This was the talk I did at Pecha Kucha Coventry in November last year. It might sound a slightly odd title for a talk that is all about open data, but I was keen to do the whole presentation without using the phrase “open data” once. This was because I was part of an evening that had a variety of different speakers, not all of whom were technical, so I really couldn’t assume any prior knowledge of what open data is from the audience.

I also think that using the phrase is often a way of excluding people from the discussion. This was a useful opportunity to prove to myself that it’s possible to talk about open data in a way that is easy to understand for people who don’t want to know anything about the technical details.

I think that’s pretty much most people.

So, here it is. It is essentially me talking about three projects I’ve been involved with: the Birmingham Civic Dashboard, AidView and some ongoing work I’m doing with Mike Cummins about secondary school admissions.

I found the experience a lot of fun, if a little nerve wracking. I know that I have a tendency to waffle and so doing a talk where I had to stick to 20 seconds per slide was quite challenging. I just about managed it, although I think I stumble a bit over the last few slides.

Many thanks to Janet Vaughan for coercing me to come along and join in. Pecha Kucha Coventry have their own Vimeo channel where you can see all of the presentations from the evening and I’d heartily recommend doing so.