**This blog post was written by Nicholas Oughtibridge, Standards Specialist at Open Referral UK
The Open Referral Validator is a tool designed to help developers and data architects verify that their service directories strictly conform to the Open Referral standard. Developed by Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) (part of the United Kingdom Government), the validator was initially engineered to solve localised, UK-specific data challenges.
For a full strategic review of the validator, read the blog by Shelley Heckman, ORUK Project Manager at:
However, as the demand for standardised open data formats expands globally, the utility of the tool has outgrown its original geographic boundaries.
Now under the custodianship of iStandUK, the validator is transitioning from a localised utility into a globally relevant asset. Following a comprehensive strategic review of the tool’s architecture and trajectory by Shelley Heckman, iStandUK has announced a concerted push to align the validator’s capabilities with a much broader, international cohort of stakeholders.
Upon review Shelley Heckman said:
“The Validator is a foundational tool, and getting its direction right matters for everyone building, sharing, and consuming open data,” She noted. “We believe the evolution of the Validator will benefit from broad input across the Open Referral community. To support this, we are keen to convene a focused, international Validator Community of Interest as soon as possible to act in an advisory capacity.”
The creation of this international Community of Interest represents a shift toward open-source governance and collaborative development. The community will help to share ambitions and perspectives, explore and socialise proposed enhancements and contribute to shaping a coherent forward roadmap. It will also play a valuable role in encouraging collaboration around development, testing and deployment. The group will work in the open and it will consider and act on feedback on the Open Referral Forum.
While iStandUK will retain overall responsibility for decision-making and direction of the Validator, this Community of Interest acts as an important mechanism for ensuring that those decisions are informed by the experience, expertise and priorities of the wider community.
By formalising this advisory body, iStandUK aims to ensure that future architectural iterations are directly informed by the real-world engineering constraints, expertise, and operational priorities of the global developer community.
iStandUK has officially issued an open call for developers, data engineers, public sector IT leaders, and open data advocates to join the newly formed Community of Interest.
The group’s inaugural session will be hosted virtually to accommodate global time zones. Join us on 08th July, 15:00 UTC | 16:00 BST (UK) | 11:00 EDT, you can register to get the online link through Eventbrite. In addition, we welcome discussion on the Open Referral forum.
To stay up to date with progress, opportunities to get involved, and future events, you can also join the ORUK mailing list or for any questions contact the team at hello@OpenReferralUK.org