Digital

Help shape Scotland’s Open Data future – Imagining success in 2036

February 17, 2026 by No Comments | Category Digital Scotland, Open data

I’m Martin Macfie, and I lead the Open Data team in the Data Division of the Scottish Government’s Digital Directorate. We’re inviting you to take part in a short workshop to help shape a bold, future-focused message for open data in Scotland.

What we’ve been working on

Since publishing the independent report on open data in Scotland in August 2024, we’ve been working across the three themes I set out in my previous blog – and we’ve made strong progress:

Under these three themes, we have:

  • Launched a multi-year programme of work, in partnership with StormID, to replace and enhance the existing statistics.gov.scot platform, supported by evidence from an alpha.
  • Finalised the data and digital commitment for Scotland’s current open government action plan (2021-25), and we are supporting the co-creation of Scotland’s next open government action plan. One of the new themes in the upcoming plan will be the “Ethical use of digital technology, open data and information.”
  • Explored how to implement the recommendations from the independent report by gathering views from public sector, academic, and civil society partners, and by collaborating with organisations such as the University of Edinburgh Business School. We’d like to thank everyone who contributed. We learned the importance of purpose-driven publication, stronger feedback loops, and clearer communication of value so that we can build open data together. We presented our findings at the Better Data Community conference in November 2025. A clear, shared vision for open data in Scotland has emerged as essential to this work.

To help co-‑create that shared vision, we’re inviting you to take part in a short workshop to help shape a bold, future-focused message for open data in Scotland.

We’re imagining what success for open data in Scotland could look like in 2036 — and we’ll be cocreating a message that reflects Scotland’s ambition and leadership in open data. Each 2‑hour MS Teams session will explore:

  • What’s realistic and achievable
  • What’s possible with blue-sky thinking
  • What Scotland’s open data future could look like when we allow ourselves to think big

These workshops will also to help provide evidence to inform the co-creation of Scotland’s next open government action plan.

Your perspective is essential, and we’d love you to join one of two online sessions.

These are taking place on:

  • 10 am – 12 noon on Thursday 12 March
  • 10 am – 12 noon on Friday 13 March

Please sign up and join using the Eventbrite link

You may also be interested in:

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