December 22, 2015
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Press Release

Open Data at the Heart of New Campaign for Physical Activity

The DCMS has just released a new Government Sports Strategy that mandates the use of open data in the sport and physical activity sector, including suggestions made by imin in response to the government consultation in September. This is huge step forward for Openactive, a recently launched grassroots movement led by imin that advocates collaboration and open innovation. It signifies a fundamental change for the industry that will unlock innovation in order to help get the nation more active.

imin welcomed the news last week that the Government plans to promote the use of open data in the sport and physical activity sector.

Last month, imin and London Sport launched the grassroots movement, Openactive. With support from the Open Data Institute (ODI), and in partnership with other pioneering organisations, Openactive encourages data sharing and creates standards to facilitate innovation.

imin originally responded to the Government’s consultation on sport with support from the ODI, stating that data and open innovation is key to getting the nation more active. With many of imin’s key points directly adopted regarding open data, the subsequent Government strategy, Sporting Future: A New Strategy for an Active Nation, highlights the importance of data and innovation to tackle the problem of physical inactivity, : “the sport and physical activity sector currently captures a huge range of data … that, in the hands of innovative developers and business has the potential to be harnessed to transform how people engage in sport” (page 25-6).

This is something that imin, a social good organisation that uses open data to help significantly increase levels of physical activity across all communities, has advocated over the past 12 months. London Sport’s CEO, Peter Fitzboydon said: “imin is doing something that no-one has ever tried before, and what’s more, they’re succeeding at it. They will fundamentally disrupt the way we use data in the sector, and cause a huge impact in the world. We are proud to be working alongside them.”

imin is confident that it can help London Sport achieve its goal of making London the most physically active city in the world, helping to get 1,000,000 Londoners more physically active by 2020.

imin uses open data and technology to establish a data infrastructure in order to maximise the potential of new technology, encourage innovation, and increase participation across a wide range of physical activities and demographics. imin works with innovative organisations including London Sport, Upshot, Active Essex, GoodGym, Sportlabs, OpenTrack, WOOOBA, Fibodo, Pitchwise and My Local Pitch in order to provide them with the data they need to get their users more active.

If you think your organisation can help support the growing Openactive ecosystem, get in touch at openactive.io/join and help shape the future of your sector around open data, or to see how imin can help your organisation get even more people active, please visit imin.co or contact hello@imin.co.

About London Sport

London Sport aims to make London the most physically active city in the world. Supported by the Mayor of London and Sport England, London Sport’s target is to get 1,000,000 Londoners more physically active by 2020.

About the ODI

The ODI (Open Data Institute), founded by web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt, is an independent non-profit, non-partisan organisation, that connects, equips and inspires people around the world to innovate with data by:

- providing support to UK entrepreneurs working with open data

- delivering open data training to people and government

- recognising and rewarding best practices with open data

- connecting data reusers with data publishers

- creating and sharing research on the impact of open data

- spreading open data best-practices across the world

Dominic Fennell

Dom is a co-founder at imin