The enthusiasm for open data across the globe is building, and the time for a group here in Manchester has now arrived.
As a city, we are overflowing with developers, designers and people curious about statistical data and information visualisation. They all have ideas about how to use publicly available data from a wide range of sources. Our mission as a group is to:
- Help developers and designers become more familiar with tools, datasets and other projects around the World
- Identify datasets of use to local data users and of interest to us generally
- To provide a catalyst for local authorities in Manchester and the North so that they might make data available for exploration, knowing there are established groups who wish to use it
We will do this by running regular meetups with presentations on tools, best practice and ideas for using and exploring open data, and hopefully at least a few times a year running Hack Days where we intend to collaborate on substantive projects.
As curator, I am here merely to help organise and promote, but hope communities from free software groups, designers, developers and people who know more about statistics than most will engage and slowly take ownership of this group.
First things first: if you want to get involved you should join the Open Data Manchester Google Group where we’ll start having active discussions about how to move forward.
Open Data Manchester 