Why Government Should Care Less About Open Data and More About Data by Andrea Di Maio.
From the post:
Among the flurry of activities and deja-vu around open data that governments worldwide, in all tiers are pursuing to increase transparency and fuel a data economy, I found something really worth reading in a report that was recently published by the Danish government.
“Good Basic Data for Everyone – A Driver for Growth and Efficiency” takes a different spin than many others by saying that:
Basic data is the core information authorities use in their day-to-day case processing. Basic data is e.g. data on individuals, businesses, properties, , addresses and geography. This information, called basic data, is reused throughout the public sector. Reuse of high-quality data is an essential basis for public authorities to perform their tasks properly and efficiently. Basic data can include personal data.
While most of the categories are open data, the novelty is that for the first time personal and open data is seen for what it is, i.e. data. The document suggests the development of a Data Distributor, which would be responsible for conveying data from different data to its consumers, both inside and outside government. The document also assumes that personal data may be ultimately distributed via a common public-sector data distributor.
Besides what is actually written in the document, this opens the door for a much needed shift from service orientation to data orientation in government service delivery. Stating that data must flow freely across organizational boundaries, irrespective of the type of data (and of course within appropriate policy constraints) is hugely important to lay the foundations for effective integration of services and processes across agencies, jurisdictions, tiers and constituencies.
Combining this with some premises of the US Digital Strategy, which highlights an information layer distinct from a platform layer, which is in turn distinct from a presentation layer, one starts seeing a move toward the centrality of data, which may finally emerge to the emergence of citizen data stores that would put control of service access and integration in the hand of individuals.
If there is novelty in the Danish approach, it is from being “open data.” That is all citizens can draw equally on the “basic data” for whatever purpose.
Property records, geographic, geological and other maps, plus addresses were combined long ago in the United States as “private data.”
Despite being collected at taxpayer expense, private industry sells access to collated public data.
Open data may provide businesses with collated public data at a lower cost, but as an expense to the public.
What is know as a false dilemma: We can buy back data government collected on our behalf or we can pay government to collect and collate it for the few.
The “individual being in charge of their data” is too obvious a fiction to delay us here. Isn’t true now, no signs it will become true. If you doubt that, restrict the distribution of your credit report. Post a note when you accomplish that task.