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Open Data: A Groundswell of Civics and Technology
Tim Berners-Lee, architect behind much of what we now call the internet, has been a strong advocate for open access by all to data collected and derived by government bodies and agencies. The movement towards more open government has been called “Open Data”.
Tim Berners-Lee said that “It has to start at the top, it has to start in the middle, and it has to start at the bottom.” What he means by that is that at the top, political leaders need to provide support and backing for the Open Data movement. In the middle, professional public administrators need to implement the infrastructure for accessing the data and then following through by making data available on an on-going and timely basis. At the bottom, are the citizens, the journalists and analysts who are free to access, process and make meaning out of the available data.
As an advisor to government around Open Data, Tim Berners-Lee commented on his experience: “I think when they saw just a few examples of how information is reused by a third party who has never been involved with the process before, that’s when they realised the value of the information that they’ve been producing is really untapped – it’s not been exploited. Then they get very keen to be a part of that infrastructure, to be part of putting the data out there. And those two spheres, the data sphere, as I call it sometimes, and the mashup sphere are separate.”
A great paper by Becky Hogge called “Open Data Study” and available on Soros.org discusses the relatively brief history behind Open Data and it’s effect within the US, UK and other governments worldwide.
