[open-government] Economic benefits of open data

[Julian Tait]

I can only speak for the UK. There is a study by the University College London's Constitution Unit, that tracks FOIA request types, quantity and cost and has been doing this from 2006. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit/research/foi/publications.htm
There is a real concern by people who deal with FOIA requests that by making things open will bring on an onslaught of requests but so far from what I hear, this hasn't manifested itself as of yet. There are web based request sites that make the process of request easier whether this is having an effect I don't know.

The law gives certain rights to information and compliance has cost. It is whether you have the information wrenched from you which costs or that you have a mechanism so people can 'self-serve' which also costs but probably less.

I suppose in the current climate we are getting more traction from public bodies by giving them a cost saving argument rather than an innovation one.

Julian

On 15 Nov 2010, at 15:34, toby at law-democracy.org wrote:

> 
> Right to information activists, including myself, routinely make the
> argument that proactive disclosure will reduce the burden of processing
> requests for information, and in some countries (eg India), this is even
> built into the law. However, I do not know of any proper study on this
> relationship. Intuitively, outside of the routine release of very basic
> information, I believe it is equally likely that more proactive disclosure
> may actually stimulate more requests for information (through whetting
> peoples' appetites for information).
> 
> It may be good advocacy, but I am not sure it is correct. Certainly it is
> not correct to allocate all or even most of the costs of running a right
> to information system against this, since costly items such as the
> processing of appeals will hardly be affected (if you have to fight public
> authorities in the context of a request, they are hardly going to disclose
> the information proactively).
> 
> Toby
> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> Even the people in Washington would say that the figure is somewhat
>> dubious. Although it could be argued that it is collective R&D.
>> 
>> One of the arguments that we use with the Open Data Cities project and the
>> one that seems to have most traction at a local authority level - in
>> Greater Manchester, UK at least, is that the cost of servicing requests
>> that under  FOIA and Environmental Information Regulations. This is
>> estimated at £3-4 million p.a. £38 million p.a for UK.
>> 
>> Although a proportion of the requests wouldn't be suitable for release as
>> Open Data due to sensitivity of information, a significant proportion of
>> requests would be reduced if there was a mechanism for proactive release.
>> 
>> Cheers
>> 
>> Julian
>> _______________________________________________
>> open-government mailing list
>> open-government at lists.okfn.org
>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-government
>> 
> 
> 
> ___________________________________
> Toby Mendel
> 
> Centre for Law and Democracy
> toby at law-democracy.org
> Tel:  +1 902 431-3688
> Fax: +1 902 431-3689
> www.law-democracy.org
> 

Julian Tait

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