Your guide for being a data partner

Being part of Culture Hack Scotland helped define our approach to innovation and has given us access to a like-minded and influential community of culture, design and digital professionals

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”Hugh WallaceHead of Digital Media, National Museums of Scotland

Culture Hack Scotland is a 24 hr event where digital & design talent work together with cultural organisations to make new and exciting innovation projects.

Last year’s CHS was the most productive event of its type ever seen with the creation of 30 amazing projects inspired from datasets sourced from cultural organisations across Scotland.

This year Culture Hack Scotland takes place April 27/28 in Glasgow with the theme Data, Sound+Vision as part of Sync the new prototyping and cultural innovation programme for Scotland.

Central to the event is a group of organisations who participate as data partners. This document explains what that means and why this opportunity for you to be one of only 8 cultural data partners this year is not to be missed.

Culture Hack Scotland was a great advert for how open innovation can transform access to culture.

Blown away by Culture Hack Scotland. Probably the most productive hackday that I’ve ever seen. Well done Scotland.

A fantastic opportunity for non-techies to get their head around the possibilities that digital media offers.

An educational, informative and fun experience. It really highlighted the advantages and importance of openness and collaboration.

No clearer demonstration of how the worlds of digital and the arts are the same terra firma. I want more.

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”Participant feedback at Culture Hack Scotland 2011

What is a dataset?

A dataset is a set of information of any type in a digital format. Some examples of datasets include:

- event listings- museums collections data- online data archives- creative text, audio or video content- performer and performance database- non-confidential audience-related data- detailed statistics/research

What makes a good/bad dataset?

Good datasets:

- have lots of items - has lots of associated metadata (e.g. location, dates etc)- is in a consistent electronic format- is rich and interesting

If you offer a dataset for Culture Hack Scotland, it will be published with a licence with terms of fair usage. We provide a generic licence and custom licenses can be agreed as appropriate in the recognition that datasets with more restrictive terms are less likely to be used during the event.

Examples of data partners from previous events:

- National Museums of Scotland - collections data- Edinburgh Festivals - complete listings data- Guardian - full article content- Royal Opera House - performance and collections data- City of Edinburgh Council - city-wide footfall data - National Galleries of Scotland - collections data- BBC - archive data- Skinny & The List - listings data

And what were the sort of things that these datasets got turned into?..

The Edinburgh International Book Festival’s world class mobile site was based on a Culture Hack Scotland prototype

The Edinburgh International Book Festival’s world class mobile site in summer 2011 started as Culture Hack Scotland prototype

CHS prototypeFull production version

Dating site festafriend started as at Culture Hack Scotland prototype and that summer became the talk of the Edinburgh Festival

The beautiful data visualisation festivalsclock.com started as a Culture Hack Scotland project

As well as 27 other great projects created in just 24 hours. Explore them all at www.culturehackscotland.com

Benefits to your being a data partner

- Your data is used as the creative basis of the CHS event- Your organisation is aligned with a high profile innovation event- Access to the community of developers and designers- Ability to explore digital innovation in a risk-free environment- Logo and credit on the Sync/Culture Hack Scotland website- Logos visible during the launch of the event- Listed as a Culture Hack Scotland in all press releases - Guaranteed tickets for 2 members of staff

Other things for data partners bring to CHS

Problems: understanding your challenges can inspire creative yet relevant solutions

People: having senior leadership at the launch and staff who can explain the context of the data incentivises usage

Prizes: such as tickets, exclusive views incentivise participants

Please recognise that the talent that comes to the event do so as generous volunteers. Data partners therefore are invited in the same spirit and consider the digital & design participants as collaborators and potential future partners and not as free labour.

Some other questions you might have

Isn’t hacking a bad thing?Many words have multiple meanings and in this context hacking means the practice of digital talent making new projects quickly and creatively. The Culture Hacks in London and Scotland in 2011 both catalysed massive interest in this kind of work from both practitioners and policy makers so it can’t be all bad!

Who owns the IP of what gets made?The developer or designer has the rights over the code/app/website that they might make while the data owner retains all ownership to any data it might use. Like the Edinburgh Intl Book festival in 2011, after the event the data owner can then discuss with the developer how they take the project forward together.

Will my organisation kick itself if it doesn’t take part?Probably yes.

Culture Hack Scotland will be held at the stunning SocietyM - a newly opened workspace for so called business nomads

Centrally located just 5 minutes from Glasgow Queen Street, this creative workspace will be inspiring for all involved

Contact a Sync Producer to find out more

Contact Suzy on suzy@triggerstuff.co.uk or Rohan on rohan@welcometosync.com to talk about what data sets you might have and the best ways for your organisation to take part in Culture Hack Scotland.

The target deadline for receiving datasets is March 1st.

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you

SYNC is a new two-year programme for the cultural sector in Scotland – all about making, prototyping and innovation in the space where culture, technology and design meet.

SYNC consists of the landmark Culture Hack Scotland event, a Geeks-in-Residence programme and SyncTank the future-facing online magazine.

SYNC is supported by Creative Scotland and you can find out more at www.welcometosync.com