[MyData & Open Data] distinctions between personal and open

[Laura James]

A great question - I've been thinking about this too, although I have no
answers either :)

To my mind we need to start to use clearer language. It's interesting that
most of our ideas about Open Definition style open data are specifically
about commons-style data - where there's no personal owner/subject.
Publicly-funded research, public sector information, public domain content;
things like open street map and other key reference datasets -- all open
data.

Then we have other data - which is more personal - regardless of who
collects it. My GP health records, collected by the local health service,
or my energy data from my energy provider.   There may be reasons to
release this data - anonymised (effectively or not!), or indeed with
identifiers (for example, maybe I am happy to open my medical data as open
definition compliant data, to help others with the same condition as me).
 But to my mind this isn't quite the same as the commons-style open data I
mention above - even if released under an open licence - it's data that
ought to be controlled in some way by the specific subject (even if with
their consent or by their choice or action it is released under an open
licence).  It would be great to have some separate term to capture this
concept which is distinct from the traditional commons-style open data, so
that conversations around this area become easier, and to avoid open data
becoming the catch-all, hot topic term of the moment. Also, I'm not sure
whether there may be a potentially useful distinction between 'collections
of personal data that may be released in some form' (eg bulk health
records, perhaps with some identifiable info removed) and 'openly-licensed
personal data' (eg my health records or quantified self data that i've
released myself).

I suspect others may have been thinking along similar lines and would love
to discuss this idea more...

Laura


-- 

Dr Laura James

Co-Director  | skype: laura.james  |  @LaurieJ <https://twitter.com/LaurieJ>

The Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>

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On 2 July 2013 20:32, Sam Smith <s at msmith.net> wrote:

> Hey all,
>
> Has anyone seen a good discussion on how to talk about personal data
> (midata esque) at an open data type event, in a way which doesn't confuse
> the audience into believing that the speaker is suggesting that personal
> data should be OGL licensed...
>
>
> It's a hard problem. Even HSCIC (talking about every person's GP health
> records) and ODI have got this wrong...
>
>
> Regards
> Sam
>
> --
> @smithsam
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>



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