Open Data Movement Seen as Falling Short in Canada
February 28, 2013
Here’s more good news for the closed data crowd. In his Whimsley blog, writer Tom Slee explains “Why the ‘Open Data Movement’ is a Joke.” The post was spurred by a couple of developments in his native Canada: the country’s inclusion in the international Open Government Partnership, and budget cuts that imperiled jobs at Statistics Canada. Slee writes:
“A government can simultaneously be the most secretive, controlling Canadian government in recent memory and be welcomed into the club of ‘open government’. The announcements highlight a few problems with the ‘open data movement’ (Wikipedia page):
*It’s not a movement, at least in any reasonable political or cultural sense of the word,
*It’s doing nothing for transparency and accountability in government,
*It’s co-opting the language of progressive change in pursuit of what turns out to be a small-government-focused subsidy for industry.”
It is worth noting that Slee’s opinions are Canada-specific. He wishes “open government data” were more of a synonym for “transparent government.” (He excludes the “open scientific data” movement from his criticisms.) He observes:
“There seems to be no link between the government’s actions and the actions of this ‘movement’, and basically that’s because the Open Data Movement is more focused on formats, digitally-accessible data sets, free access to postal codes, and so on than it is focused on actual government transparency around issues that matter. It’s a movement that has had no impact on government accountability.”
See the article for a list of grievances Slee has with the current prime minister and his apparently opaque administration. The write-up encourages Canadian progressives to take a hard look at what is (and is not) actually happening in the name of open government data. To my mind, though, incremental progress is better than no progress at all.
Cynthia Murrell, February 28, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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