The world’s first

open address business

https://openaddressesuk.org

@openaddressesuk

Contents

- Overview

- Growing the data

- Multiplying addresses

- Smart address input

- Questions

Overview

In the UK addresses are currently a

closed asset owned by private and public

sector institutions.

Open Addresses make address data

available for everyone to use for free,

build a community to maintain it, and

create paid-for services to fund it.

Open Addresses is wholly owned by the

not-for-profit Open Data Institute.

Maintain

Publish

Gather

https://openaddressesuk.org

@peterkwells

Benefits

Social and economic value Speed and quality

We estimate that opening up UK

addresses will create yearly social

and economic value of >£110m as

more people will use them

We will reduce the time it takes

for one of the UK’s 130,000 new

addresses per year to get published from

months to days

New businesses and services Efficiency

Resolvable identifiers will allow

new businesses and services

to be created through linked data

We will provide address services that are

cheaper and simpler for service providers

to use, integrate and maintain

https://openaddressesuk.org

@peterkwells

How people will use the services● To enter free-format addresses

● To correct bad data

● To locate addresses

● To link data together

● To create new services

https://openaddressesuk.org

@peterkwells

How we gather data

Alpha Beta Live

Bulk open datasets, crowdsourcing

Large, closed datasets?

Statistical & geospatial inference

Collaborative maintenance

https://openaddressesuk.org

@peterkwells

Collaborative maintenance

The more users on the platform the higher the quality of the data

Service providers and users

automatically produce information about

new and existing addresses as they use

the services.

Our algorithms weight this data to

improve the data and service.

AddressBase

PAF

https://openaddressesuk.org

@peterkwells

How we will grow the user base

With sponsorship we can grow the user base faster by extending free

trialist services

Alpha Beta Live

Open/geo community

Social comms

Commercial trialists

Mainstream media

Public sector trialists

Technology media

Paying customers

https://openaddressesuk.org

@peterkwells

Governance

Open Addresses board

Owned by the ODI

Ethics and privacy

Public good

Contents

- Overview

- Growing the data

- Multiplying addresses

- Smart address input

- Questions

Data: changing needsAs we build an authoritative, definitive dataset we expected data needs to change over time

Existing

open

datasets and

inference to

tackle the

bulk of the

challenge

“80/20” rule

Ongoing,

collaborative

maintenance

Targetted

work. Low-

volume

records to fill

existing gaps

in available

datasets

NB: dates are “just for fun”

https://openaddressesuk.org

@peterkwells

Data: changing needs

But IPR got in the way of existing open datasets

Many are not really open

Ask me about digital cholera :-(

We had to adapt our plans

We’re both growing data and growing a network….

Contents

- Overview

- Growing the data

- Multiplying addresses

- Smart address input

- Questions

ZE“view fae shona and peters”, (C) Peter MacKinnon, licensed under CC-BY 2.0.

Fogralea

ZE1 0SE

© Open Addresses Ltd.

https://openaddressesuk.org

@peterkwells

Imagery © 2015 DigitalGlobe, Map data © Google Maps

Fogralea

ZE1 0SE

© Open Addresses Ltd.

https://openaddressesuk.org

@peterkwells

Fogralea

ZE1 0SE

https://openaddressesuk.org

@peterkwells

How can you help?

I’ve seen the future...

What about nos.

1 to 4? Same

postcode? We

cannot know!

Fogralea

ZE1 0SE

https://openaddressesuk.org

@peterkwells

Fogralea

ZE1 0SE

https://openaddressesuk.org

@peterkwells

Fogralea, Sound, ZE1 0SE

● Map: sourced from OS Street

View

● Yellow dots: street mid lines (from

OS Locator)

● Blue lines: street geometry (from

OS VectorMap District combined

with OS Meridian 2 and OS

Locator)

● Red dots: postcode centroids

(from ONS’ Postcode Directory).

● Red hatched area: street buffer

zone 25m either side of the street

mid line (calculated)

Meadow Lane, Chester, CH4 7BH

● Map: sourced from OS Street

View

● Yellow dots: street mid lines (from

OS Locator)

● Blue lines: street geometry (from

OS VectorMap District combined

with OS Meridian 2 and OS

Locator)

● Black lines: Land Registry’s

INSPIRE Index Polygons

● Red dots: postcode centroids

(from ONS’ Postcode Directory).

● Green rectangles: street

bounding boxes (from OS

Locator)

● Red hatched area: street buffer

zone 25m either side of the street

mid line (calculated)

Note: the extra features are available thanks to the Land

Registry’s open data offering for England and Wales.

Contents

- Overview

- Growing the data

- Multiplying addresses

- Smart address input

- Questions

Collaborative maintenance

The more users on the platform the higher the quality

Service providers and users

automatically produce information about

new and existing addresses as they use

the services.

Our algorithms automagically weight

this information to improve the service.

AddressBase

PAF

https://openaddressesuk.org

@peterkwells

The Open Addresses platformOur aim is to build a sustainable model like this. The value is in an authoritative and definitive dataset

which is collaboratively maintained.

Authoritative and definitive UK address list

Bulk APIs URLs

Service Providers

Services - Websites,

Users

Valu

e

Re

ve

nu

e fo

r su

sta

ina

bili

ty

The (lack of a) network effectWe have one million high-confidence addresses [*] so it looks more like this. Despite the collaborative

maintenance we lack authoritative and hence little chance of becoming definitive

Authoritative and definitive UK address list

Bulk APIs URLs

Few Service Providers

Services - Websites,

Few Users

Re

ve

nu

e fo

r su

sta

ina

bili

ty

Valu

e

Building BlocksIf we drill into the platform we see something interesting. The building blocks for addresses are

creating value in our address list. Can we build a value proposition from this?

APIsBulk URLs

Valu

e

Building Blocks- towns

- postcodes

- streets

- and the links between them...

Authoritative and definitive

UK address list

Re

ve

nu

e fo

r su

sta

ina

bili

ty

Smart address input

One of the needs that building blocks can support

is improving address entry on websites

This can meet user needs, provide value to service

providers and provide clean addresses for the

address list. Win! Win! Win!

We are building a proof-of-concept…..

It will give people less of this

Giff Gaff on desktop

Hungry House on mobile

The Jigsaw Puzzle Club

Lots of fields

Exceptions

BIG dropdown lists

Burn your select tags: https://www.youtube.com/watch

?v=CUkMCQR4TpY

And more of this

Citymapper

High digital confidence/ skills

users like suggestions.

We have a PoC...

Low digital confidence/skills users like to

just type. Do the hard work….http://sorting-office.openaddressesuk.org

“is this what you meant?”(Dev/Alpha language at the mo…)

Smart address input

It can be delivered with a small address list

It can handle “digital cholera”

It helps users

It helps services providers

It helps build a public good

Contents

- Overview

- Growing the data

- Multiplying addresses

- Smart address input

- Questions

QuestionsHopefully the first one is “how can I help?” :)

How you can helpAs a service provider As a developer / open data advocate / geospatial

expert

Think of how you would use our services and let us know Add more ideas or add “ready to load” datasets:

https://trello.com/b/UXqgc1wy/datasets

Become a Beta trialist for the APIs Load some data:

http://turbot.openaddressesuk.org/

Let us know if you have data you are willing to contribute Visualise and explore the current bulk download:

https://alpha.openaddressesuk.org/data

Let us know if you would be willing to sponsor us whilst we grow Comment on our algorithms:

https://alpha.openaddressesuk.org/blog/2015/02/12/inference

https://alpha.openaddressesuk.org/blog/2015/02/20/confidence

mailto:info@openaddressesuk.org Try our APIs:

https://alpha.openaddressesuk.org/about/apidocu

Contribute some code: https://github.com/OpenAddressesUK

Join the forums: https://github.com/OpenAddressesUK/forum

Thank you

@peterkwells

@openaddressesuk

https://openaddressesuk.org

Open Addresses is building an open address

database for the UK.

It will be open and available to all, helping people,

companies, non-profits and government work

together to create a better service for everyone.

Offices

Where?