Improving public services through open data: public toilets

Bichard’s work for the TACT3 project (Bichard REF Output 3) found that UK toilet provision is not centrally collated and no national map or database of toilets exists. In contrast, the UK government’s white paper Open Public Services (2011) emphasised its commitment to incorporating the use of Open Data in public services provision that could be tailored to community preferences, and therefore be more sustainable. Incorporating Open Data on public toilet provision, Bichard and Knight (RCA) developed The Great British Public Toilet Map (GBPTM). Whilst a number of other websites and applications map toilets by ‘crowd surfing’, GBPTM is entirely populated by Open Data, and not only uses the data as information for users, but informs members of the public that such information is available and accessible for their use. This paper presents the development of the GBPTM, including inclusive design research and studies that compare accuracy of information directly provided by users with Open Data collected by local authorities. It suggests that, to meet the health and well-being of an ageing population, a sustainable and cost-effective solution must be found for ‘publicly accessible’ toilet provision, including opening up provision beyond that ‘for customers only’ and providing accurate information on current public provision. The paper highlights the barriers encountered in the production of Open Data by local authorities. A review of the paper in the journal Civil Engineering (May 2013) described the design of the GBPTM as a ‘simple and elegant solution’. The development of a digital output and an understanding of digitally based research led to Bichard’s successful submission to an EPSRC Digital Economy sandpit, in which she developed an interdisciplinary project with the Universities of Newcastle, Bournemouth and the West of England. The project, Family Rituals 2.0, secured £750,000 in research funding with Bichard as co-investigator (2013–15)

The first WASP public data release

The WASP (wide angle search for planets) project is an exoplanet transit survey that has been automatically taking wide field images since 2004. Two instruments, one in La Palma and the other in South Africa, continually monitor the night sky, building up light curves of millions of unique objects. These light curves are used to search for the characteristics of exoplanetary transits. This first public data release (DR1) of the WASP archive makes available all the light curve data and images from 2004 up to 2008 in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. A web interface () to the data allows easy access over the Internet. The data set contains 3 631 972 raw images and 17 970 937 light curves. In total the light curves have 119 930 299 362 data points available between them

Anchorage Community Indicators: Public Use Data Files

The four SPSS datasets described and included here include: ACSPUBFILE.SAV: The data collected in the course of the 2005 Anchorage Community Survey in SPSS format. / ACSCT.SAV: a merged dataset consisting of composite measures extracted from the 2005 Anchorage Community Survey, 2000 U.S. Census, and Anchorage Police Department Dispatches 2003–2005. / BLOCKGROUPMEASURES.SAV: A description of the 214 census block groups within the city of Anchorage, including composite measures derived from the 2000 Census of Population and Housing (documented in ACI Technical Report Initial Measures derived from Census) and dispatch measures derived from APD dispatch data files (documented in Anchorage Police Department Dispatch Data). / CTRACTMEASURES.SAV: A census tract level of aggregation of the 214 census blocks into the 55 census tracts that compose the city of Anchorage. Also includes composite measures derived from the 2000 Census of Population and Housing (documented in ACI Technical Report Initial Measures derived from Census) and dispatch measures derived from APD dispatch data files (documented in Anchorage Police Department Dispatch Data).The Anchorage Community Survey is a biannual study conducted by the Justice Center at the University of Alaska Anchorage as a principal component of the Community Indicators Project at UAA. As the premier source of data on Anchorage Community Indicators, the ACS also provides insight into the communities of Anchorage, Girdwood and Eagle River. This document explains the various SPSS datasets, collection methods, and variables of the 2005 Anchorage Community Survey (https://scholarworks.alaska.edu/handle/11122/3729).[Introduction] / 2005 Anchorage Community Survey / 2000 U.S. Census Extracts / Appendices — Variables / 1: ACSPubFile.sav / 2: ACSCT.sav / 3: CTractMeasures.sav / 4: BlockGroupMeasures.sa

Understanding Database Reconstruction Attacks on Public Data

In 2020 the U.S. Census Bureau will conduct the Constitutionally mandated decennial Census of Population and Housing. Because a census involves collecting large amounts of private data under the promise of confidentiality, traditionally statistics are published only at high levels of aggregation. Published statistical tables are vulnerable to DRAs (database reconstruction attacks), in which the underlying microdata is recovered merely by finding a set of microdata that is consistent with the published statistical tabulations. A DRA can be performed by using the tables to create a set of mathematical constraints and then solving the resulting set of simultaneous equations. This article shows how such an attack can be addressed by adding noise to the published tabulations, so that the reconstruction no longer results in the original data

Dynamic Provable Data Possession Protocols with Public Verifiability and Data Privacy

Cloud storage services have become accessible and used by everyone. Nevertheless, stored data are dependable on the behavior of the cloud servers, and losses and damages often occur. One solution is to regularly audit the cloud servers in order to check the integrity of the stored data. The Dynamic Provable Data Possession scheme with Public Verifiability and Data Privacy presented in ACISP'15 is a straightforward design of such solution. However, this scheme is threatened by several attacks. In this paper, we carefully recall the definition of this scheme as well as explain how its security is dramatically menaced. Moreover, we proposed two new constructions for Dynamic Provable Data Possession scheme with Public Verifiability and Data Privacy based on the scheme presented in ACISP'15, one using Index Hash Tables and one based on Merkle Hash Trees. We show that the two schemes are secure and privacy-preserving in the random oracle model.Comment: ISPEC 201

A Data-informed Public Health Policy-Makers Platform

Hearing loss is a disease exhibiting a growing trend due to the number of factors, including but not limited to the mundane exposure to the noise and ever-increasing amount of older population. In the framework of a public health policymaking process, modeling of the hearing loss disease based on data is a key factor in alleviating the issues related to the disease issuing effective public health policies. First, the paper describes the steps of the data-driven policymaking process. Afterward, a scenario along with the part of the proposed platform, responsible for supporting policymaking are presented. With the aim of demonstrating the capabilities and usability of the platform for the policy-makers, some initial results of preliminary analytics are presented in a framework of a policy-making process. Ultimately, the utility of the approach is validated throughout the results of the survey which was presented to the health system policy-makers professionals involved in the policy development process in Croatia

Informed Alaskans Initiative: Public Health Data in Alaska

This article describes the national and state public health data made available online through the Alaska Division of Public Health's Informed Alaskans Initiative.[Introduction] / AK-IBIS / Health Indicators / Indicator Reports / Interactive Health Maps / Help for Website Users / What’s Next / Conclusion / [SIDEBAR:] Public Health Data Resource