p6data.coop

This repository is now obsolete. Work on open data and mapping is being continued by the Solidarity Economy Association in the repository https://github.com/SolidarityEconomyAssociation/open-data-and-maps.

During 2015, various people were coming to the same conclusion, that there is a need to collaborate on the creation of robust, accessible open data about the Social and Solidarity Economy. One of those was Karin Christiansen, General Secretary of The Co-operative Party, who set up the p6data.coop website. At the same time, the people at the Solidarity Economy Association (formerly called the Institute for Solidarity Economics) were having a similar idea, but also wanted to include initiatives in the wider Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE), as well as co-operatives.

The name p6data is taken from Co-operative Principle number 6: Co-operation among Co-operatives. It applies equally to co-operation among initiatives within the wider SSE.

This repository provides a space to share work in progress. The issue tracker is acting as our space for open information sharing in efforts to develop a common approach to co-operative data.

The p6data problem

At the moment, listings of retail co-operatives, credit unions, community pubs, fans trusts and other parts of our movement are kept by a range of organisations, and in formats that aren't always easily searchable or compatible.

Our core goal is simple. To agree a way of bringing them together in one place so that the information is searchable, sortable, and free for anyone to use.

The journey so far

So far, we've:

• Hosted a couple of calls of interested parties;
• Agreed to start sharing existing open data on the sector;
• Set up p6data.coop as a public face for the project;
• Held a Hack Day at the Institute for Solidarity Economics in Oxford, December 2015.
• Published the ISE Strategy for Data;
• Set up the ise-linked-open-data repository for the Institute of Solidarity Economics' implementation of Linked Open Data on their own server.
• The Solidarity Economy Association has published Co-ops UK 2016 open data as linked open data and created a map-app to view it on a map and to explore the experimental data.
• Further development work will continue in the repository https://github.com/SolidarityEconomyAssociation/open-data-and-maps.