Open data sites and how to make them worth it

David Eaves is an open government adviser, and at his blog he’s talking about the what it takes to build an effective government transparency portal. He breaks it down into three steps.

First, he recommends governments create their portal so that data is automatically updated.

If you are going to launch an open data portal, make sure you’ve figured out how to automate the data updates first. It is harder to do, but essential. In the early days open data sites often live and die based on the engagement of a relatively small community or early adopters – the people who will initially make the data come alive and build broader awareness. Frustrate the community and the initiative will have a harder time gaining traction.

Not doing this has several consequences. Manual updates of data rely on public servants doing the data updates sustainable. Because these updates are work intensive, they are unsustainable. Also, the herculian nature of manual updates for some of these data sets basically ensure that they will be innacurate, which garners ill-will from tech advocates and developers, who spread the word to citizens.

Second, Eaves also suggests keeping the barriers to entry low:

What you shouldn’t do is require users to register. If the data is open, you don’t care who is using it and indeed, as a government, you don’t want the hassle of tracking them. Also, don’t call your data open if members must belong to a educational institution or a non-profit. That is by definition not data that is open (I’m looking at you StatsCan, its not liberated data if only a handful of people can look at it, sadly, you’re not the only site to do this). Worst is one website that, in order to access the online catalogue you have to fax in a form outlining who you are.

This is the antithesis of how an open data portal should work.

Lastly, he strongly recommends governments “think like librarians”; that is, they’re data should be organized and easy to access. Governments shouldn’t demand that users figure our where they data they need is, it should be easy to find and consume. Eaves notes one Canadian transparency site that offers a phone operator service where someone can help walk you through the site and find data. But this is one step too many: data should be easy to find and use, period. No help desk needed.

Eaves ends his essay by noting that good open data portals are collaborative: they encourage feedback from users and take it into account. I would say collaboration is one of the chief reasons to have an open data site in the first place. One thing’s for sure, though, and that is that if governments don’t have a sustainable open data site, they miss out of all the benefits of it, including collaboration.