THE PROBLEMS: With the growth of open data, a lot of open data technocrats, software developers, enthusiasts, and academia have become interested in its use (especially in such cases as datasets on government-spending, population, city infrastructure, transportation and other smart-city data). However, many of these interested individuals and organisations are not aware of the existence of the relevant portals where these datasets can be accessed and only stumble across these portals after many hours of rigorous searching.

A second challenge is that mobile and mobile app usage is ever increasing. Research has shown that people now spend more time on mobile devices than watching television; and this number keeps increasing at a rapid rate (see Geekwire or Bloomberg). This means that mobile devices are now one of the easiest and fastest means of accessing data and information; if more people are to become aware of open data and use it, it has to have a mobile presence with mobile features users have come to expect.

THE SOLUTION: Create an open data mobile app that contains a repository of available open data portals.

The Mobile App should act as a bridge between mobile users and the actual open data portals; providing access to all datasets available on the portals.

The Mobile App should provide mobile-optimised features and design.

MOBILE APP NAME: Open Data Companion (ODC)

LINK: Google Play

APP DESCRIPTION: Open Data Companion (ODC) provides a unified access point to over 100 open data portals and thousands of datasets from around the world; right from your mobile device. Crafted with mobile-optimised features and design, this is an easy and convenient way to find, access and share open data.

Open Data Companion provides a framework for all State, Regional, National and Worldwide CKAN open data portals to deliver open data to all mobile users.

Use Open Data Companion to browse, share and download all datasets present on London Datastore right from your mobile device. To set up the app to access the London Datastore, search for “London” during the app set up.

APP FEATURES:

* Browse datasets from over 100 data portals around the world by categories (including London Datastore)

* Receive push notifications when new datasets are available from London Datastore

* Download and view data records (resources) on your mobile device (as supported by data portal)

* Preview dataset records in app before download (as supported by data portal)

* Bookmark/save datasets for later viewing

* “Favourite” your data portals for future easy access

* Share links to datasets on social media, email, sms etc. right from the app.

* In-app tutorial videos designed to help you quickly get productive with the app. Tutorial videos are available offline once downloaded

More features on the way!

APP OBJECTIVES

* Create a mobile app that contains a repository of available open data portals. This will help to drastically reduce the amount of time spent searching for open data to use/consume.

* Create an effective mobile channel for open data portal administrators to present datasets to the ever-expanding mobile community.

* The Mobile App should act as a bridge between mobile users and the actual open data portals; providing access to all datasets available on the portals. The app is designed to complement and supplement the datasets/services provided by data portals.

* The Mobile App should provide mobile-optimised features and design to cater for mobile users expectations.

DATASETS USED FROM LONDON DATASTORE

The app uses all datasets (http://data.london.gov.uk/dataset) provided by the London Datastore. The aim of the app is to bring open data to the mobile world. This includes providing optimised mobile access to all datasets from London Datastore.