Fire Alarms Systems

One of the important achievements of the movement of open government in recent years has been an extension of the consultation. When, before coming from the external input of interest groups and lobbyists in the industry today, the general public in many countries are invited to give their opinions on a wide range of policy proposals . But this is a facade?

is what Chris Taggart, founder and co-founder of the site OpenCorporates OpenlyLocal British local government, he asked recently as he prepared to attend a workshop on the British government about Open Data:

Yesterday I received an email from a server Cabinet Office civil to a future workshop on the revision of the growth of open data, and asked him:

"An estimate of the impact of Open Data in general or a specific set of data on economic growth in the UK ... an estimated economic impact of open data in your company (for such as the time in terms of increased sales or the number of new jobs) open data or a set of specific data and possibly the UK economy as a whole "

The answer to my

"How many economists, I can ask the Treasury to help me answer these questions? Seriously. " Because that's the point. As the consultation false information public company refuses to allow the issue of governance to deal with, it feels a bit like a high point. Who , other economists, or large companies and organizations that employ economists, has the ability, tools, or the ability to answer questions like that.

Taggart

issue exposes rhetoric continued through open consultations in which seems to require precise answers: only large companies with the people or resources to implement these issues are taken seriously This means that the views of the general public, once again reduced.

In fact, it's worse than that, since the actual number produced by large companies - especially those with an interest in the preservation of obsolete laws of copyright, for example - are revealed often have a real basis in fact, that the accounts showed many previous Techdirt. Large organizations can use their size to give an air of credibility to the view that perhaps a little better than some of these return calculations.

Recognizing this reality, Taggart decided to fight fire with fire, producing their own estimates, which were more or less written on the back of an envelope. He also deftly turned the question around, the calculation is not

positive
impact
open data - and therefore something hypothetical, very difficult to estimate - but the observed
negative

data impacts closed.
See more about : [open][Techdirt]