began several
attempts to publish reports of debates.
Among the early successes, the Parliamentary Register published by John Almon
and John Debrett began in 1775 and ran until 1813.
Now the proceedings are published by the parliament

Bold as Brass

So why Hansard ?

Thomas Curson Hansard

Why Hansard?
Thomas Curson Hansard (6 November 1776 5 May 1833) was the son of the
printer Luke Hansard.
In 1803, he established a press of his own in Paternoster Row. In the same year,
William Cobbett, a newspaperman, began to print the Parliamentary Debates. At
first, these were not independent reports, but were taken from newspapers
accounts of parliamentary debate.
In 1809, Hansard started to print Cobbett's reports. Together, they also published
a pamphlet describing an incident in which German mercenaries had flogged
British soldiers for mutiny, and were imprisoned in King's Bench Prison for libel.
In 1812, facing bankruptcy, Cobbett sold the publication to Hansard, who
continued to publish it for the rest of his life.
In 1829, he added his own name to the parliamentary proceedings, giving it the
title Hansard that it bears to this day.

But please - lets not forget!

Miller the printer

Miller the printer

So, we know that

Long before us
people knew the value of
parliamentary data !

Do we ?

PARLIAMENTARY
DATA
STRATEGY

If only it were THAT simple !

Parliamentary Data Strategy

Defined in 2012 : Open data a big theme
Understand what data we have in Parliament
Understand the value of our data
Create re-usable data for internal and external users
Create data platforms to deliver our data sets to those who
need it
Create teams to work with data
Manage our data well with purpose and right governance, and:

Data.parliament parliamentary open

data platform

Data.parliament - From idea

to realisation

How was it done?

well

We did it with :

A superhero development team!

Agile development methodology

Sprints and daily stand-ups

Innovation and abandoning preconceptions

Selecting right tools for the job

Fighting rouge code with dedication

And, of course .

continuous support and help

from Senior Management!

We were helped by many friends

and well wishers in parliament

And our critical friends and supporters

from external development
communities
Thanks so much guys for all your
valuable feedback!

So
Now, that we have parliamentary
open data platform
What next ?

We need your help!

to find its true value
to make it better
and more relevant
to all of us!

We are all data scientists

Make parliamentary data part of

your everyday life

How ??
Let Zeid show you now!

Platform
Pull or Push data into our own NOSQL
database.
Model & Transform the data into RDF
and add Links between resources
Push the data into a Triplestore
Linked Data to provide APIs
Generic Atom feeds.