Chi published the annual anonomised data relating to her constituency work on her website earlier this year and opened up an open data competition [full screen here] to invite anyone to display the data in an interesting and informative way, with tea in the Pugin Room, House of Commons as the prize.
Chi’s team judged the submissions against a number of criteria including:
– How easy is it to engage with particularly for those who are not digitally literate?
– How creativity does it convey the information about my casework?
– How successfully does it inspire interest in the data specifically and/or the power of open data more generally?
and the winning entry came from Dr Tim Brock, of the statistical graphics business Data to Display. He came to claim his tea in time for Christmas.
Dr Brock said:
“ I’m really proud to have won Chi’s competition.
“ Data visualisation is a very important way of encouraging openness and clarity in policy making”
Chi is pleased that real interest was shown in the data and welcomes the insights that Dr Brock and others can provide.
Chi said:
“ Every month I publish pie charts summarising my casework so that my constituents can see why people come to me.
“ But I also want to show that data can be shared safely and creatively and that open data should be the default for those in the public and private sectors.”
Open data is data that can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone with no requirements or conditions attached. Used properly, with proper concern for privacy, transparency and service design open data can be a powerful tool and reshape how government and citizens interact with each other.
Tim is 29 and from Gateshead. He has a degree from Manchester University and a PhD from the University of York in physics. After graduating, Tim moved back to Gateshead and started Data to Display, a data visualisation consultancy earlier this year.
Tim’s interests include how data can be communicated effectively and whether or not it is communicated accurately. He is also a self-confessed football trivia geek.