Open data has the power to unlock value for your organisation and your community, but in reality, many councils face tight budgets, competing priorities, and uncertainty about where to start or how to scale.
This workshop is designed for IT and information management professionals to provide clear frameworks and resource-light strategies for sharing useful data with the public. It will be presented from a technical perspective of making data available, and cover a strategic approach to open data, including identifying key datasets and aligning with organizational goals, responsible and cost-effective implementation using practical tools, and incremental improvement with feedback, automation, and lightweight governance.

We’ll cover:
● Approach: Where to Start & What to Share: This section will cover the fundamentals of open data, including how to decide what to release, its cost-benefits, existing sharing frameworks, and the importance of metadata, demonstrated through the Metlink data.
● Making Use of the Data: Through an interactive exercise, participants will learn how to utilize open data by signing up for API keys, generating a Metlink API, and observing a demo of quick app creation using APIs.
● Ongoing Cost Management and Wrap-Up: The final segment will discuss strategies for managing costs associated with open data, such as API key management and throttling, followed by a Q&A session.

Key Takeaways for Participants
● Clarity on where to start - identify high-value, low-effort datasets
● Practical steps to implement - lightweight tools, governance, and workflows
● Confidence in scaling gradually - how to improve without big budgets or heavy systems
● Considerations for use of open data - examples of how the data might be consumed