Researching people’s attitudes about open data
On the 2nd of March, many across the public sector will do something to mark International Open Data Day. It’s an opportunity to celebrate open data and promote access to their datasets.
We have much to celebrate in the way the value of open data is demonstrated and its policies adopted. However, it’s also time to think about the past, present and future(s) of this part of digital government.
Current state: open data in Australia
Over the past year, my colleague, Dr. Dale Leorke and I have been conducting research into the current state of open data in Australia.
Our motivation in doing this research was to reflect back on 10 years of open government data and consider its future directions from the perspective of data custodians, and users.
The questions we addressed were:
- What are the attitudes of government agency workers to open data, and what factors contribute to the successful implementation of open data policies and initiatives?
- What are the indicators of open data maturity in the practices of data releasing agencies on the supply side across all levels of government?
- What factors contribute to, or limit, inter-agency data sharing and public release?
What the research told us
- Workers are overwhelmingly enthusiastic about open data. But interviews demonstrated people defined open data in a number of different ways.
- Open data is a perceived valuable public asset. However, we observed conflicting views about what high value open data sets might be and how this value should be leveraged.
- Interviews revealed a need for higher and more consistent funding for open data initiatives. However, there is little evidence of proven models for creating sustainability for open data programs.
- Open data workers are often critical of organisational silos. Yet interviewees often talked of organisational units where open data portals or policies are managed as being isolated from other areas of government where relevant work may be happening.
- There is a desire for data literacy and advocacy at the ministerial level. Interviewees discussed literacy in terms that ranged from the technical knowledge needed to “read” and “write with” open datasets through to being able to diagnose and predict ethical and legal issues related to data release.
What now?
We have seen open data grow from being simply about data format and granularity to a key driver for political transparency and critical resource for civic innovation. It’s also time to think about what happens to open data programs as open data becomes business as usual.
We hope that this research contributes to ongoing debates about open data futures. As one of our interviewees put it, “ Open data isn’t something that you can switch on and switch off like a tap”.
