Open Data Sceptic(?!)

Open Data Sceptic: What public is intended to be the user of all this public data, and how are they going to use it exactly? #opendata #opendatasceptic

Answers appreciated in the comments below…;-)

PS a similar question comes to mind with OERs…;-)

PPS In a rare blog post(?!), @ambrouk reminds me of a recent post by Tom Steinberg about Open Data: How Not To Cock It Up. I must have been having a bad day, yesterday, and stand corrected… (or maybe I was wound up by one too many other tweets or blog posts about yet another open data launch making all sorts of vacuous promises and calls to the public for action around this data set that would obviously benefit them…. err…?!;-)

Author: Tony Hirst

I'm a Senior Lecturer at The Open University, with an interest in #opendata policy and practice, as well as general web tinkering...

6 thoughts on “Open Data Sceptic(?!)”

  3. Pingback: Open Data Sceptic | Open Data Sceptic google docs | Open Data Sceptic > | Google Docs | Google Docs Spreadsheet | Google Doc

  4. The scepticism is not a bad thing, these are good questions to ask, especially in these initial phases like we are in. The simple answer – the public is the public, all of it. That does not mean all of the public will be able or willing to use it, but if it’s not available, they never had the option to begin with. And in early days, it will certainly still be by proxy, through intermediaries like yourself, like journalists. That may well develop into its own niche over time, though surely not if the value is solely around mere “distribution.”

    So I can’t see the openning of data as a “bad” thing, per se, but at the same time we would do well to be vigilant about being pacified with rather meaningless data, and inundated with cruft. These are real possibilities and asking questions like this will help people become aware of the possibilities of “openwashing.”

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