Open Data… Is the end user overlooked?
Friday,05 August 2011
Posted By: data.vic.gov.au Admin
Since the flurry and optimism that greeted the development of such open data luminaries like data.gov and data.gov.uk, the open data movement has recently received some potential body blows.
Firstly, the resignation of Vivek Kundra(the first CIO the US has ever had) has had some in the online world questioning whether this will slow down the Obamas administration's aggressive development of open data priniciples. Washington Post columnist Vivek Wadhwawrote on the 22nd of June that "...whenever a program loses it's key evangelist, it normally dies".
And now it seems that criticism is growing over whom it s that "open data" actually serves. Tim Berners-Lee's now famous catch cry of "Raw Data Now" at TED2009 implores governm,ent agencies to put their raw data on the web to allow the community to do wonderful things with it... but, is open data enough?
This poses a number of questions:
- - Does "open data" address end user needs?
- - How does the uploading of copious amounts of raw data help those who don't know how to sort through them? Or identify what they represent?
- - Does a "Data Divide" between those that have the opportunity and skill to effectively use the data and those that don't exist?
- - Does "open data" simply empower those already empowered?
Is the "data divide" a reality that requires attention to address perceived data access inequalities or should the mantra of "Raw Data Now" be enough to encourage development by whomever for the greater good?
If you have any ideas about about how to make open data, and by extension data.vic.gov.au, a more effective tool for all potential users, please share your thoughts and ideas by joining the discussion.
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Comments for « Open Data… Is the end user overlooked? »
I like the valuable info you provide on www.data.vic.gov.au . I will bookmark your blog and check again here regularly. I'm quite sure I will learn lots of new stuff right here! Best of luck for the next!
15/01/2012 13:53:24
The Federal Government is pushing the open data agenda with the Australian National Data Service (www.ands.org.au), which works with Universities and Public Sector to encourage reusing, and sharing data. ANDS collect collections of data which they store in their database, Research Data Australia. Currently at around 30,000 collections relating to 300,000 subjects.
18/11/2011 09:25:34
This might have been beneficial to the public if the data presented are true, comprehensive, accurate and correct. I am afraid that the data would only be used to misled the people. The battle towards transparency and accountability becomes null and void if in the first place the information is invalid.
12/09/2011 05:16:10
I agree with Steve. The raw data is the first step, ideally it is then transformed by others as the winners of the Transformation prize geo2gov in the mashupaustralia competition did. http://bit.ly/pf462t This work is supported by openaustralia.org The big challenge though is knowing who has already built something. I believe the data.gov.au portal will give people the chance to publicise building blocks. And then there are APIs of course which solve the problem of keeping the data current. I expect to see many more of these on the data portals.
11/08/2011 14:49:01
I think these questions are off the mark. No one ever suggested that the average 'end user' would be wading through gigabytes of 'raw data' to suddenly become an empowered citizen. Clearly someone has to transform the data, make visualisations, cute apps, mashups etc. Who? Geeks. With the help of open data technology platforms like Cloudmade, Factual, Needlebase, and plenty of others. There are hundreds, probably thousands, of apps and website using OpenStreetMap's open data. Of all the problems facing the open data movement (licensing is still causing huge issues), lack of technologists to transform the data into something usable by the average punter is not one of them.
05/08/2011 16:46:45
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