The Data Cooperative Working Group met in July to explore the relationship between data cooperativism and ‘Indigenous Data Sovereignty’. In many non-Indigenous contexts, data cooperatives focus on the rights of
Building a common language and shared understanding Unless you are one of the world’s growing group of news avoiders, it cannot have escaped your notice that people are talking about
We hear about the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) all the time. It appears in government announcements, funding bids, policy papers and local authority strategies. It helps shape decisions about
In 2010, we published an article asking “why open data”. Back then, open data was still a relatively new idea. A small number of cities had started publishing transport feeds,
Open Data Manchester has submitted four responses to the UK’s National Action Plan (NAP7) consultation, exploring how openness, accountability and participation can keep pace with changes in public service delivery,
We are not short of data. There is more information than ever about climate, health, and our communities. But making sense of it, and actually using it, is still surprisingly
Data has traditionally been used as a tool of management and control. Nowhere is this more visible than in the measurement of deprivation. The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) is
What happens when we start to see how money really moves through our communities? Local economies are under pressure. Budgets are tight, inequality is rising, and yet huge amounts of
Data has traditionally been used as a tool of management and control. In cities especially, data determines how things work, where intervention should happen and how impact should be measured.
You may have noticed that the Indices of Deprivation for England were updated and released in November 2025, and this has given us an opportunity to revisit a project that









