[open-government] Citizens Engagement in Open Gov't Data

[michael gurstein]

Interesting and important question and I'ld like to offer a couple of
comments.

First comment is that be cautious of being exclusively "demand" driven.  One
problem in "technical" areas is that people often don't know what they don't
know... If people have little or no knowledge of data they will have little
means to identify what data they might want or need to have access to. And
there is a corrolary which is that people who already know about data, know
very well what additional data might be useful for them.

This is a problem as it means that those who are already making use of data
will be those who will be able to identify what further information they
would like to make use of while those currently at a disadvantage won't,
without some sort of external intervention reach a position where they can
identify and usefully articulate a demand for data. 

The general observation I think is that one should not begin and end with a
"demand" or "consumer" driven approach, rather better to begin with the
notion of what information is required for active and effective citizenship
as a baseline and then use that as a tool to inform and engage the broader
community in identifying what additional information might desireably and
usefully be made available.

Best,

Mike


-----Original Message-----
From: open-government-bounces at lists.okfn.org
[mailto:open-government-bounces at lists.okfn.org] On Behalf Of Rufus Pollock
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2012 3:03 PM
To: Fabio Shida Fukuda
Cc: Open Government WG List
Subject: Re: [open-government] Citizens Engagement in Open Gov't Data


The Open Data Handbook has:

<http://opendatahandbook.org/en/how-to-open-up-data/choose-datasets.html>

As that suggests, and as Tim highlighted asking people is always a great
idea! This is something, for example the UK government did very early on and
you always get some interesting suggestions -- at the same time you have to
be ready (if you are a government) to deal with the problem of not being
able to make available some datasets people will want (though at least you
can know what to prioritise internally).

I'd also be wary of arguments about resource constraints -- while it is true
that some datasets may be costly to open up, in many cases opening up
datasets may be an immediate net cost reduction for government via reduced
FOI requests, greater inter-agency efficiency etc.

Rufus

On 28 April 2012 12:36, Fabio Shida Fukuda <shidafukuda at un.org> wrote:
>
> Dear All:
>
> I would like to have some comments and ideas on how to capture and 
> measure social and citizens demands to the design of strategies of 
> Open Gov't Data.
>
> In many countries, opening data might be a costly process due to human 
> and financial resources constraints - thus selecting the datasets 
> which respond to civil society demands can be a good way to start the 
> design the strategy since many public bodies are/can be involved in 
> this process.
>
> Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts!
>
> Best regards,
>
> Fabio
>
>
> Fabio Enzo Shida Fukuda
>
> UNPAN Management Unit
>
> Division for Public Administration and Development Management | DPADM
>
> United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs | UN DESA
>
> ) shidafukuda at un.org |  fabio.fukuda1 (skype)
>
> É +1 212 963 1070 (office) | +1 917 283 0429  (mobile)
>
> G  2 United Nations Plaza | Room DC2-1726 | New York, NY | 10017 USA
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> open-government mailing list
> open-government at lists.okfn.org 
> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-government
>



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