Using open data to improve the society
"Citizens can do more than just be watchers and
elect wise leaders. They can be active participants for
the well-being of the society!" said Professor Beth
Simone Noveck, who directs The Governance Lab
and its MacArthur Research Network on Opening
Governance in the USA . Noveck gave the keynote
lecture at the Open Finland 2014 seminar this
September in Helsinki.
The initiative to use open data from governmental
and private organizations
was introduced a few years ago. What
does it mean to be open?
To keep government accountable,
to limit corruption and to increase
efficiency in all levels, summerized Noveck.
We are at the moment having radical reenvisioning
of our conception of citizenship and transition to
an open government from merely a good government.
The information that government collects
about people is owned by tax-payers and also payed
by us. Via a myriad of established new non-profit organizations
and companies, people are able to utilize
it much more than the government alone could, said
Noveck.
To move forward with the initiative of open
data, we obviously also need policies and laws, added
Noveck.
We need practical strategies to translate big
ideas into practise, not only principles.
And we need actions also from bottom to up. We
need groups that push and demand for open data: "If
you'll give us the data, we will use it, we are interested
in it!" Groups from both the civil society and the
academic world are called to build up the ecosystem
of open data into reality.
What is open data good for?
The benefits of open data for the society are many, including
its financial value.
The economic potential is enormous, said Noveck.
McKinsey has estimated that the global value of
open data is three trillion dollars.
The uses can be distributed in almost all sectors of
society, the health care sector being one of the biggest
beneficiaries.
The savings there by using open data have
been estimated to be hundreds of billions of dollars.
The applications range from curing chronic illnesses
to spending more time rather on wellness of people
than solely increasing the efficiency of the system,
described Noveck.
In health care, the big open data is useful for
spotting the problems and targeting resources better.
In the US, one of the big issues in that sector at the
moment is better planning of post-acute care. It aims
at lowering the risk of patient readmission soon after
release from the hospital, thereby resulting in significant
savings.
Governmental organizations like the US Patent
Office have also started to use open data as they process
the applications. As a result, decision times have
declined, told Professor Noveck.
The use of open data has improved even how the
Government itself works.
What are the challenges to overcome?
Professor Noveck mentioned that in order to fully
utilize the vast potential of open data, there are some
hurdles to cross.
The biggest obstacle is privacy. We have to be
able to protect people's private information together
with the open datasets. The system is not foolproof
yet and there have been, for example, cases of accidental
release of ID numbers.
Secondly, athough open data can bring in a lot
of money, it also has costs. The raw data from various
statistics is not enough, it has to be edited. The data is
not only numbers but also includes laws and policies.
All that governmental jargon has to be transformed
to an interesting format that people are willing
to read it. Only then it can be useful. There are
cases of attractive magazines been produced of some
important issues, and their readership has been much
bigger, mentioned Noveck.
Now we still have to move from the belief in
open data to the real evidence based proof that it actually
has a transformational positive impact on people's
lives, emphasized Noveck.
We have to set up open data learning infrastructure
that we can learn what the experiences are when
using open data. Even if we cannot solve all the big
problems of the world, it is no excuse not to start with
some smaller ones, conluded Noveck her talk.
text Katri Pajusola
- Painetussa lehdessä sivu 16
|