Open Data

Data collection has been at the heart of governing societies for centuries. Yet the methods and means of data collection and sharing have multiplied in unforeseen ways. Before the digital age data collection was by and large controlled by the state and military or scientific institutions, accessible only to few. Today the key actors are profit oriented, private companies.

Data is still collected deliberately for things like surveys and censuses. But data is also created as a byproduct of services, i.e. use of mobile phones and social media, water and electricity, health and social welfare provision, education and travel. Adding a whole new category of data — exhaust — to conventional governmental, scientific, military and economic or marketing research. In a digitized world, all our products and services generate data that is useful for someone

Open data enables business and citizens to develop things that help improve their lives and to deliver services citizens need i.e. traffic navigators, environmental & health protection, local service directories, political auditing tools

The legal case for open data:

• The Right to Information that is an essential in Human Right, which is protected by a majority of national constitutions.
• Citizens have the right of access to information held by public bodies on our behalf.
• International standards and jurisprudence such as the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents (2009) has confirmed that governmental information belongs to the public.
• “All official documents are in principle public and can be withheld subject only to the protection of other rights and legitimate interests”.
• The Right to Information has two dimensions:

Proactive
The positive obligation of public bodies to provide, to publish, and to disseminate information about their main activities, budgets, policies and plans. so that the public can know what they are doing, can participate in public matters and can control how public authorities are behaving.

Reactive
The right of all persons to ask public officials for information about what they are doing and any documents they hold and the right to receive an answer. The majority of information held by public bodies should be available, but there are some cases where the information is withheld in order to protect privacy, national security or commercial interests.

The three areas in Lebanon where open access to government records could make a difference are Beirut, saida, and jbeil where in each the public transportations, electicity, access to clean water and so on.

Government data should be considered open if it is made public in a way that complies with the principles below:

· Complete: All public data is made available. Public data is data that is not subject to valid privacy, security or privilege limitations.

· Primary: Data is as collected at the source, with the highest possible level of granularity, not in aggregate or modified forms.

· Timely: Data is made available as quickly as necessary to preserve the value of the data.

· Accessible: Data is available to the widest range of users for the widest range of purposes.

· Machine processable: Data is reasonably structured to allow automated processing.

· Non-discriminatory: Data is available to anyone, with no requirement of registration.

· Non-proprietary: Data is available in a format over which no entity has exclusive control.

· License-free: Data is not subject to any copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret regulation. Reasonable privacy, security and privilege restrictions may be allowed.

Publicly funded research and data held by government institutions are under special obligations to make data available, given that they have used public funds. Data held within public and non governmental bodies concerns the operation of these bodies. They provide a means to measure the success of their various programs and activities. Thus opening government data ensures transparency and accountability. But it also facilitates choice and participation in public decision making, shaping how local government is organized and performed. Thus opening governmental data promotes active citizenship.

Public data can add tremendous value to existing businesses but also opens up new business opportunities (i.e Google maps, navigation services ) It encourages new applications and services and thus new markets for products that citizens need (high utility value). Opening data has the potential to create several tens of billions of Euros annually in the EU alone. The opening of weather and GPS data in the USA has created multi billion dollar industries that generate a sizable tax revenue and employ large numbers of workers.

Source:

https://www.access-info.org/what-is-the-right-to-know

Kitchin, R. (2014) ‘Open and Linked Data’ in The Data Revolution, Sage, Delhi, London, New York. P. 48; 55

Kitchin, R. (2014) ‘Open and Linked Data’ in The Data Revolution, Sage, Delhi, London, New York. p. 55;

https://www.europeandataportal.eu/en/using-data/benefits-of-open-data