[open-government] [datameet] Is Open Data a Good Idea for the Open Government Partnership?

Wed Oct 12 15:26:05 UTC 2011

Dear all

I was catching up on emails from a couple of weeks ago. This is an excellent discussion, and not theoretical at all.

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>  
> Jose: Nigel's 'Publish data that matters...' points is clearly important. Although we need to complete that sentence with 'matters to who' as well - or at least link the definition of what matters to open government processes too.  

In the UK policy consultation currently taking place, this principle is taken further not just to publish, but to only collect "meaningful data". This will require a clear process that incorporates a diversity of viewpoints including civil society.

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>  
> My sense is that open government data clearly has a role to play in OGD, but we must be careful (a) that it builds upon, rather than diverts from, an emphasis on access to information, and

Following with the UK example, policy proposals focus on 2 levels of public services data.  

The lowest level is data about specific public services, such as individual schools, doctors, etc. which is intended to enable choice by individual citizen/consumers.  

The second level is data about both state bodies and private organisations delivering public services such as hospital trusts, non-profit educational groups, etc. which is to be used by elected politicians and/or civil servants to inform purchasing in a mixed public/private market of providers. Of course, it will also serve potential competitors looking for opportunities.

These two levels should complement, not divert from, a third layer of information around the decision making processes themselves: meetings with lobbyists, internal deliberations, personal financial interests, research, etc.

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> (b) we really clearly articulate the data is not enough point - and that open data for open government is:
> supporting the right of citizens to interpret state data and to hold governments to account;  
> the potential for data to support citizen-state collaboration (that can only function when governments are open to that data);
> the potential for open data to support innovation in public service delivery (again, that only functions when government has other forms of openness to this)
>  
>  
>  

In UK we are facing this issue of the relation between open data, transparency and accountability with a 3 way split:

1. Traditional transparency and accountability information now being released more proactively and in "open data" format (i.e. machine readable with free reuse). This may include now as well data used for policy and research.

2. Data about all kind of public services (as above), from hospital performance to transport timetables, now opened in order to promote a mixed market approach and growth generating innovation, but also bringing enhanced accountability.  

3. Traditional Public Sector Information, such as core references for land ownership, businesses, civil registry, geodata, weather, etc. which in UK has followed a profit model. Nevertheless, there has been pressure to follow an open data model, with some successes such as such as the opening of certain mapping data. There is a proposal for these bodies to be merged in a "Public Data Corporation"/

Currently the UK government is very divided over high value data, but in the context of the austerity cuts the consolidated position appears to be bringing public data production in line with other public services, and try to attract private investment (not just on refined data but for raw data production): privatisation in many cases.  

This means open data for key reference is not an option right now in UK, although an undefined freemium model is being explored.
The relationship between 2 and 1 is relatively straightforward. Primarily, this is simply an extension of the Right to Information along the lines proposed by Article 19 over a decade ago (private bodies, proactive, open government, etc.).  Of course open data is not enough, and that there are complex issues of privacy, intermediaries, reaching beyond the technorati, etc. but in data terms it is more or less clear.

The difficult question is 3. In Europe PSI has been seen primarily as an economic asset that if given away by the state would grow the economy generating much more than in direct sales, and open data is the how. The debate is mainly about how many trillions of €-£-$ this is worth and how to ensure the taxes get back to sustainable quality public data production, maybe even how to get cash back from Google when it's based in tax-haven Ireland, etc.  

There is much less debate on how PSI fits with Right to Information.  

One line of thought is that there is no connection. In the UK context the government argues that the privatisation of weather services or the national mapping agency has nothing to do with cabinet minutes and budget transparency.  

Indeed the "Public Data Corporation" is not even mentioned in the UK country report for the Open Government Partnership!

At face value this could appear reasonable, but once you consider other PSI such as businesses and land registers the line between 3 and 1 gets more blurred. In relation to public services data, there is an even stronger case for the opening of PSI in order to provide a reference framework. Ultimately, there is the simple notion that it is public data and should be public, the US model, as argued in UK by The Guardian Free Our Data campaign.

The Kenya Open Data website utilises ESRI maps, we assume because they didn't have the required geodata service. If they did, I wonder what international donors would think if they tried to charge Kenyans for the map needed to plot open data on health and education.

Meteorology was one of the public data areas mentioned by Kenyan journalists at the time of the launch of the portal, and as we can see in the recent draught famine in the region it has a strong public interest.

We could frame the initial question the other way around:

Can a government be heavily committed with much fanfare to the Open Government Partnership and at the same time privatise core reference public data?  

We could go beyond and take a wider view of Right to Information not just as the basis for public accountability but as a fundamental right in itself.  

In the age of Big Data, when banks can predict your divorce on the basis of you expenditures, people like Chris Taggart argue that we are facing a different data divide from that identified by Mike Gurstein.  

Despite the expansion of open data policies most data is not open, and there is a growing nexus of government datasets combined with private data. This is the essence of the McKinsley report, and what the UK government expects will generate huge growth in UK.

Since 2006 the UK government has been using personal credit rating agency Experian to look for benefit fraudsters by combining public and private data, but the private data used for discovering whether you live with your partner or not is actually on sale to anyone... with enough money.

The trillions of Euros of value of the Big Data market is basically information about us, the transparent citizenship, and we cannot balance this with existing notions of individual data protection and privacy. Neither should be throw them away.

Open government data could be a lever for a bare minimum of collective citizen control in this world of big data. Right to Data here is more than cvs vs pdf.  

--  
Javier Ruiz
javier at openrightsgroup.org
+44(0)7877 911 412
@javierruiz

On Thursday, 29 September 2011 at 04:49, Laina Emmanuel wrote:

> Yamini Aiyar was also invited to the 'Power of Open' conference - the opening conference for the Open Government Partnership.  
> She has blogged about similar issues here- http://www.accountabilityindia.in/accountabilityblog/2337-power-open.  
>  
> Regards
> Laina
>  
> On Thu, Sep 29, 2011 at 6:01 AM, Pranesh Prakash <pranesh at cis-india.org (mailto:pranesh at cis-india.org)> wrote:
> > Dear all,
> >  The differences of opinion on this question are captured well in Becky
> >  Hogge's [Open Data Study][] for the Transparency and Accountability
> >  Initiative.
> >  
> >  Regards,
> >  Pranesh
> >  
> >  [Open Data Study]: http://goo.gl/oPVVF
> >  
> >  =====
> >  
> >  Is Open Data a Good Idea for the Open Government Partnership?
> >  Submitted by Global Integrity on 15 September 2011 - 12:41pm
> >  
> >  As we’ve blogged before, Global Integrity is working to promote the new
> >  [Open Government Partnership][] by serving as the [OGP’s Networking
> >  Mechanism][], which aims to connect aspiring OGP governments with
> >  providers of open government expertise (whether governments, civil
> >  society organizations, or private companies) to help those aspiring
> >  governments develop innovative, “stretch” open government commitments.
> >  
> >  An interesting (though not surprising) trend that has quickly emerged in
> >  our conversations with the “supply side” providers of open government
> >  expertise is the heavy focus on technological interventions. I haven’t
> >  done a precise count yet, but close to half of the nearly 40 providers
> >  that have already expressed interest in working with governments under
> >  the OGP Networking Mechanism are software vendors, developers, or other
> >  providers of technology solutions for open government challenges,
> >  particularly web-based solutions. Many of them are involved with “open
> >  data” projects, which seek to unlock and put online a range of
> >  government data in machine readable, mashable formats.
> >  
> >  The obvious explanation (in my mind) for why “open data” gets so much
> >  attention in the context of “open government” is that it is the sexiest,
> >  flashiest reform of the bunch. It’s much cooler (and frankly less
> >  politically controversial) for any government to put government health
> >  databases online (along with an iPhone app! Android coming soon!) than
> >  it is for the same government to provide greater transparency around the
> >  financing of political parties in the country.
> >  
> >  But it does raise a core concern that we at Global Integrity (and others
> >  involved in the early discussions around OGP) have voiced several times
> >  before: does the OGP risk becoming a platform on which to proselytize to
> >  the world about the virtues of data.gov (http://data.gov) and similar open data projects?
> >  We worry that this isn’t enough by itself.
> >  
> >  Why I mention this in the context of OGP is that there is a concern
> >  shared amongst some of us involved that open data provides an easy way
> >  out for some governments to avoid the much harder, and likely more
> >  transformative, open government reforms that should probably be higher
> >  up on their lists. Instead of fetishizing open data portals for the sake
> >  of having open data portals, I’d rather see governments incorporating
> >  open data as a way to address more fundamental structural challenges
> >  around extractives (through maps and budget data), the political process
> >  (through real-time disclosure of campaign contributions), or budget
> >  priorities (through online publication of budget line-items).
> >  
> >  Granted, you can make a counter argument that open data is the “gateway
> >  drug” to much deeper and challenging open government reforms, but until
> >  I see that happen in practice I’ll remain a healthy skeptic.
> >  
> >  So when I see the [Kenyan government’s new open data portal][] (over
> >  which many behind the US and UK data sites are absolutely gushing, and
> >  at the time of this posting was actually down!), I can only wonder
> >  whether the time, expenses, and political capital devoted to building
> >  that website were really the best uses of resources. To vastly
> >  understate the problem, Kenya has a range of governance and open
> >  government challenges that go far beyond the lack of a website where
> >  citizens (many of whom are not online) can chart government datasets.
> >  
> >  We’ve started to hear similar concerns from some of the technical
> >  providers involved with building the US and UK open data projects (many
> >  of these providers have expressed their willingness to work with other
> >  governments under the auspices of OGP). The basic message has been,
> >  “Yeah, there’s been plenty of excitement at political levels for these
> >  projects, but it’s hard to say how significant the use or uptake [of the
> >  data] has been.” A similar refrain has been “Everyone expects the
> >  private sector to simply jump in and build a bunch of ‘apps.’ But we
> >  aren’t really seeing that and don’t expect too much to happen apart from
> >  apps using geospatial data.”
> >  
> >  Sobering stuff. The open data movement is clearly still in its infancy
> >  and major successes may be yet to come. But in the interim, some caution
> >  may be in order before we launch a global campaign to liberate every
> >  last bit of government data out there, especially in lower-income
> >  contexts where the opportunity costs may be massive.
> >  
> >  — Nathaniel Heller
> >  
> >  [Open Government Partnership]: http://opengovpartnership.org
> >  [OGP’s Networking Mechanism]:
> > http://www.globalintegrity.org/blog/call-for-ogp-networking
> >  [Kenyan government’s new open data portal]: http://opendata.go.ke/
> >  
> >  --
> >  Pranesh Prakash
> >  Programme Manager
> >  Centre for Internet and Society
> >  W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283
> >  
>  
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