Open data as an anticorruption tool? Using distributed cognition to understand breakdowns in the creation of transparency data

One of the drivers for pushing for open data as a form of corruption control stems from the belief that in making government operations more transparent, it would be possible to hold public officials accountable for how public resources are spent. These large datasets would then be open to the public for scrutiny and analysis, resulting in lower levels of corruption. Though data quality has been largely studied and many advancements have been made, it has not been extensively applied to open data, with some aspects of data quality receiving more attention than others. One key aspect however—accuracy—seems to have been overlooked. This gap resulted in our inquiry: how is accurate open data produced and how might breakdowns in this process introduce opportunities for corruption? We study a government agency situated within the Brazilian Federal Government in order to understand in what ways is accuracy compromised. Adopting a distributed cognition (DCog) theoretical framework, we found that the production of open data is not a neutral activity, instead it is a distributed process performed by individuals and artifacts. This distributed cognitive process creates opportunities for data to be concealed and misrepresented. Two models mapping data production were generated, the combination of which provided an insight into how cognitive processes are distributed, how data flow, are transformed, stored, and processed, and what instances provide opportunities for data inaccuracies and misrepresentations to occur. The results obtained have the potential to aid policymakers in improving data accuracy

Gobierno abierto y el acceso a la información pública de la Municipalidad Provincial del Santa, 2021

El objetivo fue determinar la relación que existe entre el Gobierno abierto y el acceso a la información pública de la Municipalidad Provincial del Santa, 2021. La investigación es de tipo básica, enfoque cuantitativo, alcance correlacional y transversal. Se trabajó con una población de 135 servidores públicos, obteniéndose una muestra de 101, aplicando el muestreo aleatorio simple. Se aplicó como instrumento el cuestionario para cada variable, se elaboraron 20 preguntas en cada uno de ellos. En relación con los resultados se obtuvo que los servidores públicos consideran que las dimensiones del gobierno abierto son en promedio alto. Las dimensiones transparencia normativa, participación ciudadana, tecnología e innovación tienen un nivel alto del 92.1%, 93.1%, 81.2% y del 87.1%. Al igual que las dimensiones de acceso a la información pública. Se concluye que el gobierno abierto tiene una relación directa y significativa en el acceso de la información pública en la Municipalidad Provincial del Santa, 2021 (Rho de Pearson = ,731; p < 0.05) al indicar que a mayor gobierno abierto los procesos son los óptimos para lograr el acceso a la información pública, en tiempo real en beneficio de los usuarios

Avoin data ja PSI-direktiivi julkisuuden toteuttajina

Tutkielman tarkoituksena on selventää julkisen sektorin hallussa olevien tietovarantojen avaamista julkiseen käyttöön sekä käydä läpi siihen liittyvää lainsäädäntöä. Tutkimusmetodina tutkielmassa käytetään oikeusdogmaattista tutkimustapaa, joka keskittyy tarkastelemaan voimassa olevan lainsäädännön tilaa. Kansallisella tasolla tärkein tutkielmaan liittyvä säädös on laki viranomaisten toiminnan julkisuudesta, jonka kehitysvaiheita kuvataan tutkielmassa. EU-oikeuden tasolla julkisen sektorin tietovarantojen avaamisesta uudelleenkäyttöön säädetään PSI-direktiivissä, joka yhdenmukaistaa ja ohjaa jäsenvaltioiden tietovarantojen avaamista. Kyseistä direktiiviä uudistettiin vuonna 2013. Tutkielmassa käydään läpi kattavasti tietovarantojen avaamiseen liittyviä käsitteitä sekä julkisuuslainsäädännön historiaa. Lisäksi tutkielmassa keskitytään julkisen sektorin toimintaa ohjaavaan julkisuusperiaatteeseen ja sen toteuttamismuotoihin. Julkisten tietovarantojen avaamiseen liittyy useita oikeudellisia kysymyksiä, jotka täytyy ottaa huomioon tietovarantoja avatessa. Esimerkiksi tekijänoikeuksiin ja henkilötietojen suojaan liittyy ongelmakohtia, jotka vaikuttavat julkisen sektorin tietovarantojen avaamiseen ja uudelleenkäyttöön. Tutkielmassa perehdytään myös kansalliseen avoimen tiedon politiikkaan sekä kuvataan julkisen sektorin tietojen avaamisen kehitystä. Tutkielman johtopäätöksenä voidaan pitää sitä, että vaikka julkisen sektorin tietovarantojen avaamisessa on edistytty paljon, ei vielä olla kuitenkaan PSI-direktiivin vaatimalla tasolla. Tietovarantojen avaamisesta sekä tietojen uudelleenkäytöstä tulisi tehdä lainsäädännön uudistamisella ja muiden toimenpiteiden avulla helpompaa, esimerkiksi yhtenäistämällä datan lisensointia ja tukemalla avoimen tiedon politiikkaa

Strategies and Approaches for Exploiting the Value of Open Data

Data is increasingly permeating into all dimensions of our society and has become an indispensable commodity that serves as a basis for many products and services. Traditional sectors, such as health, transport, retail, are all benefiting from digital developments. In recent years, governments have also started to participate in the open data venture, usually with the motivation of increasing transparency. In fact, governments are one of the largest producers and collectors of data in many different domains. As the increasing amount of open data and open government data initiatives show, it is becoming more and more vital to identify the means and methods how to exploit the value of this data that ultimately affects various dimensions. In this thesis we therefore focus on researching how open data can be exploited to its highest value potential, and how we can enable stakeholders to create value upon data accordingly. Albeit the radical advances in technology enabling data and knowledge sharing, and the lowering of barriers to information access, raw data was given only recently the attention and relevance it merits. Moreover, even though the publishing of data is increasing at an enormously fast rate, there are many challenges that hinder its exploitation and consumption. Technical issues hinder the re-use of data, whilst policy, economic, organisational and cultural issues hinder entities from participating or collaborating in open data initiatives. Our focus is thus to contribute to the topic by researching current approaches towards the use of open data. We explore methods for creating value upon open (government) data, and identify the strengths and weaknesses that subsequently influence the success of an open data initiative. This research then acts as a baseline for the value creation guidelines, methodologies, and approaches that we propose. Our contribution is based on the premise that if stakeholders are provided with adequate means and models to follow, then they will be encouraged to create value and exploit data products. Our subsequent contribution in this thesis therefore enables stakeholders to easily access and consume open data, as the first step towards creating value. Thereafter we proceed to identify and model the various value creation processes through the definition of a Data Value Network, and also provide a concrete implementation that allows stakeholders to create value. Ultimately, by creating value on data products, stakeholders participate in the global data economy and impact not only the economic dimension, but also other dimensions including technical, societal and political

Uno strumento di supporto all’analisi e visualizzazione di dati strutturati nel contesto giuridico

La dissertazione ha l’obiettivo di verificare la tesi secondo cui la semplificazione delle attività di archiviazione e recupero dei documenti giuridici nello standard più appropriato supporta meccanismi di Data Analysis e favorisce lo sviluppo di strumenti per la Data Visualization. L’ambito riguardante l’analisi dei documenti giuridici è sempre più rilevante sia per il valore sociale ed economico che può emergere da tali documenti, sia per l’incremento delle quantità di dati disponibile e accessibili attraverso la rete e in particolare mediante le fonti ufficiali di produzione del diritto quali le gazzette. Questo contesto applicativo è strettamente collegato agli standard XML, i quali permettono ai documenti di essere processati tramite gli elaboratori. Uno standard XML adatto al contesto della Data Analysis è Akoma Ntoso che si differenzia da altri per il carattere universale e per la ricchezza semantica capace di catturare e modellare la conoscenza giuridica. Per la verifica della tesi iniziale sono presentati due strumenti che si basano sullo standard Akoma Ntoso: SOFIA, dashboard in cui sono definite alcune analisi su collezioni di documenti Akoma Ntoso e che consente la rappresentazione grafica dei risultati ottenuti; akomando-db, libreria JavaScript utilizzabile tramite API e CLI per la gestione delle fasi di archiviazione e di recupero dei documenti Akoma Ntoso. Infine viene presentata una valutazione qualitativa riguardante la complessità dello sviluppo di SOFIA con e senza l’ausilio di akomando-db

Society trapped in the network : does it have a future?

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Open Government Data Licensing Framework: An Informal Ontology for Supporting Mashup

Objectives of the thesis are –1) to identify the legal problems coming from mashups of Open Govern-ment Data (OGD) and 2) to purpose an informal ontology to help technical reusers of Public Sector Informa-tion to utilize datasets according to their intended purpose and in compliance with the legal obligations that govern the rights to reuse the data. A survey of national OGD portals found that the majority of OGD are released under inappropriate li-censes, not fully complying with the legal rules that apply to the reuse of the data. Open Government Data can be released and covered by multiple licensing regimes, up to 33 in a single country. We have analysed the European Union (EU) legal framework of reuse of Public Sector Information (PSI), the EU Database Directive and copyright framework and other legal sources (e.g., licenses, legal notices, and terms of use) that can apply to open government Datasets. From this deep analysis we have modelled several major concepts in an Informal Ontology of Open Government Data Licenses Framework for a Mash-up Model (iOGDL4M). The iOGDL4M will be used for qualifying datasets in order to improve the accuracy of their legal anno-tation. The iOGDL4M also aims to connect each applicable legal rule to official legal texts in order to direct legal experts and reusers to primary sources. This research aims to present 1) a legal analysis of OGD regulation in the European Union and its mem-ber states; 2) the Survey of National Open Government Data Portals and analysis of the most commonly applied licenses and legal notices and their compatibility; and 3) the Informal Ontology of Open Govern-ment Data Licenses Framework for a Mash-up Model. This thesis is comprised of 4 publications. It consists of presentation of the research, the publications, and annexes that support the research

Lawyers in the media society : the legal challenges of the media society

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Open Government Data Licensing Framework: An Informal Ontology for Supporting Mashup

Objectives of the thesis are –1) to identify the legal problems coming from mashups of Open Government Data (OGD) and 2) to purpose an informal ontology to help technical reusers of Public Sector Information to utilize datasets according to their intended purpose and in compliance with the legal obligations that govern the rights to reuse the data. A survey of national OGD portals found that the majority of OGD are released under inappropriate licenses, not fully complying with the legal rules that apply to the reuse of the data. Open Government Data can be released and covered by multiple licensing regimes, up to 33 in a single country. We have analysed the European Union (EU) legal framework of reuse of Public Sector Information (PSI), the EU Database Directive and copyright framework and other legal sources (e.g., licenses, legal notices, and terms of use) that can apply to open government Datasets. From this deep analysis we have modelled several major concepts in an Informal Ontology of Open Government Data Licenses Framework for a Mash-up Model (iOGDL4M). The iOGDL4M will be used for qualifying datasets in order to improve the accuracy of their legal annotation. The iOGDL4M also aims to connect each applicable legal rule to official legal texts in order to direct legal experts and reusers to primary sources

Data society. Data governance and rights protection in the digital age

I dati formano il nostro “io” digitale e costituiscono il fondamento di ogni attività umana. Il governo della data society passa dal governo dei dati e il diritto è chiamato a disciplinare i volti assunti dai dati, dalle informazioni e dalla conoscenza nella contemporaneità e a tutelare i diritti coinvolti. In una realtà caratterizzata da amministrazioni aperte e cittadinanza digitale, il lavoro mira ad esaminare gli strumenti di conoscenza relativi alle diverse configurazioni dei dati, identificate nei closed data e nei relativi volti della trasparenza (proattiva e reattiva), negli open data e nei big data. L’analisi degli strumenti di conoscenza permette di comprendere le questioni che si pongono al diritto: le connessioni intricate di dati rivelano connessioni intricate di diritti, da bilanciare al fine di tutelare la persona e la società democratica. Il lavoro esamina la disciplina e le problematiche dei diritti maggiormente coinvolti nella data governance, in specifico right to know, identità, oblio, diritto d’autore e protezione dei dati personali, alla ricerca del bilanciamento tra gli stessi nelle diverse configurazioni assunte dai dati. In conclusione il lavoro arriva a suggerire un bilanciamento tra diritti nel governo dei dati basato sulla centralità della persona, in particolare sulla dignità e sullo sviluppo della stessa. La tutela dei diritti può basarsi su un approccio preventivo e tecnologico by default e by design e sull’accountability dei soggetti, immaginando soluzioni capaci di innovare i paradigmi tradizionali e minimizzare i rischi di asimmetria, controllo e sorveglianza, come gli open big data e forme di tutela collettiva; il rinnovamento del diritto passa da una costruzione di matrice globale e multistakeholder ed è guidato da un approccio etico. Il ruolo del diritto e la forza dei diritti sono necessari al governo della data society e alla tutela della persona nell’era digitale: ubi data society, ibi ius.The data form our digital self and constitute the foundation of every human activity. The government of data society passes from data governance and the law is called upon to regulate the faces assumed by data, information and knowledge in contemporary society and to protect the involved rights. In a reality characterized by open administrations and digital citizenship, this work aims to examine the tools of knowledge related to the different data configurations, identified in closed data and in the related faces of disclosure (proactive and reactive), in open data and in big data. The analysis of the tools of knowledge makes it possible to understand the issues that arise in law: the intricate connections of data reveal intricate connections of rights, which must be balanced in order to protect the individual and the democratic society. This work examines the discipline and the issues of the rights most involved in data governance, specifically right to know, identity, right to be forgotten, copyright and data protection. In conclusion, the work suggests a balance between rights in data governance based on the central role of the individual, in particular on the dignity and the development of the individual himself. The protection of the rights can be based on a preventive and technological approach by default and by design and on the accountability of the subjects, imagining solutions capable of minimizing the risks of asymmetry, control and surveillance, such as open big data and forms of collective protection; the renewal of law is based on a global and multistakeholder construction that is guided by an ethical approach. The role of law and the force of rights are necessary for the governance of data society and for the protection of the individual in the digital age: ubi data society, ibi ius