Is Open Data Worth the $$$? • GovLoop

"2014 may very well go down as the year of open data. The federal government passed the Open Data Act back in May. Major cities like Los Angeles and Philadelphia hired Chief Data Officers. And many states like Maryland and New York followed suit. But the push for governments to open data sets does have a cost: costs in personnel; heightened susceptibility to cybertheft; high cost of compliance with open data standards; and public scrutiny of decision-makers. In a recent piece by Brookings author Kevin Desouza, he wrote, 'Agencies at all levels of government are investing in open data programs but there is little research on the utility of these programs in terms of increasing transparency, collaboration, or participation. Large variation in open data policies makes such evaluations extremely complicated. Apples to apples comparisons of open data policies are difficult because federal, state, and local level governments have distinctive operational and infrastructural constraints.' Desouza, Associate Dean for Research at the College of Public Programs at Arizona State University, told Chris Dorobek on the DorobekINSIDER program that although data can be very powerful, it is only useful if it’s used ..."