Data is a Team Sport: Government Priorities and Incentives
Dirk Slater - August 13, 2017 in Ania Calderon, Data Blog, data literacy, Event report, Fabriders, Government, Open Data, research, Tamara Puhovski, Team Sport, The Open Data Charter
Data is a Team Sport is our open-research project exploring the data literacy eco-system and how it is evolving in the wake of post-fact, fake news and data-driven confusion. We are producing a series of videos, blog posts and podcasts based on a series of online conversations we are having with data literacy practitioners.
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The conversation in this episode focuses on the challenges of getting governments to prioritise data literacy both externally and internally, and incentives to produce open-data and features:

- Ania Calderon, Executive Director at the Open Data Charter, a collaboration between governments and organisations working to open up data based on a shared set of principles. For the past three years, she led the National Open Data Policy in Mexico, delivering a key presidential mandate. She established capacity building programs across more than 200 public institutions.
Tamara Puhovski, a sociologist, innovator, public policy junky and an open government consultant. She describes herself as a time traveler journeying back to 19th and 20th century public policy centers and trying to bring them back to the future.
Notes from the conversation:
Access to government produced open-data is critical for healthy functioning democracies. It takes an eco-system that includes a critical thinking citizenry, knowledgeable civil servants, incentivised elected officials, and smart open-data advocates. Everyone in the eco-system needs to be focused on long-term goals.- Elected officials needs incentivising beyond monetary arguments, as budgetary gains can take a long time to fruition.
- Government’s capacities to produce open-data is an issue that needs greater attention.
- We need to get past just making arguments for open-data, but be able to provide good solid stories and examples of its benefits.
Resources mentioned in the conversation:
- The Google Doc on Open Data: Concerns about opening up data, and responses which have proved effective
- From the Open Data Charter and the Transparency and Accountability Initiative: Rethinking data for accountability
- A Checklist for Open Government Beginners
- From Global Integrity: Exploring How Data Can Make A Difference: A Call for Collective Action
- Doing Anti-Corruption Differently: The New ACE Research Programme at SOAS
- On the Open Knowledge International Blog: Open data quality – the next shift in open data?
- From the GovLab: Why we should care about bad data
- White Paper from the WebFoundation: A smart web for a more equal future
- Rob Davidson’s Open Data vs Post Fact Politics Presentation
View the full online conversation:
