Open Public Data Future Scenarios

Reflecting on the Consequences of Open Public Data

Daniel Kaplan, FingSeptember, [email protected]

What happens if…?

▉ A significant share of "public-service information" (PSI) has become available for access and re-use, in machine-readable format

▉ What consequences on▋ The daily lives of citizens and firms?▋ Public agencies and public policy-making?▋ Innovation and growth?▋ Democracy and public spirit?

▉ Are there ways of managing Open Public Data that produce different sets of consequences?▋ Consider this the beginning of an ongoing discussion…

The dominant story

Large sets of PSI released, raw,mostly free…

Large sets of PSI released, raw,mostly free… … Reused by a broad

diversity of actors, producing…

… Reused by a broad diversity of actors,

producing…

Transparency and accountability


New / improved services

New / improved services

New knowledgeand insights

New knowledgeand insights Citizen empowermentCitizen empowerment

▋ Less corruption▋ Better use of public

resources▋ Less duplication in

public IT investments▋ Better policy impact

evaluation▋ More trust in

government

▋ Better services forthe end-users

▋ Better quality of life▋ Growth and

innovation▋ More efficient

public agencies

▋ Scientificadvancement

▋ Data activists &media join forces inexposing failures

▋ Better policy impactevaluation, betterpublic decisions inthe future

▋ Self-confidence▋ Social trust▋ Better data thru

citizen feedback▋ Democratic

participation▋ Service co-design

and co-production

But isn't this story just as likely?





producing…

Transparency before accountability


Privately-supplied public services


Dubious, unsharednew knowledge

Dubious, unsharednew knowledge

Citizenfrustration

Citizenfrustration

▋ Endless discussionon individualspending decision

▋ Court trials▋ Privacy breakdown▋ Less trust in

government

▋ Better services foraffluent or community-bound end-users

▋ Gvt. barred fromreusing its own data

▋ Privatization ofspecialized publicdata producers

▋ Less public data

▋ Data-based researchinfluenced byfunders' agendas

▋ Incentive for datafalsification

▋ Highly unequal powerto interpret data

▋ Fragmentation ofdeliberative space

▋ Data empower the empowered: lobbies and corporations

▋ Increase inequality,both in terms of service quality and power distribution

▋ Less social trust &participation

What causes the difference?





producing…





Unbeneficialnew knowledge

Unbeneficialnew knowledge

Citizenfrustration

Citizenfrustration



New / improved public services

New / improved public services



Citizen empowermentCitizen empowerment

??

Are there other scenarios?

How & Why do they differ from one another?

Does this also sound plausible?


Large sets of PSI released, raw,mostly free… … Reused by a rather

small number of actors, producing…

… Reused by a rather small number of actors,

producing…

Issue-basedtransparencyIssue-based

transparencyUseful, but anecdotal

servicesUseful, but anecdotal

servicesNot very significant knowledge product°Not very significant knowledge product°

Citizenindifference

Citizenindifference

▋ Lobbies and activistsexpose what theysee fit, ignore rest

▋ Most other dataremain little used

▋ Untrust ingovernment spreadsto lobbies, geeksand techno-activists

▋ Most applicationscreated for fun andnot maintained

▋ Most good servicesdon't scale orspread beyond"niches"

▋ Low demand fordata

▋ Ability to drawmeaning out of dataremains rare

▋ Spectacular dataviz,scant production ofusable knowledge

▋ Highly divergentinterpretations ofsame data

▋ Data empower the empowered: lobbies and corporations

▋ Crowdsourcing peters out afterinitial successes

▋ Data not seen as a means to take backpower / autonomy

Write your story



(Democracy)(Democracy) (Services)(Services) (Knowledge)(Knowledge) (Citizens)(Citizens)

▋ … ▋ … ▋ … ▋ …

What do we know?What do we know we don't know?

Driving forces of PSI opening

EconomicEconomic InstitutionalInstitutional

TechnologicalTechnological SocietalSocietal

▋ Liberalization▋ Growth found in

service-basedinnovation

▋ "Information wantsto be free"

▋ Lack of money▋ Achieve more with

less, produce non-taxrevenues

▋ Transparency &participation drive

▋ Web of data▋ Semantic web▋ Web 2.0▋ Open source▋ Damanining▋ Dataviz

▋ Complexity▋ Demand for

participation &empowerment

▋ Consumerism▋ Low trust in

institutions

OpenPublic-Service

Information(PSI)

OpenPublic-Service

Information(PSI)

Tensions and uncertainties

Government as facilitator / as service

provider

Government as facilitator / as service

provider

Government as primary data source / re-user or

data

Government as primary data source / re-user or

data

Transparency /Privacy

Transparency /Privacy

Transparency /Ability to makebold decisions

Transparency /Ability to makebold decisions

Financing of public agencies whose job is to

produce data

Financing of public agencies whose job is to

produce data

Privatization of services / Data

openness

Privatization of services / Data

openness

Empowering the empowered / the disenfranchised

Empowering the empowered / the disenfranchised

Empowering the public / Empowering corporations

Empowering the public / Empowering corporations

Creating trust /Destroying trustCreating trust /Destroying trust

……

Divergence about the meaning of data

Divergence about the meaning of data

Power in establishing data structure,

categories, granularity

Power in establishing data structure,

categories, granularity

Incentive for data falsification, vandalism,

etc.

Incentive for data falsification, vandalism,

etc.

Distribution of abilityto effectively use

data

Distribution of abilityto effectively use

data

……

What levers do we have in hand?

A few building blocks

DataData

Mappingdata

Referencedocs

End-userinfo

"Grey"docs

Observationdata

Productiondata Financial

data

Directorydata

ActorsActors

ITbusinesses

GovernmentLocalgovts.

Publicservices

Otherbusinesses

Research

Citizens

Media

UsesUses

RevealFacts

Produceinformation

ProvideInterfaces

Create newservices

Improveservices

OutcomesOutcomes

Improvedservices

Transparency,accountability

Efficiency,productivity

Newknowledge

Innovativeservices

Servicecoproduction

Democraticparticipation

Citizenempowerment

NGOs

<Special thanks to Tim Davies, Practical Participation>

Identifying levers

Internal(directly related to PSI access

policies)

Internal(directly related to PSI access

policies)

▋ Release conditions (price,licensing)

▋ Transferability of release licenses to derivative uses

▋ Data (re-)use capacity within the public sector

▋ Public-sector funding, eg. of specialized informationproducing agencies

▋ Data re-use ecosystem▋ …

External(No direct lever)

External(No direct lever)

▋ Distribution of ability to understand and re-use PSI

▋ Ability to generate meaningful, shared public debate based on data

▋ Relative importance of transparency uses / service-oriented uses

▋ Level of service creation and improvement

▋ Level of user involvement in the design and provision of these services

▋ …

Political(can become levers

if we so choose)

Political(can become levers

if we so choose)

▋ Promotion of a "culture of data"

▋ Specific actions against "data divide"

▋ Extension of open data to some private data

▋ Data crowdsourcing▋ Hard thinking on

"transparency" PSI▋ Specific public regulatory

and proactive roles on PSI▋ …

Let's take it from here!


Public-Service Information in France


Open Data in France

Local communities in the lead

Open Public Data Future Scenarios

Technology

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