Danny Lämmerhirt
25 Apr 2017, 4:30 p.m. Room 4
The Global Open Data Index seeks to audit the availability of open government data relevant to civil society. But who is ‘civil society’? And which data is important to what part of civil society? How to identify their needs for government data?
In earlier editions the Global Open Data Index set a low bar for governments and measured the publication of minimal government information.
Lately the Index has evolved towards measuring data that matters to civil society, based on existing and potential user stories. Feedback from a global community as well as leading NGOs helped with this task.
Despite these initial steps, a major question remains: how to systematically understand and measure the 'relevance' of certain Open Data — and how to reflect civic data needs in an open data assessment tool? Catering for “civil society groups” does not mean the same in every context and this should be taken into account in a global research effort such as the Index.
This session will discuss Open Knowledge International's current approaches to define the relevance of open data for civil society. Theorists and practitioners from all disciplines and fields are invited to exchange ideas and discuss methodologies on how to advance our understanding around this question.