Open Data

Open Data

Through Open Perth and Kinross, the Council is freeing up data to generate economic and social value, help promote transparency in governance and support Perth's effort to become a smart city.

What is open data?

Open data is data that can be freely used, shared and built-on by anyone, anywhere, for any purpose.

In simple terms, open data is data that is released in a format that allows for it to be easily used again, under a licence that allows it to be used for any application.

All around the world people are publishing and using open data to affect positive change in communities. More information and case studies can be found on the Open Data Institute website. There are also case studies available on the Open Data Aha website.

If you are after a simple video explaining open data, there are lots available on You Tube.

Open data is supported by the Scottish Government which published its own Open Data Strategy in February 2015, encouraging all public bodies in Scotland to develop their own open data publication plan, and to aim to publish their data in an open format. Further information can be found on the UK Government open data portal.

What is a smart city?

Open Perth and Kinross is the place where open data can be found and is one of the components of a wider "Smart City" initiative, taking innovative, technology-driven approaches to everyday services like street lighting, waste and transport.

Perth Smart City

Open Perth & Kinross enables easy access to open data including maps, and graph visualisation tools to ensure that the data is accessible by all. Our aim is to present Council data which may be useful for individuals, communities and businesses to carry out their own projects or develop applications. Over time we hope to present data from partner organisations along with crowd-sourced community data.

All of Scotland's cities, including Perth, are developing open data initiatives under the Scottish Cities Alliance's Smart Cities Scotland Programme, much of which is supported by the EU European Regional Development Fund .

Perth and Kinross Council's Open Data Strategy

As part of a commitment to open data, the Council has approved an Open Data Strategy (PDF) [525KB] , which outlines how we as an organisation will move towards a policy of "Open by Default" when it comes to data publication.

Open Data Initial Publication Plan

In conjunction with the open data portal, we have prepared an initial publication plan (PDF) [356KB] describing the datasets that will feature as part of the open data platform which will be regularly updated to reflect changes to the plan.

This is an open data platform for the whole of Perth and Kinross and we welcome suggestions for datasets you would like to see published.