[od-discuss] introducing "Fair Data"

Thu Feb 12 18:20:21 UTC 2015

Frank Pasquale has just published a new book: The Black Box Society
(http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674368279)

Here is the spiel:

"Every day, corporations are connecting the dots about our personal
behavior—silently scrutinizing clues left behind by our work habits and
Internet use. The data compiled and portraits created are incredibly
detailed, to the point of being invasive. But who connects the dots about
what firms are doing with this information? *The Black Box Society* argues
that we all need to be able to do so—and to set limits on how big data
affects our lives."

I haven't read the book but I have Frank - seems relevant.

Andrew Rens

On 10 February 2015 at 11:31, Conor Gillies <conor at radioopensource.org>
wrote:

> Thank you both for these thoughtful replies. Many terrific leads and
> questions here. I'm afraid I've been sidetracked with other work for quite
> a while, but this is still very much on my mind. I'm going to pool these
> ideas together and set up a few chats with folks here in Boston at Berkman
> and our local ACLU chapter, will report back on how it goes.
>
> Thanks again, and I'm all ears if you guys come across anything else that
> might be helpful.
>
> On Mon, Jan 26, 2015 at 2:59 PM, Peter Murray-Rust <pm286 at cam.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 8:18 PM, Conor Gillies <conor at radioopensource.org
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>
>> Very valuable
>>
>>
>>>
>>> We'd work with leading internet not-for-profits—Internet Archive,
>>> Wikipedia, NPR, &c.—to display the icon on privacy info pages and footers.
>>>
>>> The icon would represent a baseline, universal privacy policy: your personal
>>> data isn't being abused, surveilled, or sold for commercial gain.
>>>
>>> Working with NPR's head graphic design person on the visual component.
>>> But we're deep in over our heads articulating the language. So as we
>>> begin to collect feedback, we're wondering:
>>>
>>> 1) What is the most democratic way to write and maintain a basic "Fair
>>> Data" privacy policy? Where would it be located and edited?
>>>
>>> 2) Talking with some folks at the Berkman Center, too. Who else should
>>> we reach out to about this? Are there similar projects out there to keep in
>>> mind?
>>>
>>> It's an ambitious, loose plan at the moment but we think it could go a
>>> long way—so long as the language is plain, and the process of design and
>>> writing is open and democratic.
>>>
>>>
>>> We started a small part of this in the Panton Principles (
>> pantonprinciples.org) , now under the aegis of OK(FN). They were
>> developed from 2080-2010 (Rufus Pollock, Cameron Neylon, John Wilbanks ,
>> PM-R and Jordan Hatcher (Pro bono lawyer for OK/FN). PP are specific for
>> Scientific Data and were motivated by our perceived need to assert the
>> Openness of scientific data before people and organizations tried to
>> enclose it. We tied it informally to the blue/white OPEN DATA icon and this
>> has been moderately successful. BioMedCentral - the OpenAccess publisher,
>> gave considerable support and promotes the use of the OPEN DATA icon on its
>> publications. This hasn't spread as much as we would have liked, and many
>> publishers actively wish to keep "Open" as a muddy fuddy marketing term
>> ("Open Washing").
>>
>> Fair data goes beyond this, if I get it right, and promotes fair practice
>> as well as fair content. This is becoming very important as some publishers
>> wish to build walled gardens round "open data" where access is monitored
>> and effectively controlled
>>
>> So this seems a welcome, if very challenging , advance
>>
>>
>> --
>> Peter Murray-Rust
>> Reader in Molecular Informatics
>> Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
>> University of Cambridge
>> CB2 1EW, UK
>> +44-1223-763069
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Conor Gillies
> Producer, Open Source
> (207) 776-5988
> radioopensource.org
>
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