About

Edinburgh is a wonderful city, with an outstanding historic centre, plentiful green spaces, abundant cultural resources, excellent sporting, library and leisure facilities, and first class schools and universities. At the same time, there are areas of real deprivation, affected by unemployment, drug and alcohol problems, ill-health, and low academic achievement. Many groups are working hard to make the city a rewarding place to live: community and voluntary organisations, charities, small independent businesses, and not least, the Council.

Increasingly, the work of all these groups depends on digital resources, especially the web and social media.

In Joined Up Edinburgh, we are focussing on the relationship between three constituencies:

local communities and businesses
software developers
organisations that collect, store and provide data

How can we strengthen the links between these constituencies in a way that enables local government to work more effectively and empowers citizens to connect with each other and to build thriving communities? We intend to focus on the following goals:

Encouraging public bodies to make available the data that they hold on myriad aspects of city life, covering topics such as health, education, the built and the natural environment, road traffic, and many more.
Encouraging local community groups to reflect on what information they need to pursue their goals and to articulate these needs as clearly as possible.
Encouraging the local developer community to work with data providers and with local communities to help build services that address real needs.

Events

OKFN Edinburgh meetup #5

6pm - 9pm, 5th March 2013

Centre for Social Informatics, Edinburgh Napier University (10 Colinton Rd, Edinburgh, GB EH10 5DT)

More info & post-event details

Open Data Day 2013

10am - 1pm, 23rd February 2013

Informatics Forum, 10 Crichton Street, EH89AB

More info & post-event details

Contact

If you have any suggestions for Joined Up Edinburgh, you'd like to help organise events or get involved in some other way, you can send one of us a message.

Ewan Klein: ewan at staffmail.ed.ac.uk, @ewanhklein

Amy Guy: amy.guy at ed.ac.uk, @rhiaro

Freda O'Byrne: @FredaOByrne

Keep an eye on #joinuped on Twitter.