Welcome to Data WA

Welcome to the Data WA Help Centre - your resource for working with and understanding data published by the Western Australian government at Data WA. The Help Centre provides a wealth of guidance, how to guides, and examples for both publishers and users of data and is supported by the WA Government Open Data Policy.

First time here?

Your key links for getting started with Data WA.

• Guide and checklist to identifying and preparing data for release
• Creating your data publishing account 

The data lifecycle

1. Prepare data

The data lifecycle begins with preparing your data for publishing so that it meets the technical requirements for being published on Data WA (e.g. using standard file formats, ensuring it fits within platform limits).

2. Prepare supporting material

Once data preparation is complete, the next key step is preparing supporting material to be published with the data to help people discover, understand and use it (e.g. detailed metadata, data dictionary, data quality statement and appropriate data licence). The material should be comprehensive, written in plain english, and easily understandable by others.

3. Upload and publish

With these key preparation steps completed, you can now upload the data and complete the publishing process. What’s involved in this process will vary depending on the type of data you’re publishing. It may involve using a dedicated publishing tool, or involve uploading the data to a specific platform. 

4. Make it discoverable

Once a dataset has been published you’ll make your data discoverable on Data WA, establish the metadata record is complete, and that all supporting material has been included. Once this is all in place, congratulations! Your dataset is now discoverable alongside a wealth of other datasets from across government.

5. Ongoing maintenance

With the dataset now published and discoverable you’re at the last key step in the data lifecycle - ensuring processes are in place for the ongoing maintenance of the data. If your data changes frequently, the best way to ensure that it’s kept refreshed in Data WA is to put automated processes in place to publish regular updates.

Key links: The data lifecycle

• Preparing data for publishing
• Preparing collateral and supporting material for data
• Publishing a dataset

Your responsibilities

The responsibilities of a data publisher fall into three broad categories -

1. Publish responsibly

Take care to publish data safely. Be mindful of privacy, copyright, intellectual property, commercial in confidence and security issues that may relate to your data. In some cases, it may be necessary to publish a public version of your dataset that has been de-identified, or is published in aggregate form, while publishing the full dataset with limitations on who can access it. Refer to your agency’s data release procedures, the Open Data Policy, and the WA Government Data Classification Policy for guidance.

2. Making data usable

Ensure your data is well described, has supporting collateral, and is understandable by the wider community of data users. The key to making data usable by others is making sure that datasets have good metadata that uses plain english to describe how the data was created, its origins, and includes any relevant caveats or known limitations of the data.

3. Keep data up to date

Coordinate within your organisation to ensure that your data is updated in a timely fashion and does not become stale. You also need to ensure that appropriate change management process and guidance are in place so that users of your data are kept informed and notified of any changes to the structure or maintenance of the data.

• WA Whole of Government Open Data Policy
• WA Information Classification Policy: provides a common language for agencies to identify risks and apply appropriate security controls to protect, store and share their information assets. 
• Interoperability Policy: ensuring that systems across the public sector can seamlessly interact, exchange data and share functions and resources. 
• WA Government Cyber Security Policy: specifies the measures WA Government agencies are required to undertake to manage their cyber security risks.