limiting freedom of information but opening government datasets: a fair exchange?

Limiting freedom of information but opening government datasets:

A fair exchange?

Mária Žuffová [email protected]

@mariazuffova

THE IMPACTS OF CIVIC TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE

OPEN GOV DATA VS. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

§  access

Marcello Graciolli (CC BY 2.0)

§  (e-)skills

Adam Fagen (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

§  state of political rights and civil liberties

Mondspeer (CC0 1.0)

§  info structure & character

Karolina van Schrojenstein (CC BY 2.0)

RHETORIC VS. REALITY: OGD VS. FOI IN THE UK

Speeches by the Cabinet Office §  search for ‘open data’ speeches on Gov.uk until 17th July

2015 (FOI Commission launched): 399 speeches §  22 speeches relevant

§ main message: UK as the most transparent and open government

§  key words: transparency (217), openness (168), accountability (46), responsiveness (8), access (31), freedom of information (5), right to data (8)

Open Data White Paper - Unleashing the Potential §  key words: transparency (96), openness (38),

accountability (5), responsiveness (0), access (87), freedom of information (8), right to data (3), scrutiny (3)

Francis Maude’s speech at the Institute for Government on 11 December 2014 Excerpt taken from GOV.UK (Open Government Licence v3.0)

FROM OFFICIAL SPEECHES: OGD VS. FOI

Francis Maude’s speech at the OGP meeting in Dublin on 8 May 2014 Excerpt taken from GOV.UK (Open Government Licence v3.0)


Francis Maude’s speech to FT Innovate on 6 Nov 2012 Excerpt taken from GOV.UK (Open Government Licence v3.0)


ACCESS MATTERS

AVAILABILITY MATTERS

69 cities in the UK §  still 27 of them does

not publish any local government

information as open data either on

their own local portal or on the national open government

data portal DATA.GOV.UK

OGD VS. FOI IN THE UK CITIES

PRESS FREEDOM AND OPEN GOV DATA

CORRELATING INDICES Press Freedom Index (FH) §  Range: 0 – 100 (0 most free, 100 least free)

0 – 30 free media 31 – 60 partly free media 61 – 100 least free media

Open Data Index (OKFN) §  Range: 0 – 100

(0 – no datasets available, 100 – all datasets available)

PRESS FREEDOM AND OPEN GOV DATA

PRESS FREEDOM AND OPEN SPENDING DATA

PRESS FREEDOM MATTERS

From upper left: The Guardian, Committee to Protect Journalists, ibid, The Guardian, Vice News

CASE STUDY: OGD VS. FOI IN GLASGOW

Francis Maude’s speech at the Open Data Champions Event on 24 March 2015 Excerpt taken from GOV.UK (Open Government Licence v3.0)

CHARACTER OF INFORMATION MATTERS

CASE STUDY: OGD VS. FOI IN GLASGOW


No action for over a year

Screenshot from Data.glasgow.gov.uk, 20th April 2016

Information made available on Data.glasgow.gov.uk

(373 published datasets)

§  Health care info & statistics (50+)

§  Environment & energy consumption info (50+)

§  Population statistics (50+) §  Transport (40+) §  Housing (20+) §  Education (20+) §  Commonwealth games (15+) §  Cycling (10+)

Information sought through FOI requests submitted to WDTK

(723 submitted FOI requests)

§  Local gov spending data (100+) §  Transport (60+) §  Education (50+) §  Documents (40+) §  Social care services (40+) §  Housing (20+) §  Local gov owned properties and

land (20+) §  Waste (15+) §  Surveillance and security (15+) §  Urban planning (15+)


§  OGD and FOI appeal to different users ‘Statistical techniques are often used for the collection, analysis, interpretation and presentation of data. Yet statistical knowledge

is scarce’ (Janssen, Charalabidis, and Zuiderwijk, 2012).

§  OGD and FOI do not exist in a political vacuum ‘Government can provide open data on politically neutral topics even as it remains deeply opaque and unaccountable’ (Yu and

Robinson 2012).

§  OGD and FOI do not deliver same outcomes Open data provides information, FOI enables to seek

information.

CONCLUSIONS

•  Identical FOI requests submitted to 69 UK cities

BONUS SLIDE: EXPERIMENT

Result WDTK E-mail

Full disclosure 12 15

Partial disclosure

12 7

Information withheld

0 2

Administrative silence

4 7

Cabinet Office. (2014). Francis Maude’s speech at the Institute for Government on 11 December 2014. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/francis-maude-speech-on-open- data-and-transparency

Cabinet Office. (2014). Francis Maude’s speech at the OGP meeting in Dublin on 8 May 2014. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/francis-maude-at-an-open-government- partnership-meeting-in-dublin

Cabinet Office. (2015). Francis Maude’s speech at the Open Data Champions Event on 24 March 2015. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/open-data-champions-event- francis-maude-speech

Cabinet Office. (2012) Francis Maude’s speech to FT Innovate on 6 Nov 2012. Available at: https:// www.gov.uk/government/speeches/francis-maude-speech-to-ft-innovate-conference

Cabinet Office. (2012), Open Data White Paper: Unleashing the Potential. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-data-white-paper-unleashing-the-potential

Janssen, M., Charalabidis, Y. and Zuiderwijk, A. (2012). ‘Benefits, Adoption Barriers and Myths of Open Data and Open Government’. Information Systems Management, [e-journal], 29:4, 258-268.

www.gov.uk www.data.glasgow.gov.uk www.whatdotheyknow.com Yu, H., Robinson, D. H. (2012). ‘The New Ambiguity of “Open Government”’. UCLA Law Review, 59:

178 - 208. Available at: http://www.uclalawreview.org/the-new-ambiguity-of- %E2%80%9Copen-government%E2%80%9D/

REFERENCES

limiting freedom of information but opening government datasets: a fair exchange?

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