What Open Data looks like in Lebanon
Open data means what it literally says; it’s data open and available to everyone, with no restrictions. Data available at the governments is a controversial issue that regulations discuss constantly. In Lebanon, the situation is very difficult. Accessing data from the government requires a long procedure that might or might not get you what you ask for; as a citizen. Lebanese people got used to waiting for approvals and their critical side in questioning their government. However, the situation is a combination of hopeless and boring, even though in law it is their right to access information and it’s part of the international human rights by the courts and by national law to the right to freedom of expression.
Lebanon is controlled by several distinct leaders who practice their power and make citizen’s lives more difficult to comprehend. The presence of several leaders on ruling, creates a mistrust between the population and the state powers. One of the major demands of the population is open data, that has been approved as a law “Right to Access Information” by the Lebanese Parliament on January in 2017. The law allows any person, whether Lebanese or a foreigner, to request access to information from all public entities and specific number of private entities as well. Open data in definition is, data being freely available and accessible to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other control mechanisms (Kitchin, 2014, p.50).
When people can access information freely, they will have different opinions on topics and would engage in open debates. Open access to data brings many benefits to Lebanon and would help it develop and progress. It enables people to expose corruption, deliberate exclusion, and to access any kind of information concerning them or their country, which is part of respecting human dignity. Gray and Darbishire (2011) explain further that the data present with the government should be discoverable by everyone, accessible, and able to be reused also.
Starting off with the financial situation of Lebanon in relation with open data. Lebanon is under more than $7 billion dept, and is still increasing. When the citizens ask from the government some development and improvement in the infrastructure or construction fields, the answer is always Lebanon is already under dept, there is no money. Or any kind of help from building bridges on highways to fixing the holes in the roads, the answer is always the same. This scenario of citizens demanding and the government neglecting, made the citizens lose trust in their power sources. Multiple assumptions cross their minds in respect to the country’s money; thus, here comes the need to witness the data files hidden. The population becomes curious to see proofs in documents. The solution here is engaging these people and letting them have access to all the data related to the national’s money, income and outcome released, and funds entering the country’s budget.
In a second area, where open data can make a difference in Lebanon is in reinforcing the use of public transportation in Lebanon. There is a huge daily traffic jam crisis in main cities in Lebanon caused due to high number of personal cars and low number of public transportation vehicles. In such case, data about the number of cars held away from municipalities can be used to conduct studies to promote the usage of public transportation. Not only car amounts, but also architectural maps or data concerning the roads and their undergrounds extracted from the government, would help conduct such studies on easier basis. New public transportation tools can be provided by the government through accessing some data, benefitting the whole country in decreasing pollution.
On a third aspect to seek open data for is the popular electricity in Lebanon. Electricity is a continuos problem that’s been present since the Lebanese civil war. Open data in such case helps the citizens recognize how much money they are legitimately paying for without any extras going to outer sources, having only a number as the electricity bill for this month. Such open documents help reach justice where people are aware of where they are spending their money on, lira by lira, and believing that it’s all the electricity they deserve from the government. Open data is very important in giving the right for people to know the small details they spend money on. Also, it’s important to access data that tells how much the government is spending on fuelling Lebanon and also how much electricity is spent.
Open data is useful to an extent that they could rebuild a whole country again. Through open data, publics can construct roads, build culture, and raise awareness. However, having access to open data alone is not enough. Open data needs a lot of education. This education involves knowing how, where, and when to access open data, and then most importantly why? The purpose. People need to be aware of how essential these material are and how important using them in a healthy way. Any kind of misuse leads the population to corruption back again. Open data is a culture in itself and it needs to be taught in schools on the way sing it goes. Without the appropriate skills and knowledge to understand the data received, many citizens will not be able to benefit from and to make sense of these data (Janssen, 2012). It’s important to know what is open for what and limited to a cause, not for the sake of openness.
References:
Janssen, K. (2012). Open Government Data and the Right to Information: Opportunities and Obstacles. The Journal of Community Informatics, 8, 2, 4–10.
Kitchin, R. (2014). Open and Linked Data. The Data Revolution (p. 50–51). New York., NY: Sage.
Gray, J. & Darbishire, H. (2011). Beyond access: open government data & the right to (re)use public information. Access Info Europe and Open Knowledge.
