Gavin Freeguard successfully applied to the UKGovCamp grant fund for help with their London event on Thursday 20 March 2025.
The Connected with Data Unconference
Grant fund application:
Name: Gavin Freeguard.
Your email: gavin@gavinfreeguard.com
Description: Communities are affected daily in both positive and negative ways by data governance decisions made by local and national governments. The use of data and AI within the public sector is essential for effective, evidence-based policymaking and for the efficient delivery of digital public services; but uses of data and AI can also be damaging to and contentious with the public.Engaging the public – through deliberative and participatory methods – enables them to navigate the tensions between risks and benefits with the necessary nuance. It also provides public servants working on data and AI with insight and support.This unconference brings together those interested in ensuring that public, community and worker voices are heard in decisions about data and AI, to discuss subjects of interest and value to them. We hope it will attract those (particularly inside the public sector) who are already working to engage the public through participatory processes and those who would like to do so in future. We hope it will also attract public engagement professionals and others with perspectives that could support future conversations with different publics on data and AI.It forms part of Connected by Data’s project supported by the Mohn Westlake Foundation, Giving communities a powerful say in public sector data and AI projects, and builds on our convening to date, including our design labs on procurement in Wales (with TUC Cymru) and the National Data Library (with DSIT), and our community of practice.The purpose is therefore to convene public engagement practitioners with an interest in data and AI to build relationships, share insights, raise challenges and shape future work and practice.The format will be an unconference – for around 80 people, with three or four timetabled sessions (with four or five spaces). We are intending to have an ‘unkeynote’ or set of lightning talks after the initial pitching session to kickstart the day and give us time to finalise the session grid.The intended audience is public engagement practitioners with a focus on data and AI in the wider public sector, plus experts and practitioners from civil society, academia and the private sector.
Amount requested: £1,000.
What the funding will be used for: Venue hire, refreshments, travel support for attendees, AV.
About you, what you do, and your interest in running this event: Connected by Data is a campaign, set up by Jeni Tennison, for communities to have a powerful say in decisions about data so that it is used to create a just, equitable and sustainable world. We aim to put community at the centre of data narratives, practices and policies by advocating for collective and open data governance. Our projects to date cover a variety of approaches to shaping policy, narrative and practice, including building a network of civil society organisations interested in data and AI, supporting community data campaigns, convening events (including Design Labs, briefings for parliamentarians, and workshops), and running a people’s panel on AI alongside the AI Safety Summit.
This proposed unconference forms part of a project, funded by Mohn Westlake, on how the public sector should engage the public on data and AI. This project has included case studies of the impact that decisions about data and AI can have on communities; workshops to support public servants and develop guidance (including working with TUC Cymru on how workers should be involved in data and AI procurement, and the National Data Library team at DSIT); and a community of practice to help practitioners share lessons and support one another. This event would mark the end of the first year of the project and provide space for reflection.
Feedback from UK Gov Camp Slack members:
Once an application is received, it’s posted in the #grant-fund channel for members to discuss and vote on.
The application was posted in Slack on Wednesday 26 February 2025.
It received 2 👍 approvals and 2 👎 rejections.
The treasurer has a casting vote and decided to approve it.