The potential of open data: Solving real problems for real people | Post2015.org - what comes after the MDGs?

"On Wednesday, I participated in the CSO day for the 2013 Open Government Summit. The venue was packed – with reports of 700 delegates – and included people from around the world, from Open Government Partnership (OGP) secretariat members to activists, techies and researchers. As the full Summit closes today, and as open data is increasingly discussed in the post 2015 context too, the OGP discussions offer some useful insights into what we are learning on how to translate data into action. The OGP discussions go to the heart of the relationship between increased transparency and greater accountability. ODI’s work on land acquisition, for example, has highlighted that there is a lack of evidence that information being made available through transparency initiatives is actually being used. The OGP’s objectives put it squarely at the centre of this debate – as a multi-stakeholder partnership, it aims to to ‘secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance’. I was therefore excited to hear Linda Frey, Executive Director of the OGP Support Unit, call for less talk about whether OGP itself is a success and more about how it can be used to solve real problems for real people. Indeed, there seems to be a growing – and lively – debate underway in the field of transparency about what it really takes for greater openness and data to lead to sustained change – Duncan Green’s recent series of blogs on Twaweza set out some fascinating insights on how one organisation is grappling with these questions ... "