[open-government] Gurstein: Open Data: Empowering the Empowered or Effective Data Use for Everyone?

[Steven Clift]

An article that I highly recommended anyone pushing "open data" review. - Steve

See:
http://gurstein.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/open-data-empowering-the-empowered-or-effective-data-use-for-everyone/

Also, join the int'l Digital Inclusion Network if you are interested
in "effective use" of open data for inclusion:
http://e-democracy.org/di

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A very interesting and well-documented example of this empowering of
the empowered  can be found in the work of Solly Benjamin and his
colleagues looking at the impact of the digitization of land records
in Bangalore. Their findings were that newly available access to land
ownership and title information in Bangalore was primarily being put
to use by middle and upper income people and by corporations to gain
ownership of land from the marginalized and the poor. The newly
digitized and openly accessible data allowed the well to do to take
the information provided and use that as the basis for instructions to
land surveyors and lawyers and others to challenge titles, exploit
gaps in title, take advantage of mistakes in documentation, identify
opportunities and targets for bribery, among others. They were able to
directly translate their enhanced access to the information along with
their already available access to capital and professional skills into
unequal contests around land titles, court actions, offers of purchase
and so on for self-benefit and to further marginalize those already
marginalized.

Certainly the newly digitized information was “accessible” to all on
an equal basis but the availability of resources to translate that
“access” into a beneficial “effective use” was directly proportional
to the already existing resources available to those to whom the
access was being provided.  The old story about the pauper and the
millionaire having equal opportunity to purchase a printing press as a
means to promote their interests can be seen as holding equally here
as in the 19th century.

Benjamin’s meticulously documented paper shows how the digitization
and related digital access to land title records in Bangalore had the
direct effect of shifting power and wealth to those with the financial
resources and skills to use this information in self-interested ways.
This is not to suggest that processes of computerization inevitably
lead to such outcomes but rather to say that in the absence of efforts
to equalize the playing field with respect to enabling opportunities
for the use of newly available data, the end result may be increased
social divides rather than reduced ones particularly with respect to
the already poor and marginalized.

As well, this is not to argue against “open data” which in fact is a
very significant advance and support to broad-based democratic action
and empowerment but rather to argue that in the absence of specific
efforts to ensure the widest possible availability of the
pre-requisites for “effective use” the outcome of “open data” may be
quite the opposite to that which is anticipated (and presumably
desired) by its strongest proponents.

An “effective use” approach to open data would thus be one that
ensured that opportunities and resources for translating this open
data into useful outcomes would be available (and adapted) for the
widest possible range of users. Thus, to ensure the effective use of
open data a range of considerations needs to be included in the open
data process and as elements in the open data movement including such
factors as the cost and availability of Internet access, the language
in which the data is presented, the technical or professional
requirements for interpreting and making use of the data, the
availability of training in data use and visualization, among others."

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More:
http://gurstein.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/open-data-empowering-the-empowered-or-effective-data-use-for-everyone/

Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com
  Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org
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  New Tel: +1.612.234.7072