Don't undervalue the unintended consequences of opening up data - The Information Daily.com

abernard102@gmail.com 2014-09-02

Summary:

"I became interested in open data after a lecture on smart cities and open data by Rick Robinson of IBM. What really got me interested was his stories of how information/data was used in unintended, serendiptous ways. The only way this can happen is if the data is open. The story that grabbed my attention and enthusiasm was how the data from instruments in Galway bay - that collected sound data on dolphins and porpoise movements - was initially used by the chemical industry to regulate their discharges, then by local fishermen to help look for fish, and then by the restaurant trade who used the data to plan their menus. I remember the story, but looking back for details for this blog, they were difficult to find. There is, of course, a paragraph in Rick's blog. The details of the story are, however, out there somewhere. In all probability my searching was just not quite good enough, the search terms used not quite right, and yes maybe I did not go right down to the bottom of page 10 on every search. There are several points to make here about open data, that actually have nothing to do with the technical data that forms the basis of that story. Firstly, 'opening up' your data is not enough - if you don't give it a URL, people are just not going to find it. Secondly, how do you measure serendipitous use of your information/data? The second point links into one of the powerful 'whys' of open data. It is fairly easy to conceive of the benefits of data/information that has been opened for a fairly long time, such as weather data and more increasingly transportation data. In the 2013 Deloitte report for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, it was estimated that the economic value alone of saved time from using the live data from Transport for London apps was between £15 million and £58 million p.a. That is just one year, for one city. Even though this is clearly an estimate with a wide variance, taking the lowest figure is still pretty compelling. So there you have the first big 'why' for the re-use of information/data, the estimated amount of value creation and savings. In this context, we are talking public sector information. That is information/data that is generated by citizens going about their daily lives and availing themselves of services ..."

Link:

http://www.theinformationdaily.com/2014/09/01/dont-undervalue-the-unintended-consequences-of-opening-up-data

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » abernard102@gmail.com

Tags:

oa.new oa.comment oa.psi oa.benefits oa.economic_impact oa.formats oa.data.curation oa.government oa.data

Date tagged:

09/02/2014, 07:52

Date published:

09/02/2014, 03:52