open data
A recent article on the uses of open data by city governments. A recent shift in the rhetorical aspirations of the open data movement away from the values of openness and transparency and towards a more confined focus on value generation raise important critical questions for urban geographers concerned with the nature of urban governance in an age of big data.
Read MoreWhile based at the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, I've become more and more fascinated by the transformation of Parramatta as one of the epicentres of urban growth currently in Australia. How can open data and digital platforms be better leveraged to capture the scale of the transformation currently underway?
Read MoreIn this piece for The Conversation (March 2014) I examine attempts to put a dollar figure on the value of open data.
Governments have typically signed on to the open data agenda through initiatives such as the Open Government Partnership and the G8 Open Data Charter and made various high-level announcements, but there are many obstacles when, as the report authors remark, “agencies and those within them find ways to delay openness to minimise institutional risk”.
Putting a dollar figure on open data isnecessarily speculative. Where open data has the potential to be a game-changer for many industries, currently the data is not being released in sufficient volumes to realise maximum potential.
Read the full article on The Conversation: Open data and the G20: the value is there to share
Read MoreIt’s hard not to get excited by the promise of a more enriched and open digital ecosystem that makes the way we digitally interact with governments a whole lot better. But as we stand at the cusp of this open data-driven transformation, we should also take a deep breath and consider how “openness” is being used to drive public sector change.
Read More
