A room filled with data professionals sitting at white tables arranged in discussion groups. Participants are engaged in conversations during the September 2025 LCR Data Community workshop at DoES Liverpool, with exposed brick walls and industrial lighting visible in the background.

LCR Data Community: what we learned from our September gathering

The LCR Data Community held its fourth gathering on Thursday 18 September at DoES Liverpool, bringing together around 25 data professionals from across the Liverpool City Region for our first in-person event since May. We structured the morning around four discussion tables, each focusing on a different aspect of data practice. Participants were free to

What is this thing called AI written on a blue Post-it

What Is This Thing Called AI? – Free 3-week workshop series

Help us test our new workshop series We’re launching a new three-part workshop series to help people navigate AI with confidence and clarity, and we need your help to make it as useful as possible. About the workshops In these sessions there are no right or wrong answers, and we’re not here to convince you

Network visualisation overlaid on a map of northwest England, showing interconnected nodes with varying connection strengths across Liverpool and surrounding areas.

LCR Data Community: Innovation & Ethics – Lessons from Our July Gathering

The LCR Data Community of practice held its third gathering on Thursday 10 July, bringing together around 20 data profressionbals for an online exploration of AI transparency and practical data solutions. Community charter of data and AI Emily Rempel from the Civic Data Cooperative presented the recently published Liverpool City Region Community Charter on Data

Ward-Level Democracy and Deprivation in England - Research Report text over a dark image of a multi-colour rosette that says Vote

Ward-Level Democracy report

Over the years ODM has researched into the correlation between ward-level democracy and deprivation to understand if it is an indicator of healthy democratic representation, and if over time, reveals a picture of the shifting demographic patterns within local democratic representation. The research used data from the May 2024 local elections, and analysis reveals a

Composite image showing an Emperor Penguin model on an old map of Liverpool, a diversion road sign with Joy graffitied at the top. A table with plastic animal models in front of an orange back pack and someone walking along with an orange backpack photographed from behind

Why we run Joy Diversion and Free Range events

We often get asked why Open Data Manchester runs Joy Diversion and Free Range events when they don’t seem directly related to our core data work. The answer? They’re essential to it. Since 2018, we’ve been exploring how people relate to the places where they live, work and play—reframing these relationships through experience, interpretation and

Network visualisation overlaid on a map of northwest England, showing interconnected nodes with varying connection strengths across Liverpool and surrounding areas.

Exploring Information Governance in Liverpool City Region’s Data Landscape

Building connections across Liverpool City Region’s diverse data ecosystem Open Data Manchester has been working with the Civic Data Cooperative at the University of Liverpool to explore how a data community of practice might serve the Liverpool City Region. Through extensive conversations with individuals and organisations across the region, including with the public sector, emergency

Shipwrecked boiler that has been corroded after over a century of weathering.

Are We Privatising Our Institutional Memory?

I was on a panel earlier this week about the use of AI in the public sector when a question from the audience crystallised something that has been troubling me for some time. The questioner described how their department had traditionally relied on analysts to manually clean data for clinical purposes—a painstaking task that required

Hand drawn map of Manchester drawn by Engels and which was included in the first edition of The Plight of the English Working Classes

From Looms to Algorithms: Why Manchester’s Past Matters for Our Data Future

At Open Data Manchester, our data loom isn’t just a tool—it’s a reminder of Manchester’s profound lesson about technological upheaval and social consequence. When mechanisation transformed weaving, it wasn’t just an economic shift. The Luddites’ uprising challenged more than machines—they fought against the devaluation of skilled craft and human dignity. As Manchester’s population exploded with

Network visualisation overlaid on a map of northwest England, showing interconnected nodes with varying connection strengths across Liverpool and surrounding areas.

Liverpool City Region Data Community Launch: What We Discovered

Earlier this month, we held the first gathering of the Liverpool City Region data community of practice at the Civic Health Innovation Labs. The event brought together data practitioners from across public sector organisations, VCSE groups, and other data professionals to help design a community that can address shared challenges and create opportunities for collaboration.