[okfn-discuss] Open Data Developments in Asia

Thu Sep 26 16:49:00 UTC 2013

The topic hasn't been discussed seriously or thoroughly in many of the
events that I've participated across this region, and Waltraut's piece is a
very nice start. Some have made huge progress but remain relatively unknown
to even the closest neighboring countries/economies/democracies, while in
some bigger countries, identifying who've been involved in open data is
still a nightmare.

On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 11:33 PM, Masahiko SHOJI <Shoji at glocom.ac.jp> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> It was very nice to see you at OKCon.
>
> Thank you for your mention on Japanese METI's report.  I was a member
> of its related working group.  I think the potential and significance
> of Open Data in Asia is huge, too.  Please keep in touch with us.
>
> Masahiko Shoji
> shoji at glocom.ac.jp
>
>
>
> 2013/9/26 Waltraut Ritter <writter at ymail.com>:
> > The Open Knowledge Conference this year attracted delegates from 68
> > countries, indicating that Open Data is indeed becoming a global movement
> > around the world.
> >
> > How is Open Data adopted in Asia, the largest continent of this planet
> where
> > 60 per cent of the world population live?
> >
> > Asia has some of the most advanced internet economies as well as some of
> the
> > least developed countries with hardly any access to information or
> > information infrastructure, neither analogue nor digital.
> >
> > At the OKCon, 26 participants from 11 Asian countries were present,
> > including Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Russia. In this blog, I
> focus
> > on selected North and South East Asian countries: New Zealand, Australia,
> > Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand,
> Philippines,
> > Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, simply because getting
> reliable
> > data from all 49 Asian countries would require much more research.
> >
> > The selected countries are all included in the Worldbank Knowledge
> Economy
> > Index (KEI) with vastly different economic rankings.  New Zealand
> achieved
> > the highest Knowledge Economy score, closely followed by Australia,
> Taiwan,
> > Hong Kong and Japan, whereas Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar score lowest in
> all
> > categories (ICT, education, economic incentive and institutional regime,
> > innovation). Other key indicators relevant for Open Data development are
> the
> > Corruption Perception Index (Transparency International), the World
> Internet
> > Statistics and the Democracy Index (EIU) as a measure for general
> governance
> > and functioning of government.
> >
> > According to the 2012 World Internet Statistics, the overall internet
> > penetration in Asia is only 27.5 per cent, but this represents the
> largest
> > numbers of users with more than 1 billion in one continent.  Internet
> > penetration across the listed countries ranges from 1 per cent in
> Myanmar to
> > 88 per cent in New Zealand, again with a wide gap between North and South
> > East Asia (except for Singapore with 75 per cent).
> >
> > South East Asia has often been described as “Information black hole” in
> > scholarly research on national information strategies, with many
> governments
> > restricting or denying access to information to their citizens, based on
> the
> > assumption that government information by default rather is a secret.
> > Earlier this month, the government of Vietnam enacted the “Decree 72”
> which
> > limits the use of blogs and social media to “providing or exchanging
> > personal information”, and prohibits them from being used to disseminate
> > news or even information from government sites. The law also bans content
> > which could be “harmful” to national security or which opposes the
> > government (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23920541). This kind of
> > restrictions is based on the perception that government owns the
> information
> > and can control its use.
> >
> > While North Asian countries including New Zealand and Australia mostly
> have
> > Freedom of Information (FOI) laws in place (with the exception of Hong
> > Kong); in South East Asia, FOI laws are more the exception than the rule.
> > Sometimes there are laws, put they are not fully applied, e.g. in
> Thailand.
> > The country’s Official Information Act (OIA) from 1997 was enacted but
> “the
> > concept of freedom of information is totally new to both Thai state
> > officials and to the people. Thai society thus needs some time to learn
> more
> > about the Information Law. State officials have to understand the
> procedures
> > of law enforcement better so that they know how to provide information
> > services and disclose information to meet public requests. Meanwhile,
> people
> > should recognize their right to know and know how to utilize the
> Information
> > Act as a means of access to state information. Thai society should
> recognize
> > information law as an essential part of establishing accountable and
> > transparent government and as a crucial part of eventually building up
> civil
> > society. “(Quote by N. Seriak, Office of Official Information Commission
> > http://www.worldlii.org/int/journals/PLBIN/2000/29.html)
> >
> > In 2000, the law was therefore amended to include strategic guidelines on
> > how to promote and develop the acknowledgement of the Act’s content, its
> > utilization, the mechanism and the procedures to utilize the Act to meet
> > people's right to access information. This example illustrates that the
> idea
> > of open information also requires a new way of thinking about
> information,
> > both for government officials and citizens.
> >
> > Only 4 of the listed 5 countries are full democracies according to the
> EIU
> > index - New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Korea; they are also members of
> > the OECD. The majority of countries in Asia falls into the categories of
> > “flawed” democracies (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines,
> > Indonesia, Cambodia), Singapore is a  “hybrid system” and at the bottom
> are
> > authoritarian governments such as Vietnam, Laos (lowest overall score)
> and
> > Myanmar, which is now currently moving into another phase of political
> > governance. In August this year, Myanmar officially ended censorship,
> > thereby jumping up to 151st out of 179 countries in the World Press
> Freedom
> > index.
> >
> > The institutional regime and governance play a key role in the
> development
> > of national open data policies; in some ways they define the bandwidth of
> > what can be achieved in a country.
> >
> > A few examples illustrate how systemic restrictions embedded in
> > institutional regimes limit the potential of open data:
> >
> > The Mekong River Commission (http://www.mrcmekong.org/), an
> > intergovernmental organisation)  set up in 1995 by the Mekong countries
> > (Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos) to collect and provide information
> about
> > regional social economic development, regional water resource management,
> > climate change adaptation and the long-term sustainable development of
> the
> > Mekong River Basin, set up a Data Portal which is a rich  information
> > storehouse about everything about the region.  Although it is a public
> > organisation, it comes with a complicated fee structure, depending on who
> > requests the information.  All information is copyrighted and the website
> > states that there is only one authoritative “Master catalogue”. The
> > reasoning is that only the MRC can ensure data quality and consistency,
> and
> > external data users cannot contribute to achieve higher data quality.
> >
> > With the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) coming up in 2015, the 10 member
> > countries are forming an economic space similar to the EU, which will
> also
> > require more openness in cross-border information and data exchanges.
> Trade
> > information is already openly assessable and in standardized format, but
> in
> > a lot of other areas it is not.  So far, ASEAN only has adopted a rather
> > vague “ICT Masterplan”, however, it is still a long way to achieve
> something
> > like an “Open Data Masterplan” for the region. Member states are often
> not
> > willing to share information among themselves, which was quite clearly
> > demonstrated during this summer’s “haze” crisis, which put Singapore,
> parts
> > of Malaysia and Indonesia under a thick blanket of black smoke from
> illegal
> > slash-and burn practices whereby hundreds of hectares of land for palm
> oil
> > and pulp plantations were cleared.  The health threatening haze led to
> > heated exchanges between the Singapore and Indonesian governments.
> >
> > With Open Data, it would have been relatively easy to map and analyze the
> > land data, identifying the companies owning the land and holding them
> > accountable. The land concession maps are available – to the Indonesian
> > government, which would not release the data citing issues of information
> > security and transparency as reasons for not furnishing the maps. The
> > benefit of data sharing and open access is not on the agenda; Indonesian
> > Foreign Minister Marty Natelegaw said: "The concession map is a means to
> an
> > end (...). So it's not a question of providing data to this and that.
> It's
> > just us utilising the national system that we have…" (Channelnewsasia 14
> Aug
> > 2013)
> > In another ministerial meeting where the problems of trans-boundary haze
> > pollution were discussed, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero
> Wacik
> > reminded member states to collaborate: "It's called sharing, you go
> through
> > good times together, don't make noise to the world when things go bad.
> It's
> > just like husband and wife; don't take your quarrel outside" (The Straits
> > Times 20 June 2013). This exemplary “information black hole” tradition –
> > don’t let the world know - will be more difficult with increased
> > transparency, open data policies and the demand of citizens for
> information.
> >
> > Sometimes systemic limitations can be bypassed by civil society
> > organisations: in Cambodia, the National Assembly rejected a draft law on
> > FOI in January 2013 opposing the idea that the government should provide
> > information on matters of public concern. Since the government didn’t
> want
> > to share information with citizen, a civil organisation started their own
> > Open Data portal. Open Development Cambodia is an “Open Data” website,
> “the
> > first of its kind in mainland Southeast Asia. The global “Open Data”
> > movement is based on the simple premise that data collected for public
> > interest should be publicly available – without restrictions, and that
> > information or “data” in the public domain should be freely available to
> > everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions. We
> have no
> > agenda, other than to offer you food for thought. Bon Appétit!”  (Quoted
> > from their website http://www.opendevelopmentcambodia.net)
> >
> > Some governments are beginning to realize the relationship between free
> flow
> > of information, open data and socio-economic development, and
> acknowledging
> > open data as source for innovation and reduced transaction cost for the
> > whole society.
> >
> > The Japanese METI has just a few weeks ago published a report on the
> > economic value of open public information. It is only available in
> Japanese,
> > but a translation would benefit many other countries in the region and
> > beyond and demonstrate that Open Data can be a source for innovation and
> > economic development. While the potential economic value of Open Data is
> one
> > of the main drivers for governments in the more developed countries in
> Asia
> > to push for new policies and re-use regulations, South East Asian
> countries
> > are largely still debating access to data.
> >
> > Interestingly, the Philippines were the largest delegation at the OKCon
> from
> > Asia. The country will launch their Open Data portal in November 2013.
> As a
> > country with a strong, information aware civil society, Open Data could
> > accelerate socio-economic development. The Philippines also score low on
> > bureaucratic transparency, but internet penetration is relatively high
> > (around 34 per cent) and the Aquino administration now states that the
> > freedom of information (FOI) bill is a priority legislative measure and
> > promised to endorse the bill to the Senate and the House of
> Representatives
> > for passage into law soon.
> >
> > The diversity of countries in Asia, with highly advanced internet
> economies
> > and mature democracies on one side, and countries with very limited
> > information society readiness, could provide us with a lot of insights
> for
> > understanding the interdependencies between openness and overall
> development
> > of a country. Since the collaboration and knowledge sharing among Asian
> > countries is relatively weak, perhaps an online sharing space such as the
> > European EPSI platform http://epsiplatform.eu/ could increase the
> awareness
> > about Open Data in Asia.
> > The potential of Open Data in Asia is huge; both for emerging and
> developed
> > countries, and the trajectory for each country highly depends on national
> > information policies and cultures.
> >
> > Waltraut Ritter, Opendata Hong Kong
> > waltraut at opendata.hk.com
> >
> > 26 September 2013
> >
> >
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