TycheOpEd:OpenDataFlywheel

“As we move into the middle of the 2020s, action on open data faces new and significant challenges if we are to see a future in which open and enabling data infrastructures and ecosystems are the norm rather than a sparse patchwork of exceptions.”

- From New Horizons: An Introduction to the 2nd Edition of the State of Open Data

We have been open data users/consumers for years, having been involved in several businesses that use open data to create products that are sold into industry.  We’ve examined 1000s of open data sites, searched for data, crafted data pipelines to ingest the data, dealt with quality issues… and then figured out how to get value from the open data.  Along the way we have purchased data that should be open, cajoled data owners to make their data available, and pulled out our hair when a government entity charges prohibitive amounts for the data.

This has given us an appreciation for the position of public data owners within local government; it is hard to do your job AND solve this open data thing, especially if it is not seen as a priority by the leaders of your government organization.  

In a perfect world all public data would be open data.  However, there is a spectrum of open data support.  On one end of the spectrum are public data owners who want to own the data and have little interest in making data public; their motivations could be mistrust, a belief that ownership gives them exclusive control, a concern about profit motivations or more.  On the other end of the spectrum are the entities for whom open data is their norm, they have great open data distribution sites and it is a part of their standard operations. We constantly mention Louisville as representative of the gold standard of open data.

What does the middle of the spectrum look like?  Open data sites that can have data past its shelf life, partially filled, lightly supported, thinly documented, and other gaps.  You can look at some of these open data sites and you can almost see the marching orders - “do the best that you can.”   We get it.  If we were a staffer in these organizations where open data is not a priority we would think “I’m being asked to do this work, I have no idea if it is moving the needle, I don’t know the users and don’t get any feedback on how my data is being used, I think that the open data is being used to build private sector products (someone is getting rich on my work!), and maybe there are some academics that occasionally use my data.”

Can the act of using open data to inform public conversations catalyze the availability and utility of open data?  We want Tyche Insights to test out this hypothesis.  We believe that when someone uses open data, works through issues, publishes the results, and provides a feedback loop to the data owner that this reinforces the value of the open data effort.  Feedback could range from “Hey your data is awesome and look at what I’ve been able to do!” to “I was able to make use of your data, however here are three things that you could do in the future that will make it better/stronger/faster to consume.”

We all like to believe that there is a purpose to our work and our efforts.  We believe that visible use of open data provides reinforcement that there is value in the effort to make the data available.  This reinforcement drives additional organizational and individual energy and rigor into the publishing of open data.

Is this true?  We’re going to find out.