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

Thu Sep 29 03:49:17 UTC 2011

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>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 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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