[okfn-discuss] what are the arguments against open data

Tue Oct 8 04:08:56 UTC 2013

>
> http://crookedtimber.org/2012/**06/25/seeing-like-a-geek/<http://crookedtimber.org/2012/06/25/seeing-like-a-geek/>
>

My critique of this:

First, he makes bold statements about the demise of local video stores,
publishers, and record labels into Amazon / Netflix / iTunes. But this is
simply misguided. This is just a matter of shifts that happen in technology
and the solutions to today's problems have nothing to do with a return to
the old days of publishing (which were awful in many ways). The problem
today is largely with the DRM and copyright restrictions which centralize
power with these big monopolists.

Second, he talks about data's effect on the erosion of privacy and such.
This is a real concern, but I'd say it amounts to a debate about
*quantity*of data, not openness. It is no good for the NSA to have
collected
ridiculous amounts of privacy-invading data. Keeping that from being opened
makes sense, but it ought not to have been collected in the first place. In
the end, I think there is nothing we can do to stop Big Data and will have
to deal with it whether it is open or closed. The ramifications of Big Data
could potentially be more negative than positive, I don't know for sure,
but having only the privileged have access is not a solution. When we
choose to Open things, we can be thoughtful about what is kept confidential
and who has access. Overall, I do see merit to the argument that we must be
careful about opening any particular set of data. That said, some sorts of
data have no possible privacy concerns.

> http://mathbabe.org/2012/07/**26/is-open-data-a-good-thing/<http://mathbabe.org/2012/07/26/is-open-data-a-good-thing/>
>
>
Same basic thing here. I think there may be reasons to fear the era of Big
Data. I don't see the push for openness to be the fault here. As she says,
anonymizing data often means destroying all the data essentially. Well,
maybe there is data that should be destroyed and never collected. Likewise,
there are thing that should never be reduced to data points. All of these
issues are bigger than whether data is closed or open.

As for only people with the right knowledge and tools benefiting from data,
again that is a question of the effect of the data being collected in the
first place, not of it being open or not.

In summary: we need a discussion about data existing and data collection.
Anything we are wary of being collected at all we should likewise be wary
of it being open (although open *may *be better in some cases). Any data we
are all *perfectly* comfortable with collecting ought to be open. We do
need to be wary of open-data movement becoming a blindly
pro-data-collection movement.

Cheers,
Aaron

> LW
>
> On 10/07/2013 06:11 PM, okfn-discuss-request at lists.**okfn.org<okfn-discuss-request at lists.okfn.org>wrote:
>
>> From: Aaron Wolf <wolftune at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [okfn-discuss] what are the arguments against open data
>> To: Gene Shackman <eval_gene at yahoo.com>, Open Knowledge Foundation
>> discussion list <okfn-discuss at lists.okfn.org>
>> Message-ID: <CAEmkM=Yfiagh+**BS8Gfwnbm3HwsdMooK_**1ZM4bdbRPpi=
>> 4hv+cg at mail.gmail.**com <4hv%2Bcg at mail.gmail.com>>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>>
>>
>> The only arguments
>> against open data that I know of are:
>>
>> * Allows people to *intentionally
>> *misuse the data, either to misrepresent things or worse to attack some
>>
>> institutions or people, such as data that indicates some inefficiency in
>> a government agency could be used to attack the credibility of the
>> agency and thus undermine support for regulations (not saying this is
>> necessarily bad, although it could be, but those who find this
>> threatening would oppose open data).
>>
>> * Those who are anti-democratic are
>> opposed to open data because it is democratizing.
>>
>> I think what you meant
>> is: what is wrong with open data if we assume certain morality that
>> favors transparency, science, and democracy? The answer is, I think:
>> nothing is wrong with it as long as measures are in place to protect
>> civil liberties related to privacy.
>>
>> Cheers, Aaron
>>
>> -- Aaron Wolf
>> wolftune.com
>>
>> On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 3:25 PM, Gene Shackman <eval_gene at yahoo.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>  >Ewan Klein asked an excellent question on identifying specific
>>> >demonstrations of the benefits of open data. That made me wonder about a
>>> >related question: what are the arguments against open data?
>>> >
>>> >Two are:
>>> >
>>> >1. It takes a lot of work to get data into the format for making it
>>> open.
>>> >This isn't really an argument -against- open data, but a comment to be
>>> >sympathetic to those trying to make their data open. It does take quite
>>> a
>>> >bit of work.
>>> >
>>> >2. It's easy for many people to misunderstand or misuse the data,
>>> >unintentionally. Again, not an argument -against- open data. A lot of
>>> >times, it takes a lot of background to understand the data being
>>> presented.
>>> >There are many things that an outsider wouldn't necessarily know or
>>> think
>>> >of about the data, even if those who are making it available spend a
>>> lot of
>>> >time explaining the data.
>>> >
>>> >So there are many difficulties with open data. It's not something just
>>> >anyone can pick up and three minutes later make a snappy chart or graph
>>> and
>>> >a story. As much work should go into using the data as creating the
>>> data.
>>> >
>>> >But again, these aren't arguments -against- open data. So what are?
>>> >
>>> >Gene
>>> >
>>>
>>
> ______________________________**_________________
> okfn-discuss mailing list
> okfn-discuss at lists.okfn.org
> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/**listinfo/okfn-discuss<http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss>
> Unsubscribe: http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/**options/okfn-discuss<http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/okfn-discuss>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/okfn-discuss/attachments/20131007/1c5964de/attachment.html>