Open data at Kantonsschule Enge
At the end of June 2012, the City of Zurich became the first Swiss authority to open an «Open Government Data» portal. It makes administrative data of the City of Zurich accessible to the public. These data are used not only by companies, private individuals or universities, but also by upper secondary schools. In a project week on «Open Government Data» at Kantonsschule Enge, for example, pupils showed that considerably more young people live in the City of Zurich than in other Swiss cities.
The idea behind open government data (OGD) is to make administrative data freely accessible to the public in machine-readable form. Data available free of charge worldwide are intended to foster innovative applications by business and educational institutions. As part of the eZürich legislative programme (City of Zurich legislative priority 2010-2014), the City of Zurich became the first Swiss authority to set up an OGD portal: since 28 June 2012, data have been available free of charge at http://data.stadt-zuerich.ch. At present, 90 datasets have been published, mainly in the areas of construction, housing, population, transport, environment and administration.
Open data at Kantonsschule Enge
Handling ever-growing volumes of data is becoming a key skill in the information age. This is why pupils at Kantonsschule Enge spent a project week working on OGD. On the one hand, the project participants got to know IT tools with which they can process large volumes of data. On the other hand, they worked in groups on hypotheses on the topics of youth violence, urban structures, tourism, labour costs, energy consumption and price levels. Access to, availability and quality of open data were addressed along the way.
National and international city comparisons
One group compared the City of Zurich with other Swiss cities and with major international cities. The national comparison revealed that in 2011 many people aged 30 to 34 lived in the City of Zurich (41,856 people). This corresponds to 11.2 per cent of the population. In the City of Basel, this age group is considerably less represented: 13,684 people, or 8.4 per cent of the population, are aged 30 to 34. This age group is particularly interesting because it consists to a considerable extent of working people who contribute to a city’s economic prosperity. The international city comparison looked, among other things, at population density. The analyses showed that the population density of the City of Zurich is more than five times lower than that of Mumbai.
An interesting basis for projects, Matura, bachelor’s and master’s theses
Kantonsschule Enge draws a positive conclusion from the critical and creative engagement with open data and will therefore repeat the OGD project week next year. During the project week, the pupils acquired not only IT skills but also knowledge of individual subject areas. Statistik Stadt Zürich also recommends the OGD portal to other upper secondary schools and universities as an interesting basis for projects, Matura, bachelor’s and master’s theses.
(Press release Statistik Stadt Zürich)