Porism is a small private business employing 12 staff with expertise in computer science and data analysis. Our offices are in Brixton, south London.
We develop:
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standard taxonomies as Linked Data using the SKOS standard
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standard data models which are expressed as CSV, XML and JSON schemas
We provide guidance on creating and maintaining open standards at https://standards.porism.com/.
Do you have a focus on a specific type of standard or sector?
Our primary focus is standards for open data in local government, although our skills are equally applicable to the rest of government and to other sectors.
What standards have you helped to develop or support?
We have developed:
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a set of taxonomies of concepts used by local government that are published openly at standards.esd.org.uk
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a standard for inventories of datasets, designed jointly with the Local Government Association, Data.gov.uk, iStandUK and Redbridge Council
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CSV schemas used for the Open Data Incentive Scheme and the Local Government Transparency Code.
With the Local Government Association we provide schemas and open data tools at http://opendata.esd.org.uk/. Tools include:
At neighbourhoods.esd.org.uk we publish both official and unofficial geographies with unique identifiers and area shapes. Anyone can sign in and add their own geographies.
What type of support can you offer to organisations interested in developing open standards for data?
We provide data analysis, consultancy, standards development, hosting and support services. We also provide online tools to help standardise data published and help consumers combine, link and interpret data.
We would normally expect our work to be funded by the body establishing the standard. We can also work jointly on proposals for funded projects that have a standards component.
Our guidance on Creating and maintaining open standards describes the approaches we recommend. We can provide services to help with any of these approaches. From an initial discussion, we can establish if Porism might lead or contribute towards the standard development and support process on a project.