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Tools & resources

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We produce free tools and guides to help you to manage, publish and use data. We’ve researched and developed these tools ourselves with input from the wider community

People to talk to about Tools & resources

Olivier Thereaux
Head of Research and Development

We produce free tools and guides to help you to manage, publish and use data.

We’ve researched and developed these tools ourselves with input from the wider community. If you’d like to offer us feedback or help us further develop the tools, please get in touch

Toolkits for the public and private sectors

Planning tools

These tools help you to think about how you maintain, publish and use data, and the policies and processes you should build around it.

Data Ethics Canvas

The Data Ethics Canvas is designed to help identify potential ethical issues associated with a data project or activity. It promotes understanding and debate around the foundation, intention and potential impact of any piece of work, and helps identify the steps needed to act ethically

Use the Data Ethics Canvas

Ecosystem mapping

We’ve developed a new guide to help organisations identify and map data ecosystems. The tool isn’t just useful for creating a visual map of how data is shared across an ecosystem that exists around a product or service

Use the ecosystem mapping guide

Policy design patterns

Policymakers sometimes struggle to see how data can be used to create impact in the world. They know that open data is relevant to the digital economy and building better public services but fail to see the many other ways that data can be used. We have produced some re-usable solutions (design patterns) that help government policymakers to see how data could be used to create impact

Use the policy design patterns

Standards guidebook

Open standards for data are reusable agreements that make it easier for people and organisations to publish, access, share and use better quality data. This guidebook helps people and organisations create, develop and adopt open standards for data. It supports a variety of users, including policy leads, domain experts and technologists

Use the Open Standards for Data guidebook

Assess your organisation's readiness for publishing open data

Our Open Data Pathway will help you to discover your organisation’s strengths and weaknesses, identify areas of improvement to optimise progression and receive practical recommendations to help achieve your goals

Use the Open Data Pathway

Data and public services toolkit

This toolkit is designed to help people designing and delivering public services to overcome barriers to using data effectively.

Data and public services toolkit

Datopolis board game

Datopolis is a board game about building things – services, websites, devices, apps, research – using closed and open data. It was designed and developed by Ellen Broad and Jeni Tennison at the Open Data Institute

Find out more about Datopolis and order your own version