Ideology,Technology

and the Open Index:

standards for actionable data across borders

Trend 1: The Move to Measure

• Dramatic proliferation of initiatives to measure human rights and development in recent decades

Including:

– Donor assessments

– International Initiatives

– Country and local initiatives

90888682 84 96 98 00 02 0492 94 0678761974

International data sources on country-level governance

0880

CPIA

Freedom in the World

Commitment to Development

Bertelsmann Transformation Index

Global Accountability Report

Index of Economic Freedom

Journalists killed

Open Budget Index

Polity

Opacity Index

Integrity Index

BEEPS

Press Freedom Survey

Political Terror Scale

Global Competitiveness Index

World Governance Assessment

World Values Survey

State Failure Dataset

Women in Parliament

Governance Matters

Gender Empowerment

Measure

Index of Democracy

World Democracy

Audit

Failed States Index

Press Freedom Index

Democracy Index

Institutional Profiles Database

WeberianComparative State

Project

International Country Risk Guide

Human Rights Indicators

GAPS in Workers’ Rights

Corruption Perceptions

Index Bribe Payers

Index

Indicators of Local

Democratic Governance

CIRI Human Rights

Databse

Countries at the Crossroads

Civil Society Index

Economic Freedom of the World

Global Corruption Barometer

Rule of Law Index

Governance and Democracy Processes

Global Peace Index

Index of Human Rights

(adapted from UNDP Oslo Governance Centre)

Common Measurement Objectives

• To better understand

• To impact international policy processes

• To impact country level practice

The great divide:country-led or comparative

Trend 2: The Rise of Technology• ICT for development

• Social Media for Organisations

Data in the digital age

–Survey tools

–Local data online

–Transnational networks

–Open gov’t

–Citizen-generated data

–Digital dissemination

–Populist Technologies

–International Digital Media

Trend 3: Transnational Information Ecologies

Especially:

• Social and political mobilization

• Knowledge exchange and capacity development

Trend intersection (Measurement - Technology – Globalization)

Cross country technologies for data collection

• Indaba

• Swift River

• Open Data Kit

• TxtEagle

Cross country technology for data dissemination

• The internet

Bridging the Divide? (Measurement - Technology – Globalization)

Have the rise of new technologies and transnational communication flows supported increased

connectivity and knowledge exchange between national and international actors collecting and

mobilizing data on human rights and development?

• Local actors appear to be reaching out, but very difficult to quantify

• It is possile to evaluate whether international actors are reaching out.

90888682 84 96 98 00 02 0492 94 0678761974 0880

CPIA

Freedom in the World

Commitment to Development

Bertelsmann Transformation Index

Global Accountability Report

Index of Economic Freedom

Journalists killed

Open Budget Index

Polity

Opacity Index

Integrity Index

BEEPS

Press Freedom Survey

Political Terror Scale

Global Competitiveness Index

World Governance Assessment

World Values Survey

State Failure Dataset

Women in Parliament

Governance Matters

Gender Empowerment

Measure

Index of Democracy

World Democracy

Audit

Failed States Index

Press Freedom Index

Democracy Index

Institutional Profiles Database

WeberianComparative State

Project

International Country Risk Guide

Human Rights Indicators

GAPS in Workers’ Rights

Corruption Perceptions

Index Bribe Payers

Index

Indicators of Local

Democratic Governance

CIRI Human Rights

Databse

Countries at the Crossroads

Civil Society Index

Economic Freedom of the World

Global Corruption Barometer

Rule of Law Index

Governance and Democracy Processes

Global Peace Index

Index of Human Rights

49 Global Sources for National Data on Development and Human

Rights• Online presence

• Measuring the relationship between states and citizens (Social Contract Data)

• Presenting data on multiple countries

• Current data (at least from 2008)

Global Sources were coded for:

• Scope of data (geographic and thematic),

• North/South network position

• Types of data (comparative, quantitative, sources)

• online accessibility

• degree of digital media engagement

HYPTOTHESIS: a correlation between country-level engagement and digital engagement

Showed little engagement,

• 1/2 –made data available for download

• 1/3 –online analysis

• 1/4 –used social media

• 1/5 –actual digital engagement

with no obvious correlations.

Digital Outreach by Data Source Characteristics

Type of

Data

Source

5 10% 2 8% 1 4% 3 13% 1 3%

27 55% 14 56% 14 56% 8 33% 19 58%

19 39% 6 24% 9 36% 2 8% 15 45%

6 12% 4 16% 4 16% 1 4% 4 12%

21 43% 7 28% 5 20% 3 13% 10 30%

5 10% 2 8% 4 16% 1 4% 0 0%

17 35% 2 8% 4 16% 3 13% 3 9%

1 2% 2 8% 4 16% 3 13% 0 0%

restricted download

free data download

any online analysis

custom online analysis

Any soc media Use

Significant soc media Use

any digital engagement

significant digital engagement

All Rights-focused

data

Initiatives w /

local partners

Inititives with

constitutive

engagement

Initiatives

producing

comparative

Digital Outreach

Why are global data sources not geting wired?

• Different measurement objectives

• Path dependency

• A natural uptake

Costs, opportunities and tradeoffs

Costs• investment in technical

capacities

• human resources

• software development

• institutional costs

Opportunities• Implementation costs• Better data

– contextualized– real-time– validated

• Engagement • Local actionability

Comparative data vs contextualized dataInternational vs national discourse

Perennial Trade-offs

But…

..even for comparative ranking advocates who do NOT wish to

–substantively engage with national actors,

–adjust methodologies to reflect lived realities, or

–expend resources on technology adaption,

There is always….

The Open Index: a minimal approach to digital engagement• Open Data

– Complete– Non-discriminatory & Machine Readable– Licensed open & non-proprietary

• Open Methods– Statistical methods (as suitable for academic pub)– Collection methods (including source selection)– Primary data documentation & links to original sources– Code sheets & background reports

• Open organisation– All organizations involved in collection & analysis– Funding sources

Open Data is Used Data

Registers of Actionability

• Data may be locally actionable for

–Policy

–Advocacy

–Research

The Cost of Closed

• Political and social capital for local actors

• Opportunity cost for capacities and knowledge

• A widening divide

http://www.engineroom.no/data-sheets/

Presentation and international data source spreadsheetavalable at: