Data Journalism Crash Course #2: Open Data
By: Deborah M.
Tags: Open Data, Data Science, Journalism, Data, Technology

With the evolution of access to public data and the greater transparency of governments, media professionals today are experiencing an important change: they left an environment with a certain lack of public data to have, now on the Internet, much more than they could analyze by themselves. Every day, more data are opened and collected by movements of think tanks and academics, civic entrepreneurs, or even obtained by reporters through requests for the Access to Information Laws (although not always without a battle). Currently, it is even possible to monitor responses to requests, either through social initiatives or through official search engines, provided by some governments, under national open data policies — which still maintains a special panel for monitoring compliance with the law by federal agencies.

In this scenario, data journalism has become stronger than ever and is the trend for the future. In a time of polarization and the press faces distrust, this method of producing news gains even more importance in finding exclusive facts and keeping the role of ‘‘ guardian of society ’’ in the press alive. It can light the way for us, bringing evidence to light in an accessible way, contributing to a greater and more qualified understanding of reality through a closer approach to science and less to the spectrum of opinion and dispute of narratives.

Data are considered Open Data when anyone can freely access, use, modify, and share them for any purpose, subject to, at most, requirements aimed at preserving their origin and openness.

This is usually satisfied by publishing the data in an open format and under an open license.

Open data are also guided by the three laws and eight principles.

The three laws

The so-called three “laws” of open data are not laws in the literal sense, enacted by any state. In short, they are a set of tests to assess whether data can be considered open. They were proposed by public policy experts, open data activist, and public policy speaker at Harvard Kennedy School of Government David Eaves. The laws are:

If the data cannot be found and indexed on the Web, it does not exist;

If it is not open and available in a machine-understandable format, it cannot be reused; and

If a legal device does not allow its replication, it is not useful.

The laws were proposed for open government data, but it can be said that they apply to open data in general, even outside government environments. For example, in private companies, civil society organizations, and international bodies. The World Bank, for example, makes open data available.

Did you know?

Data can also be opened voluntarily by private organizations, for several reasons. In recent years, experts have discussed the opening of data by the private sector for actions that benefit the public interest, the so-called “data collaborators”.

The eight principles

In 2007, a 30-person working group met in California, to define the principles of Government Open Data. They reached a consensus on the following 8 principles:

Complete: All public data must be available. Data is electronically recorded information, including, but not limited to, documents, databases, transcripts, and audiovisual recordings. Public data is data that is not subject to valid privacy, security, or access control limitations, regulated by statutes.

All public data must be available. Data is electronically recorded information, including, but not limited to, documents, databases, transcripts, and audiovisual recordings. Public data is data that is not subject to valid privacy, security, or access control limitations, regulated by statutes. Primary : The data must be published in the form collected at the source, with the finest possible granularity, and not in an aggregated or transformed form.

: The data must be published in the form collected at the source, with the finest possible granularity, and not in an aggregated or transformed form. Current: Data is made available as quickly as necessary to preserve its value.

Data is made available as quickly as necessary to preserve its value. Accessible: The data is made available to the widest possible audience and for the most varied purposes possible.

The data is made available to the widest possible audience and for the most varied purposes possible. Machine processable: The data is reasonably structured to allow automated processing.

The data is reasonably structured to allow automated processing. Non-discriminatory access: The data is available to everyone, without the need for identification or registration.

The data is available to everyone, without the need for identification or registration. Non-proprietary formats: The data is available in a format over which no entity has exclusive control.

The data is available in a format over which no entity has exclusive control. Free licenses: The data is not subject to restrictions by copyright, trademark, patent, or industrial secret regulations. Reasonable restrictions on privacy, security, and access control may be permitted in the manner regulated by statutes.

Also, the Californian group stated that compliance with these principles needs to be verifiable and a person should be designated as the responsible contact for the data.

What governments do not do when it comes to open data to communities, civil society organizations and the media do.

Disseminating information

The idea of disclosing public servants’ salaries is relatively new. In the United States, during 2008, several groups of civil servants and unions protested when The Sacramento Bee newspaper decided to publish this information, revealing the wages of 460,309 employees, including teachers, police officers, and firefighters.

Until then, this disclosure was seen as a security risk and an invasion of privacy. Although some governments are reluctant to approach the problem differently, both small towns and country governments understand the value of opening up information to society and have taken enormous steps, making as much information available to citizens as possible. which help to build trust between taxpayers and government officials.

In many parts of the world, governments on different continents are adding the principles invoked by the International Alliance for Open Government. It is a global effort: the world leaders who support this initiative are well aware that people are demanding more transparency, more participation in public affairs, and, therefore, are designing tools to make their management more transparent and effective.

Argentina, despite having asked to be part of this Alliance, was not accepted, because all efforts to comply with a Law on Access to Public Information have failed. Making this legal instrument available is a condition for joining OGP.

On this page: http://www.opengovpartnership.org/members it is possible to see which countries are part of the Alliance and which have expressed a desire to join it, according to the date of access.

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE:

Charalabidis, Y., Zuiderwijk, A., Alexopoulos, C., Janssen, M., Lampoltshammer, Th.J., Ferro, E. The World of Open Data: Concepts, Methods, Tools and Experiences. Springer International Publishing. 2018.

Davies,Tim / Walker, Stephen B. / Rubinstein, Mor / Perini, Fernando (Editors). The State of Open Data: Histories and Horizons. African Minds. 2019- https://www.idrc.ca/en/book/state-open-data-histories-and-horizons

Data.gov. https://www.data.gov/

European Union Open Data Portal. https://data.europa.eu/euodp/en/home

Open Data Handbook: Guides, case studies and resources for government & civil society on the “what, why & how” of open data. https://opendatahandbook.org/

Open Government Partnership. https://www.opengovpartnership.org

The Global Open Data Index. https://index.okfn.org/

The Open Data Barometer. https://opendatabarometer.org

World Bank Open Data from The World Bank: Data. https://data.worldbank.org/

Gain Access to Expert View — Subscribe to DDI Intel