[@OKau] A Missing Link

Fri May 8 00:12:11 UTC 2015

Thank you for your responses Steven and Rosie.

While I appreciate the economic argument you have provided Steven, and that argument is certainly correct, I still see an issue of “whats in it for me”.  I don’t mean to start a ‘hostage negotiation”, but having spent over 30 years in technical and managerial roles responsible for data in both levels of government and upto Assistant Secretary level, I understand the culture of government relatively well.  

Government organisations are organisms made up of many different parts and like most large organisations do not effectively communicate internally.  Most managers operate against silo based performance indicators and I must say that public good is generally not a performance indicator that is widely used.  Most managers must operate within declining budgets and still produce greater levels of outputs.  At a purely ‘selfish’’ level, taking resources out of the production environment to support getting data into the open domain is not something that is rewarded.

Senior executives may agree with the open data concepts and push internally, but the bottom line is resources to support an open data initiative.  As a manager, if I am asked to meet open data requirements or get the major report out on time, I know what path I would take.

But, this is not all doom and gloom….There is a solution where a win/win can occur.  Having done some work in Christchurch recently on an earthquake recovery project, the answer became very clear….

Organisations can gain significant benefits internally.  Direct benefits addressing internal issues and the by product is more useful data put into the open data space.  

We need to get away from simply looking at the number of data sets put in to the open space.  Malcom Turnbull at the Locate15 Conference in Brisbane recently was very proudly talking about how the numbers of data sets in Data.Gov <http://data.gov/> have substantially increased.  He didn’t talk at all about how useful these data sets were and if they are being used…My experience is that only a small number well documented datasets from significant organisations such as Geoscience Australia, ABS and the Bureau of Meteorology are being consistently used.  Most other data sets are simply looked at and general not consumed.

So, I am a very strong support of open data, but feel we are not addressing the issues that commence at the start of the Open Data supply chain.  However, there is a solution….

Cheers

Ben Searle

Email:    bensearle54 at gmail.com
Mobile:  +61 (0) 400 453 601

> On 8 May 2015, at 9:47 am, Rosie Williams <budgetaus at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> One answer to this question is that use cases are missing. Open data use cases should demonstrate the value of open data projects to as many audiences as possible. 
> 
> I have a question or two of my own. How do government agencies define benefit? This seems like it could be a good subject of a survey if there is not already research that answers this. Are agencies trying to generate revenue, cut their costs, improve service to public and if so how is this judged?
> 
> 
> 
> Rosie Williams BA (Sociology)
> ________________________________________
>  NoFibs.com.au <http://nofibs.com.au/> - Open Data Reporter | InfoAus.net <http://infoaus.net/> - Founder and Developer 
> 
>                        
>                                           
> 
> 
> From: bensearle54 at gmail.com
> Date: Fri, 8 May 2015 09:10:46 +1000
> To: okfn-au at lists.okfn.org
> Subject: [@OKau] A Missing Link
> 
> Hi,
> 
> An open data related thought based on a number of years working in the data management space across different levels of government.
> 
> Most government organisations and individuals in those organisations understand the benefits of making their data available to the public.  That debate has generally been won.  But, most organisations are suffering reduced budgets and appreciate that they must expend some resources to comply with the open data philosophy.  This costs their organisation.  But what benefit do they get back from releasing their data?
> 
> Generally not much direct benefit, other than complying with broad government objectives.  So, what is their answer to the question of “whats in it for me?”….generally not much.  Until we can effectively answer that question the supply side of open data will continue to be limited and we will continue to have data released purely to increase data set numbers and meet KPI’s but will that data be useful?  Based on current activities, much of the existing open data would not be consumed by organisations wishing to generate digital products.
> 
> What is missing? 
> 
> 
> Ben Searle
> 
> <PastedGraphic-15.tiff>
> 
> Email:    bensearle54 at gmail.com <mailto:bensearle54 at gmail.com>
> Mobile:  +61 (0) 400 453 601
> 
> 
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