Overview

Overview

The Open Data Publishing Framework has been created to make the task of publishing Open Data simpler for organisations and individuals. It collects, categorises and presents best-practices, guidance and techniques across the lifecycle of an open data publication

A view of the high level process is shown below

The framework is broken into three distinct blocks

• Prepare Understand motivations for publishing, engage stakeholders, assess potential use, investigate data
• Roadmap Prioritise and plan publication
• Execute Publish the data, roll out the processess for ongoing publication

A key design point of the framework is that stakeholders should remain engaged in the delivery. This is highlighted by regular opportunties to present progress and gain feedback, especially as phases end.

It is expected that the ODPF will be used in large organisations where it would be beneficial to build an internal open data publication capability. This is particularly true where either a large number of datasets need to be published or there are highly volatile datasets which must be published frequently. A Process Improvement block contains guidance to help build this capability.

Design of the framework

The framework is not intended to describe a prescriptive process. It should be considered a guide which helps you address critical factors in delivering a sustainable open data publishing project.

Organisations and individuals are expected and encouraged to customise and tailor the contents of the framework. It would be foolhardy to expect that a one size fits all framework could be created, given the wide variety of contexts for Open Data publishing.

It is also improbable that the framework will ever capture all topics and best practice required by every situation - contributions are welcomed from the users of the framework. See the 'contributing' page for further details.

Inspiration

The Open Data Publishing Framework has been inspired, in part, by the work carried out on the UK Government Service Design Manual by the Government Digital Services team.

More focus has been given to the up-front planning, on the assumption that successful Open Data publication requires more effort in stakeholder alignment (certainly during early projects), and that actual publication is comparatively trivial. Consequently, extra emphasis is given to Service Design discovery work, with the Execute phase containing the Beta and Live phases. Alpha phases, if they exist at all, are limited to internal Proof of Concept visualisations within the overall discovery phase.