Our Marketplace approach
Where can I find out more about your Marketplace / open systems approach?
Head to our About page – and drop us an email at marketplace@wessexwater.co.uk if you'd like any further information.
Why are you publishing your data?
Besides increased transparency, openly publishing data promotes collaboration and innovation and enhances efficiency.
We have a lot of data. We also have business challenges we need to solve. We use the Marketplace platform to pose these business challenges to the wider market so that the best, innovative ideas emerge. Alongside these challenges we frequently publish supporting datasets.
We also publish standalone datasets of external interest. By sharing these, we hope data users can help achieve wider outcomes for us or for themselves. Maybe data users can tell us something we didn't know from the data? Perhaps it sparks an alternative to a traditional solution? The datasets could also promote innovation in data users' own areas, perhaps helping them to deliver their own outcomes differently. Or data users may simply be interested in a specific area of our work.
Head to our About page to find out more about our Marketplace approach.
What is Stream, and what's the difference between Stream and Marketplace?
Stream is a water sector collaboration that unites companies, regulators and expertise from other sectors in order to unlock the potential of water data to benefit customers, society and the environment. We are an active part of this group, and one of a small number of founding members invited to join Stream's Centre of Expertise.
In December 2023, Stream launched its own open data platform. This complements rather than replaces Marketplace, as Stream's platform brings together standardised data from different water companies into one central hub.
Marketplace challenges
How do I get involved in a specific Marketplace challenge?
The individual page for each challenge sets out the different stages for that challenge, and how to get involved. Email marketplace@wessexwater.co.uk if you're unsure.
When responding to a business challenge you've posted, can I only use datasets hosted on the Marketplace platform?
You are free to use any (legal) combination of data sources when proposing a solution.
Will you share the results of Marketplace challenges?
Yes – we'll provide updates via our blog.
Open data
Why haven't you published all your data?
At this stage we're taking a targeted approach, to help ensure that:
- data we publish is in an accessible format, with useful, meaningful supporting information
- we can fully engage with people looking at our data and respond to queries we receive.
Posing business challenges to the wider market is a key part of the Marketplace approach, and many of the datasets you see on the Marketplace platform have been published as supporting data for these challenges. We see a high level of engagement on these datasets.
We also publish standalone datasets, and this collection is growing.
We are committed to moving towards an open data position, and we'd really like you to shape the data we share in the future – find out how to have your say in the question below.
Some datasets are sensitive and so aren't suitable for publication – for example, due to commercial reasons, security or data protection.
There are more datasets I'd like to see – what should I do?
If you'd like to suggest a dataset to be shared openly on the Marketplace, please email marketplace@wessexwater.co.uk. We will consider all of your suggestions and incorporate them into our data sharing plans, prioritising datasets that are likely to have the widest benefit.
When will you update your data?
Each dataset page gives information on how frequently we expect to update it. It's not live data, so won't be updated every day.
I think your data is incorrect – how can I tell you?
Email marketplace@wessexwater.co.uk with specific details of the error – eg, which dataset, which sheet, column or row of an Excel spreadsheet (where relevant), details of the error itself. We'll then review and see if we can resolve the issue.
I'm having problems accessing your data – help!
Email marketplace@wessexwater.co.uk with as much info as possible, eg, which dataset, when you tried to access it, whether you were using a mobile device or a laptop. We'll do our best to help.
Can I publish my data here?
This website is for Wessex Water to share our business challenges and open data.
We are very happy to signpost to relevant external datasets, such as Environment Agency data, with appropriate permissions being given. If you think we should link to your dataset, please email marketplace@wessexwater.co.uk.
Please note we will only link to freely available datasets that we believe will add value for those visiting our website.
Other
How can I stay up to date with activity on the Marketplace platform?
Sign up to our mailing list – don't worry, we won't send too many emails!
Please note that we aren't able to tailor update preferences to let you know about a specific dataset or business challenge.
Who should I contact with any other questions?
For a question on a specific business challenge we have posed, just use the contact email address given on the webpage for that particular challenge. They're the expert in that area and can help answer your query.
For a question on a dataset, or for any other queries relating to Marketplace, please email marketplace@wessexwater.co.uk.
For questions about wider Wessex Water activities, please see the Wessex Water Contact us webpage for more information.
I have a complaint – who should I get in touch with?
If your complaint is about challenges, datasets or anything else related to our Marketplace platform, please email marketplace@wessexwater.co.uk.
For other complaints, please see the Wessex Water Contact us webpage for more information.