I recently spoke at the Liverpool Festival of Data about our participatory data governance work. This is a theme we have been working on for over 10 years. This blog post explains our rationale, the work that has been underpinning it and why this is so important at this point in time.

If you are in Manchester on 18th March this in-person afternoon event should be really good and it's free #IMD25 #opendata

After publishing the IMD and Political Control poster in December. I took a dive into the some of the individual indices. One that stuck out was Education, Skill & Training. Many of the LAs shifted position with London doing particularly well. I am unsure why this is, but interested to find out.

If anyone is interested in what we have been up to lately and some of the events we've got lined up, have a look at our newsletter. We have Open:Data:Night, Design Justice and the LCR Data Community of Practice in Feb, so come join us. mailchi.mp/72539f0e18c4...

There are some really interesting talks already lined up

I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy. Anyway here's a dashboard and a political economy thesis: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...

The recent release of the Index of Multiple Deprivation by UK Gov. allowed me to indulge my twin interests of psephology and demographics. The results a visualisation of the deprivation profiles of the 296 English local authorities. More info here www.opendatamanchester.org.uk/revisiting-p...

👇This is going to be a lot of fun. Do come and join us and tell your friends 😀

Today we are on a Joy Diversion in Macclesfield and it is our biggest ever with over 45 people in 9 explorer teams.This Saturday we are a running its sister event Free Range Liverpool at the Central Library. Come and join us bit.ly/ODM-FRL1

I was on a conference panel about AI in the Public Sector this week and a question from a healthcare professional inspired me to write an article on the Privatisation of Institutional Memory. Hyperbolic? Maybe. Important? I think yes. bit.ly/ODM-ART2 #ai #publicsector #society

This is going to be fun 👇

For the last 8 years we have been developing resources and working with people who want to understand and use data for their own communities. @sammilsom.bsky.social writes about our Data for Communities work www.opendatamanchester.org.uk/data-for-com...

Interested in mutual data governance? The next Data Cooperative Working Group meeting is tomorrow 16.00-17.00 BST - We are looking at sustainability. bit.ly/ODM-DCWG21 Open to everyone

This is one of the most incredibly deranged photography projects I've ever seen and will appeal enormously to anyone who has had to cover Leveson / press reform / vaguely remembers when British newspapers had power. www.jenniferforwardhayter.co.uk/leveson-proj...

Looking for something to do in Manchester next weekend? Come along to the next Joy Diversion. It is fun and free, and you will always discover something. bit.ly/ODM-JOY17

We love doing these. You never know quite where you are going to end, they are full of fun, wonder and JOY!

Mmm data, mmm coops, mmm #datacooperatives

Has Yodel just downed tools in time for Christmas? The website was saying services were temporarily unavailable this morning now there is a notice saying they are not accepting any more parcels www.yodeldirect.co.uk

This piece is incredible. www.esquire.com/news-politic...

Hello Blusky friends. Does anyone have any recommendations for resources to learn Japanese beyond the usual Duolingo which although sleek drives me a bit nuts. Additionally any tutors in Manchester?

We had a team day at @opendatamcr.bsky.social towers and held a #joydiversion. Our group decided to explore the hidden River Irk that flows under Victoria Station and its valley

⚡On 5th Nov we held an Electricity Data Dive that brought together diverse stakeholders from network distribution to social housing. All looking at how better data can lead to more sustainable electricity use. A write up can be found here bit.ly/ODM-SPARKR #energy #sustainability #electricity

Day starting well. As a sensible person I back up my files with Apple Time Machine. Just checked that everything went alright with last night's back up and not only has the back up failed, it has corrupted all the back ups to 2020.😭

This is our regular get together for all things mutual data governance. Join us!

I don't know if this is anyone else's experience, but I'm confounded by Avanti's pricing strategy on the WCML relating to peak time trains. When I catch one from MCR in the morning they tend to be pretty empty. The evening peak is obviously more complicated, but... Surely this is suboptimal?

Some of you may know that we did some work around mobility impairment and access to the places where we live work and play. Part of the accessibility issue, especially routing is data such as dropped curbs, pavement dimensions and barriers is mapped but locked away. Is this practice discriminatory?

📣Calling all energy and data people📣 ⚡Open Data Manchester is running an Electricity Data Dive with Electricity North West and Kraken on 5th November. If you're interested in the data behind our electricity generation, supply and usage, this is for you 👉 bit.ly/ODM-SPARK

Had a great time running a workshop with Emma from 10GM at the #GMLiveWell event today. Really interesting insight from participants and always, never miss an opportunity to show how @opendatamcr.bsky.social we weave data into fabric.

This was a fun event to tend and it was lovely seeing so many people who were interested in the data behind both our local and national elections

Calling all energy data people we have a fab event coming up on the 5th November evening in Manchester. It is a chance to dive in and explore the data from @ElectricityNW and Kraken. #electricity #energy #analytics bit.ly/ODM-SPARK

1/4 📊 New case study alert! Open Data Manchester's Impact Series continues. This time, we're stirring up conversations on #DataEthics with the innovative 'Ethical Dilemma Cafe'. Full story: bit.ly/ODM-CASE4 #DigitalLiteracy #PublicEngagement

For all #democracy and #opendata friends. We are running an in person Digging the Data: MPs, Councillors and Elections event on Tues Oct 1st 6-8pm in Manchester. It is a chance to dig and explore. Sign up: bit.ly/ODM-MPS please share

A couple of months ago I travelled by train from Nairobi to Mombasa. A colleague booked my ticket as you need an M-pesa account to book in advance. 1st class ticket is KSh4,500 around £26.50GBP

I was going back through my photo library and even though the covid times were recent, I was surprised at how quickly the ephemera has disappeared. I photographed a few of these traces at the time. #covid #ephemera

Having just joined, how do people manage so many different channels. It used to be easy as people used to be mostly on the old Twitter, but now are spread to the four winds. Are people firmly planted here or are they like me on many?