Interoperability

Quality

The Open Contracting Data Standard

A brief history

Built around data supply

And users needs

Government:

seeking value

for money

Corruption hunter:

detecting fraud 

& corruption

SMEs:

competing for public

contracts

CSOs:

monitoring service

delivery

Resulting in...

Field & identifier specifications

What to publish, and how to identify it consistently

 

JSON schema & flattened serialisations

How to publish data so that it can be read by different systems, and converted into accessible formats for different users. 

 

Publishing patterns

Stepping stones towards best practices for sharing data on the web: improving usability. 

A worked example

Note to steven: the images/talk on the following pages need to refer back to the road metaphor in some way, but could focus on showing stacks of messy paperwork building up over each stage of the contracting process 

1) Planning

2) Tender

Image for request for bids.

3) Enquiries

Image for enquiries

4) Award

Image for winning bid.

5) Contract

Image for contract

6) Progress update

Image of progress updates.

7) Contract ammendment

Image for ammendment

8) Completion

Image for completion.

Image of a mess of files... (drawing on images from last slides)

The pieces...

This is where OCDS comes in

The contracting process

Planning

Tender

Award

Contract

Implementation

The contracting record

Releases and records

• Real-time notices and updates;
• As much information as the publishing system can share;
• Linked to a contracting process ID;

• Summarising the current state of the contracting process;
• Bringing together data from different systems;
• Providing change history;

Planning

Tender

Tender amendment

Award

Releases and records

Format & schema

Flat serialisation

Inside the data

• Line items  
• Documents  
• Values  
• Milestones  
• Dates  
• Locations  
• Organisations  
• External links

Contracting process identifier

OCID

Globally unique identifier

 

Used in each release for a contracting process

ocds-{prefix}-{identifier from internal systems}

Assigned by 

the helpdesk

Identified by 

surveying your own systems

Organisation identifiers

Master Road Builders Ltd

MRB Ltd

master road builders limited

MASTER ROAD BUILDERS LTD.

Maestro Camino Constructores Ltd

 

Or

GB-COH - 12345678

From organisation registration agency codelist

Registered company number

Documents & notices

Line items

Description

 

Quantity

 

Classifications

Location information

Extension: coming in version 1.1

Delivery address

Street address for geocoding

 

Delivery locationsgazetteer, points and polygons

Joined up data

Link out to other open datasets

Company register  

Project registers  

Budget data  

Goods & services classifications

 

Etc.

Implementation process

Map existing information sources What data do you have now? What data that users demand is missing?    Identify the identifiers Can you identify a whole contracting process?   Engage users Understand the needs of your user community, and what they can bring to implementation.   Choose architecture Centralised vs. distributed   Publish & improve

Architectures

Central

Database

API

Release & Records

XLS Data Dumps: Generated periodically for data portal

Planning

spreadsheet

Procurement

database

Contract

management

system

Conversion process

API

Releases

Mapping from existing API

Middle layer

Maintaining index of releases & generating records (inc. version history)

XLS Data Dumps

API & Visualisation

Government run

Independently administered

Documentation and support

http://ocds.open-contracting.org

Help-desk: data@open-contracting.org

 

• Questions?
• Supporting data validation
• Information about tools
• Standard updates

Discussion list:

 

standard-discuss@open-contracting.org

 

• Community updates
• Tool updates
• Standard news & upgrades

http://github.com/open-contracting/

Implementation

examples

UK Government

(Work in progress)

City of Montreal

(Awards Data)

OCDS CoVE

(Conversion and validation)