Spring newsletter 2024

Always #RadicallyOpen

Our mission is to be #RadicallyOpen, we like to share - so our newsletter is a short update and an invitation for you to take a look at our latest data projects, tools and events. Despite being a small, independent not-for-profit team we fit a lot into our schedule, everything we do is published on our website for others to use - these are just some of the most recent highlights. It’s only a short read and could help you shortcut a project or task so read on…

Open Innovations Are Now ‘On Tour’

We closed our workspace at Munro House at the end of March and since then we have been enjoying our year of being ‘On Tour”. We need to say a big thank you to, Arup, Tetratech and CEG for hosting us at their spaces. Our first tour event, How Does The North Win? - an economic conference showcasing some of the many worthwhile and productive success stories using data happening in the North - was fabulously well attended and full of ideas, connectivity and positivity. The next one is already in the planning and excitingly a new data partnership to help the North succeed came out of this #Winning. More on this to come later.

More On Tour Dates

The next Tour date took us to London, to the RAC’s Data Driven conference. Tom Forth was asked to speak about Bus data and Real Travel Times - using real time open data Tom shows the real accessibility of an area its less than the timetables would have you believe - you can see his presentation for yourself.

It's A Wrap - Leeds 2023 Impact

We are very proud of our work on Culture with Leeds 2023. They are a great example of presenting and sharing their data in the open in realtime to be used internally and externally during a campaign to make a difference.Take a look at the Leeds 2023 impact and delivery with our visualisations here

Tax Devolution Interactive Tool Build - Try our Archers Workplace Parking Levy Tool

We were commissioned by the Northern Powerhouse Partnership to build an interactive web app that estimates potential local revenues from a range of taxes at a local authority level to support their continued work around devolution and fiscal devolution.

The tool allows you to reband and revalue council taxes, adjust business rates and multipliers, look at residential stamp duty by local authority, as well as tourism taxes, employer national insurance retention (similar to the Parisian versement transport), and a workplace parking levy. 

We've done some work with a couple of local authorities looking at workplace parking levy models in a similar way to Nottingham. Naturally, this is a highly political topic, so we can't publish that research, but in the interests of transparency and being #RadicallyOpen, we've had a more detailed look at Ambridge, and how much everyone's favourite BBC Radio 4 village might raise with a new tax like this. 

This is the first stage in a longer-running plan to publish more open source tools on local taxation and economies, and we'd be delighted to talk to, and work with you if you're interested in some similar analysis for your area. Try the Workplace Parking Levy Tool for yourself.

Creating Data Infrastructure for Arts, Culture and Creative Education

Last year, we started working with Dr. Briony Thomas and the University of Leeds, mapping the picture of creative engagement in Leeds schools. This ties in with activities around the LEEDS 2023 Year of Culture, and addresses a significant lack of data available on creative education.This evidence base will be used to inform Leeds City Council's priorities for arts and culture, the LEEDS 2023 evaluation as well as investment priorities in the region for children, families and young people. You can read more about the project in our intro blog post, and can explore the site here. By presenting this data on the web in a way that is open, searchable and accessible, we aim to facilitate and enable schools to find practitioners and organisations to come and deliver arts enrichment activities for their pupils.

We have created a tool to explore those organisations, and our goal for the future is to develop this into a comprehensive directory of creative practitioners, for schools and organisations to search, filter and find the information they need to reach out to each other and build partnerships.

Youth Futures Foundation

Our aim with our data partners, the  Youth Futures Foundation is a data platform to showcase a range of evidence and resources on what works and why for youth employment interventions. 

Having this data in one place on their dashboard will help YFF's network of policy-makers, practitioners, journalists and others to stay informed about the national economic context of their work, supporting them to answer questions like how the cost of living crisis is impacting on young people and their employment prospects, and the current state of unemployment for young people and how this is changing over time.

Mapping, Tools & Sponsors

Finally, as a not-for-profit non-funded organisation we rely on paid projects and sponsorship to keep Open Innovations operating. Many of our sponsors have supported us for over 10 years - we are thankful for their support and their collaboration. It is because of their support that we can work on and maintain projects that make a difference:

• Constituencies Hex Maps
• Population Calculator
• Warm Spaces
• Toolbox

If you would like to find out more about becoming a sponsor or about any of our projects, tools or events please get in touch hello@open-innovations.org

New Data Scientist appointment

We welcome back Luke Strange, after his stint travelling to take a permanent role as a Data Scientist. Luke has a degree in Physics and already interned with us last year so he will be supporting projects with his data analysis and modelling skills. He is hoping to solve real world problems using open data.

Coming up - More Winning in the North

We started this post by talking about our event, How Does The North Win? One of the outcomes of this event was that we should collaborate more and share each other's successes. We are glad to say that the first example of #NorthWinning is now in action as we introduce our data partnership with, Brabners. Brabners are a independent law firm with a commitment to make a difference, part of this is their True North initiative - True North is a network of like-minded organisations committed to supporting the future of the North. It unites the region's most influential and purpose-driven voices to co-create a path forward with a view to unlocking the true potential of the Northern economy. We will be working with them on their True North initiative to help create data infrastructure around their aims and make it open for others to benefit from.We will be launching our initial microsite in June as part of our On Tour  and How Does The North Win event series.

Thanks for reading. Please get in touch or visit our website.