Big Fat Swirrl Quiz of 2019
By: Sarah Roberts
Tags: API, Statistics, Linked Data, Geospatial, Open Data

If you’ve wandered into this blog post expecting Jimmy Carr, then you may be disappointed. BUT if you’re the kind of person who’s interested in all things data, then here’s a quick rundown of stuff that happened with us at Swirrl in 2019 …

1. What rhymes with DOGS and stretches across the GSS?

COGS (Connected Open Government Statistics) — not to be confused with DOGS (like this) Image Source

No, not clogs — COGS. In the quest for comparable and interoperable data, we’ve been working with the Office for National Statistics on the Connected Open Government Statistics (COGS) project, alongside statisticians at DIT, HMRC, MHCLG, DWP and others. In 2019, the project got a new name, the ONS have been scaling up their team of data analysts and we’ve been working hard on the software platform. COGS aims to make data from across government easier to find, access and use: cue lots of work with harmonising code lists, tidying data and creating filtered searches to make this happen.

2. What powers flooding apps but is also to do with trees (amongst other things)?

Here’s another loosely related image. This time, slightly closer to the topic … Image Source

Did you guess it? It’s Defra’s Data Services Platform. As part of a team with Landmark and Esri UK, we’re working with Defra to improve their data publishing as well as working on rolling out new tools, apps and services which make it easier to find, understand and use data from across organisations involved. Towards the end of last year we released enhancements to the Asset Management app as well as a new app: Assets Data Requirements Library. We’ll soon be introducing a new Ecology and Fish Data Explorer, and are working on enhancements to the River Catchment Data Explorer and the Bathing Water Quality Service.

3. Which data, published last year, powers lava lamps?

Bowie Penney presenting on the Indices of Deprivation Data, published by MHCLG

Well, not physical lava lamps, more Open Data Manchester’s lava lamp visualisation, which was one of many things people made with the Deprivation datasets on MHCLG’s Open Data site late last year. These datasets receive a lot of press and use, and they were recently updated in September. This data’s open, so anyone can use it, and the uses are wide ranging, from contextual funding use to estimating life expectancy.

Other things people made with the data include Rob Fry’s interactive map and Alasdair Rae’s work and, if you want to use the data to create your own app, visualisation or dashboard then the data’s accessible via an API on the site. Get to the IMD postcode app, area app and the Indices of deprivation datasets here (the tools were updated to go alongside the 2019 data release).

4. What has Postman Pat got to do with data?

I watched a lot of Postman pat about 5 years ago because of my kids. The most inept Postman ever - thank goodness for him that his cat is a genius. Image Source

Well, he presumably likes a good postcode and, if you do too, you might be interested to know that last year we added the Official National Statistics Postcode Lookup to the ONS Linked Data Geography Site. You can find geography identifiers on this site so it’s useful if you want to use ONS geography in linked data. Now you can also use a postcode search to find statistical areas, and we improved the user interface too, so it’s easier to find different types of areas and you can browse areas via a list or on a map.

5. What does every house in the country need and every house buyer want?

Nope, not a kitchen (although, really, a kitchen is pretty useful): EPC Data - which is needed whenever a property is built, sold or rented.

EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) and DEC (Display Energy Certificate) data has recently been updated on the custom site we built for MHCLG. The data is searchable, browsable and available for download, both individually and in bulk. The site stores EPC records for every business, public building and home in the country, with 50–100 fields for each, and it gets updated every few months. MHCLG made this data available because of its wide-ranging potential benefits in understanding the characteristics of housing across England.

6. Who wore paisley best?

Drinks after our Power of Data event in London in October. What I love about this is how Jamie and Bill both turned up in paisley shirts — must have coordinated wardrobes.

Well, honestly the jury’s still out on this, but Bill and Jamie both brought a strong paisley game to our Power of Data event in October. Videos are up now so if you missed seeing Heather Savory, Jeni Tennison, Gaia Marcus, Rosalie Marshall, Paul Maltby, Gavin Freeguard, David Kane or our own Bill Roberts, then do check their talks and discussions out. Bill also spoke at MBN Solutions in Glasgow; the RSS conference in Belfast; Linked Spatial Data in Europe in Amersfoort and an ESSnet workshop on Linked Open Statistical Data in the European Union at ONS in London. Super Swirrler, and all round superstar, Jen Williams taught a linked data course in Oxford in September and Jamie continued doing lots of good stuff with Open Data Manchester.

7. What did teamwork make in 2019?

The Power Rangers, truly making the dream work. Image Source

Come on. You know this one. Teamwork … makes the DREAM work (HT Miss Wilson, one of my son’s teachers).

Last year we were lucky enough to grow our team at Swirrl and they do, quite definitely, make the dream work. We welcomed Benjy Stanton, Andrew Mcveigh, Kira McLean, Ben Hindle and Rob Chambers, who are based all over the place really, from Swansea to Canada (with a bit of Bristol, London and Manchester in between). One of the nicest things about being part of Swirrl is the mix of remote and office based work and how it works.

Benjy Stanton, who joined us last year

8. What links road traffic, new build housing starts and the gender employment gap?

I mean, I know this is tenuous but I can’t mention road traffic and not feature KITT. Image Source

OK, this is admittedly a tricky one. These are just a few of the 200-plus datasets, which were added or updated in 2019, on the Scottish Government’s Open Data platform. This long-standing system draws in data from eleven different organisations, and that number of updates and additions in one year is pretty impressive — it certainly deserves a mention in this recap of 2019. You can take a look at the full list of the datasets available on statistics.gov.scot, and when they were modified, here.

9. Which pilot started in 2019?

Clue: not this one (Image Source)

I should imagine there were pilots aplenty in 2019, but if you got it (and you’re still reading all our news) then you do indeed get the gold star. We started working with the lovely people at NISRA on a pilot project last year. They’re currently adding datasets, so more to come on this as 2020 embraces us all in a big data hug.

So that’s it! Thanks for taking part in our Swirrl Big Fat Quiz of 2019. Who knows what 2020 will bring? You can always follow us on twitter to find out — just think of how much you’ll already know if I write something like this again next year …