Written evidence from Involve [OD010]

Summary
1 This is Involves submission to the Public Administration Select Committee question paper on Statistics and Open Data. We have focused our submission on the potential of open data to make public institutions more transparent, accountable and democratic. 2 Government Ministers have emphasised the importance of open data for accountability and democracy on a number of occassions. We argue that while open data does indeed have the potential to be used to support enhanced accountability and democracy, that this will only be the case if a set of conditions are in place for it to be so. 3 We argue against a perspective of open data that sees it as an intrinsically positive force for accountability and democracy. The extent to which open data is important for these ends is inextricably linked to its use, and there are significant barriers in the way of its potential being realised. 4 Therefore, if open data is to fulfil its potential for enhancing accountability and democracy, the Government needs to expand its approach from releasing data to building the necessary support for its widespread use.
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5 We draw on Tiago Peixotos (World Bank) work exploring the uncertain link between open data and transparency, adopting his Accountability Mechanism which sets out a minimal chain of events needed to ensure that the accountability element of open data functions fully. 6 We build on Peixotos framework by drawing upon our research into how and why citizens participate, offering a number of suggestions of actions the Government should consider taking to support the accountability mechanism at each stage. 7 We conclude that open data is often seen within the specific frame of transparency, but if its potential benefits of open, accountable and democratic government are to be reaped, it must also be considered within a frame of participation. As such, the Government must focus considerably more attention on supporting citizens and civil society to engage with the data it releases.

1. Introduction
1.1. This is Involves submission to the Public Administration Select Committee question paper on Statistics and Open Data. 1.2. Involve1 are experts in public participation. We believe passionately in a democracy where citizens are able to take and influence the decisions that affect their lives. Through both research and practice we seek to radically transform the relationship between citizens and their governments to better use the creativity, energy, knowledge, skills and resources of all. 1.3. Involve exists to support organisations, politicians and public officials to transform the way they engage with citizens. Since Involve was founded in 2004 we have worked closely with public organisations at a local, national and international level to transform how they engage with citizens. 1.4. Our interest in statistics and open data lies in its potential to support the opening up of government making public institutions more transparent, responsive and accountable to, and supporting the participation of citizens. Since October 2012 we have coordinated the UK Open Government Partnership civil society network2 - a loose grouping of civil society organisations working with and challenging the Government to make stretching commitments and take firm action on open government through the international Open Government Partnership.3 We have focused our submission, therefore, on the potential of open data to make public institutions more accountable and democratic, and what is needed to support such outcomes. As such, we have chosen to address the questions that best fit this perspective. 1.5. This call for evidence has come at an opportune time as we will shortly be publishing a report on the links between open data, participation and democracy. Our submission therefore summarises a number of the points that we will make in greater deal in that report.

1 2 3

www.involve.org.uk www.opengovernment.org.uk www.opengovpartnership.org

2. Why is open data important?

2.1. Government ministers, including the Prime Minister, have emphasised the importance of open data for accountability and democracy on a number of occasions. They have, for example, lauded the ability of open data to empower citizens to hold their governments to account, suggesting that open data will lead to more effective democracy:

These are the first formative years of this new Age of Open Data. And there are risks and challenges ahead. But the prize is effective personalised 21st century democracy. Transparency will create empowered citizens that can expose corruption, get the best value out of their governments and have equal access to valuable raw data. Francis
Maude (30 January 2012)4 2.2. More specifically, Ministers have spoken of their vision of an army of armchair auditors poring through government data, scrutinising the efficiency and effectiveness of services, and holding governments feet to the fire:

So were going to rip off that cloak of secrecy and extend transparency as far and as wide as possible. By bringing information out into the open, youll be able to hold government and public services to account. Youll be able to see how your taxes are being spent. Judge standards in your local schools and hospitals. Find out just how effective the police are at fighting crime in your community. Now I think thats going to do great things. Its certainly going to save us money. With a whole army of effective armchair auditors looking over the books, ministers in this government are not going to be able to get away with all the waste, the expensive vanity projects and pointless schemes that weve had in the past. David Cameron (29 May 2010)5
2.3. Open data however, as Government Ministers have stated on a number of occasions, is a resource. As such, though it is often tied to normative values of government openness and transparency, open data itself is neither intrinsically positive nor negative. As with any resource, it has the potential to be put to use (or not) for a range of different purposes.

4 5

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/news/francis-maudes-speech-world-bank http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/pms-podcast-on-transparency/

2.4. Therefore, the extent to which open data is important and for what is inextricably tied to its use. As we will set out below, the treatment of open data as an intrinsically positive force for accountability and democracy gets to the nub of the weakness of the Governments approach to the open data agenda. Open data can be important for accountability and democracy, but only if a set of conditions is in place that supports it to be so. 2.5. Evidence and experience suggest that there is indeed potential to use open data to make public institutions more transparent and accountable to citizens. The development of digital technology has created new potential to collect, distribute, manipulate and collaborate on vast datasets that before now was not possible. The potential of open data, from a democratic and accountability perspective, lies in the opportunity for citizens and civil society to be able to scrutinise and interpret government data and to combine it with their own data in order to better understand what and how government is doing, and to better influence and/or challenge the decisions it takes. As Tim Davies set out in a recent article for Sciencewise-ERC:

In a complex state, where the scale of information held inside Government grows exponentially with the rise of vast databases and digital-by-default services, access to data may be the only way for citizens to effectively exercise oversight of Government.6
2.6. The challenge of open data lies, in part, in the fact that data by itself is meaningless. To be usable and useful information for citizens and civil society to hold government to account and take part in democratic conversations, data must first be appropriately selected, contextualised, analysed and presented in a meaningful way. This requires a certain level of expertise both in analysing and manipulating data, as well as in the subject area to which the data refers knowing where to look, what to look for and what to do with it once found are essential. 2.7. Therefore, while open data has the potential to be important to accountability and democracy, there are significant barriers in the way of that potential being realised. It is apparent that open data requires some level of intermediation in order for the majority

erc.org.uk/blog/?p=1682

Davies, T (2013) Transparency and open data. http://www.sciencewise-

of citizens to be able to understand and engage with it. Media and civil society are able to play this role, to a certain extent, at a national level. However, this is not without its risks7 and it is much less clear how this is expected to happen at a local or individual level. 2.8. This is not to suggest that there are no cases of citizens and/or community groups using open data. Through our research into the links between open data, participation and democracy we have collected together a number of examples of open data being used at a community level to scrutinise and challenge government. However, these isolated examples are remarkable for their apparent rarity, as well as for the particular qualities of those involved. 2.9. Therefore, if open data is to fulfil its potential for supporting accountability and democracy, the Government needs to expand its approach from releasing data to building the necessary support for its widespread use.

3. What should the Governments aims be for the release of open data?
3.1. The Government has placed significant emphasis on getting the data out. However, if open data is to fulfil its accountability and democratic potential, the government must broaden its focus from the release of open data, to supporting citizens and community groups to engage with it. 3.2. There appear to be two rationales from government ministers for this focus. On the one hand, there is concern from Ministers to get data out as quickly as possible for fear that the system will stiffen and start to resist the open data agenda. The extent to which this is a valid argument is debatable. An alternative perspective would be that failure to develop the demand side for open data leaves the agenda much more open to retrenchment. 3.3. On the other hand, Ministers appear to suggest that getting the data out will be a sufficient condition for its widespread use by citizens and civil society:

The need to contextualise data creates the potential for it to be misused by persons looking to

support a particular point of view.

The simple task of putting spending online will open the doors to an army of armchair auditors who will be able to see at a glance exactly where millions of pounds spent last year went. The public and the press can go through the books and hold Ministers to account for how taxpayers money is being spent. (Eric Pickles, 12 August 2010)8
3.4. As we set out in the previous section, this has certainly not been the case to date. Rather, the literature on the links between open data and accountability, and our previous research into what is needed for individuals to participate, suggest the need for a much more developed and rounded approach. The release of data is just the first step in a chain of events that is needed to move from open data to enhanced accountability and democracy. 3.5. In an article titled The Uncertain Relationship between Open Data and Accountability,9 Tiago Peixoto (based at the World Bank) sets out a series of steps that need to be taken to ensure that the accountability element of open data functions fully. Peixoto builds on the propositions of Yu and Robinson in their article 'The New Ambiguity of Open Government'10 by arguing that participatory mechanisms must be built into the accountability mechanism when opening up data. 3.6. Peixotos accountability mechanism argues that for open data to lead to accountability requires a minimal chain of events:

1. Governmental information is disclosed; 2. The disclosed information reaches its intended public; 3. Members of the public are able to process the disclosed information and react to it; 4. Public officials respond to the publics reaction or are sanctioned by the public through institutional means.

to Yu and Robinsons The New Ambiguity of Open Government. 60 UCLA Law Review Discourse

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/eric-pickles-shows-us-the-money-asdepartmental-books-are-opened-to-an-army-of-armchair-auditors 9 Peixoto, T. (2013) The uncertain relationship between open data and accountability: A response

200: http://www.uclalawreview.org/?p=4497
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Review Discourse 178: http://www.uclalawreview.org/?p=3663

Yu, H & Robinson, D.G. (2012) The New Ambiguity of Open Government. 59 UCLA Law

3.7. The first of these events Government information is disclosed is the getting the data out step. Here Government must strike a balance, as it chooses where to focus resources, between the quantity and quality of datasets. We will not focus our attention here, but we should acknowledge that the setting up of open data user groups has been a positive step by government in determining priorities for disclosure. The Government should build on this by developing further opportunities for citizens and civil society to influence which datasets are prioritised for disclosure. 3.8. The second event The disclosed information reaches its intended public acknowledges that simply publishing data is not an adequate means of ensuring that it reaches its intended audience. Peixoto notes that scholars define the publicity condition as the extent to which disclosed information actually reaches and resonates with its

intended audiences.
3.9. First, in order for open data to resonate with citizens and community groups, our research into how and why people participate suggests that it must be clearly applicable to an individuals personal motivations.11 However, the evidence suggests that the public currently do not understand how open data applies to them or what they care about; research into public awareness of open data has found that awareness is low in part because open data is perceived as an abstract issue, with unclear benefits to everyday life.12 Open data needs to become a readily accessible resource to which individuals and community groups automatically turn in order to support their participation. For this to happen, both Government and civil society need to demonstrate the benefits and efficacy of open data. 3.10. Second, in order for open data to reach citizens it needs to be available in the places they already participate and interact with government. Engage where people are has become a mantra for many public participation experts after numerous failed attempts at the Field of Dreams build it and they will come approach. Likewise it

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through participation: What creates and sustains active citizenship? London: NCVO, IVR & Involve.
www.pathwaysthroughparticipation.org.uk
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Brodie, E; Hughes, T; Jochum, V; Miller, S; Ockenden, N; & Warburton, D. (2011) Pathways

http://www.sciencewise-erc.org.uk/cms/public-views-on-open-data/

Sciencewise-ERC (2013) Public views on open data. Harwell: Sciencewise-ERC

needs to become a mantra for the open data movement. While the use of open data repositories, such as data.gov.uk, makes considerable sense for disclosing large quantities of data to data experts, they are unlikely to be visited by the average citizen. There is, however, the potential for government and civil society to get information to citizens in the places that they already visit be it online (e.g. paying for their TV license) or offline (e.g. in a GP surgery waiting room). Whether or not individuals feel inclined at the time to use that data, gradually increasing the degree of familiarity with data how it might be used and its potential usefulness may encourage individuals to access and use it when an issue resonates with them. 3.11. The third event in the accountability mechanism Members of the public are able

to process the disclosed information and react to it emphasises the need for citizens
to be able to interact with open data. Our research into how and why individuals participate identified the importance of an individuals resources, including their skills, expertise and confidence; their social networks, both personal and professional; and the local groups and organisations in their communities to if and how they participate.13 3.12. The Government should consider where it has the potential to influence the development of these supporting conditions. This could include exploring with civil society actors ways of: Building data skills through formal education perhaps creating links to real world issues and concepts of citizenship so students can recognise the potential value of data to causes that matter to them. Supporting local civil society organisations to develop data expertise. Bringing together existing expertise in data with the motivations and passions of citizens (building on and scaling up the BarCamp model). Supporting the development of hyper local media and social reporting.

3.13. Finally, the fourth event in the accountability mechanism Public officials respond

to the publics reaction or are sanctioned by the public through institutional means

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through participation: What creates and sustains active citizenship? London: NCVO, IVR & Involve.
www.pathwaysthroughparticipation.org.uk

Brodie, E; Hughes, T; Jochum, V; Miller, S; Ockenden, N; & Warburton, D. (2011) Pathways

emphasises that there must exist a system through which citizens can sanction, reward and/or collaborate with public officials based on their use of the data. 3.14. A group at the UKGovCamp 2012, led by Tim Davies, co-director of Practical Participation, and open data research coordinator at the Web Foundation, developed the five stars of open data engagement as a set of guidelines for government bodies and other organisations in how best to publish data in order that citizens can fully engage with it. The scale is underpinned by the belief that a commitment to open data by government should mean that information and data resources are made accessible to

all without discrimination and should ensure that information and data can be used in a wide range of ways.
3.15. The five stars of open data engagement are as follows:14

One star: Be demand driven

Are your choices about the data you release, how it is structured, and the tools and support provided around it based on community needs and demands? Have you got ways of listening to peoples requests for data, and responding with open data?

Two stars: Provide context

Do you provide clear information to describe the data you provide, including information about frequency of updates, data formats and data quality? Do you include the qualitative information alongside datasets such as details of how the data was created, or manuals for working with the data? Do you link from data catalogue pages to analysis of the data that your organisation, or third-parties, have already carried out with it, or to third-party tools for working with the data?

Three stars: Support conversation

Can people comment on datasets, or create a structured conversation around data to network with other data users? Do you join the conversations?

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http://www.timdavies.org.uk/2012/01/21/5-stars-of-open-data-engagement/

Davies, T. (2012) 5-Stars of Open Data Engagement?

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Are there easy ways to contact the individual data owner in your organisation to ask them questions about the data, or to get them to join the conversation? Are there offline opportunities to have conversations that involve your data? Do you provide or link to tools for people to work with your datasets? Do you provide or link to How To guidance on using open data analysis tools, so people can build their capacity and skills to interpret and use data in the ways they want to?

Four stars: Build capacity & skills

Do you go out into the community to run skill-building sessions on using data in particular ways, or using particular datasets? Do you sponsor or engage with capacity building to help the community work with open data?

Five stars: Collaborate with the community

Do you have feedback loops so people can help you improve your datasets? Do you collaborate with the community to create new data resources (e.g. derived datasets)? Do you broker or provide support to people to build and sustain useful tools and services that work with your data? Do you work with other organisations to connect up your data sources?

3.16. The Government should adopt and build on this scale to support the development of the demand side of open data, alongside the development of the supply side. In addition, it should explore opportunities for linking up open data with existing consultation and engagement channels and exercises, as well as developing new mechanisms through which citizens can communicate and collaborate with policy makers. 3.17. To conclude, open data is often seen within the specific frame of transparency. However, if its potential benefits of open, accountable and democratic government are to be reaped, it must also be considered within a frame of participation. As such, the Government must focus considerably more attention on supporting citizens and civil society to engage with the data it releases. September 2013

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