[open-development] [open-science] Centre for Global Development adopts open data policy for publications

[Peter Murray-Rust]

On Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 8:28 PM, Paola Di Maio <paola.dimaio at gmail.com>wrote:

> Thank you Chris
>
>
> >  Key Perspectives are independent  consultants, so not subject to FoI
> >except where they hold data on behalf of others, including JISC who
> >commissioned this work. I have some sympathy for their practice;
> >qualitative data are often this kind of one to one interview data and
> >potentially very sensitive.
>
> I suggested that the data could be anonymized instead of being
> destroyed  - so that I would not have to know the name of the person,
> but still have an idea of their demographics, for example - job title,
> institution,department, city, town etc. I would really like to analyse
> such data according to different segmentation in relation to
> geographical differences for example, would there be differences
> between north and south, or between different institutions, and
> disciplines, as this could serve the public good and provide
> additional science for the same buck.


It is generally recognized that it is impossible to anonymize data
completely

See
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/09/your-secrets-live-online-in-databases-of-ruin.ars

with the quote:

As Ohm notes, this illustrates a central reality of data collection: "data
can either be useful or perfectly anonymous but never both."

-- 
Peter Murray-Rust
Reader in Molecular Informatics
Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
University of Cambridge
CB2 1EW, UK
+44-1223-763069
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