KnowNow has been recognised by the Open Data Institute as Open Data pioneers. Our Flood Event Model was developed solely with Open Data sources and still achieves 85% accuracy in predicting where emergency resources should be deployed in during extreme weather conditions.
KnowNow recognised as Open Data pioneers
You can read more about the use of Open Data in the UK in the full report that the ODI has published. There is also a link to the 270 open data companies that they have identified from the UK.
Open Data pioneers – where are they based?
There is an interesting map of where the UK’s Open Data pioneers are based. You can see KnowNow appear on this map right at the bottom just above the Isle of Wight!
How can you get involved?
There are a number of ways that you can find out more about the Open Data that the UK makes available. To find out what Open Data really is, a great place to start is this video guide from the ODI.
You can begin to explore the UK’s open data via the government’s data.gov.uk site. Many individual cities and regions also have their own data stores. Two great examples are the Hampshire Hub and the London Data Store.
The growth of rapid development frameworks such as IBM’s Bluemix enables you to quickly prototype services that make use of this open data. It is pleasing to note that more and more cities, companies, and individuals are making their data more open as this provides an opportunity for everyone to develop further innovative smart services from which we all can benefit.