There were several points made in the conversation after my presentation yesterday at Open Belgium 2019. This is a brief overview to capture them here.

1) One remark was about the balance between privacy and openness, and asking about (negative) privacy impacts.

The framework assumes government as the party being interested in measurement (given that that was the assignment for which it was created). Government held open data is by default not personal data as re-use rules are based on access regimes which in turn all exclude personal data (with a few separately regulated exceptions). What I took away from the remark is that, as we know new privacy and other ethical issues may arise from working with data combinations, it might be of interest if we can formulate indicators that try to track negative outcomes or spot unintended consequences, in the same way as we are trying to track positive signals.

2) One question was about if I had included all economic modelling work in academia etc.

I didn’t. This isn’t academic research either. It seeks to apply lessons already learned. What was included were existing documented cases, studies and research papers looking at various aspects of open data impact. Some of those are academic publications, some aren’t. What I took from those studies is two things: what exactly did they look at (and what did they find), and how did they assess a specific impact? The ‘what’ was used as potential indicator, the ‘how’ as the method. It is of interest to keep tracking new research as it gets published, to augment the framework.

3) Is this academic research?

No, its primary aim is as a practical instrument for data holders as well as national open data policy makers. It’s is not meant to establish scientific truth, and completely quantify impact once and for all. It’s meant to establish if there are signs the right steps are taken, and if that results in visible impact. The aim, and this connects to the previous question as well, is to avoid extensive modelling techniques, and favor indicators we know work, where the methods are straightforward. This to ensure that government data holders are capable to do these measurements themselves, and use it actively as an instrument.

4) Does it include citizen science (open data) efforts?

This is an interesting one (asked by Lukas of Luftdaten.info). The framework currently does include in a way the existence and emergence of citizen science projects, as that would come up in any stakeholder mapping attempts and in any emerging ecosystem tracking, and as examples of using government open data (as context and background for citizen science measurements). But the framework doesn’t look at the impact of such efforts, not in terms of socio-economic impact and not in terms of government being a potential user of citizen science data. Again the framework is to make visible the impact of government opening up data. But I think it’s not very difficult to adapt the framework to track citizen science project’s impact. Adding citizen science projects in a more direct way, as indicators for the framework itself is harder I think, as it needs more clarification of how it ties into the impact of open government data.

5) Is this based only on papers, or also on approaching groups, and people ‘feeling’ the impact?

This was connected to the citizen science bit. Yes, the framework is based on existing documented material only. And although a range of those base themselves on interviewing or surveying various stakeholders, that is not a default or deliberate part of how the framework was created. I do however recognise the value of for instance participatory narrative inquiry that makes the real experiences of people visible, and the patterns across those experiences. Including that sort of measurements would be useful especially on the social and societal impacts of open data. But currently none of the studies that were re-used in the framework took that approach. It does make me think about how one could set-up something like that to monitor impact e.g. of local government open data initiatives.