To contribute to discussions around open data quality, the ODI has been working with Experian to investigate quality in several UK Government open datasets. Here, ODI Associate Leigh Dodds introduces the project and its initial findings
Open data communities are focusing on improving the quality of their data and sharing guidance. CC BY 2.0, uploaded by Neil Rickards.
There are a number of initiatives at the moment exploring the idea of data quality, with particular reference to describing, measuring and improving the quality of open data.
For example, the W3C Data on the Web Best Practices Working Group are producing a vocabulary for publishing and describing data quality metrics. There is also related work capturing best practices for sharing public sector data.
Various open data projects and communities are working to improve the quality of their open data and have started to share guidance. For example data.gov.sg have recently shared their data quality guide for tabular data. And Mark Frank and Johanna Walker at Southampton University have recently published a paper exploring a user-centred view of data quality.
To contribute to this ongoing discussion, we recently undertook a small project with Experian to explore data quality in some open datasets.
The project had several goals:
For the initial exploratory project we’ve used the Land Registry Price Paid data, the Companies House register and the NHS Choices GP Practices and Surgeries.
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