Communicating the value of open data to donors

by Elizabeth Corley

At last week’s unconference I led a discussion on the topic of communicating the value of open data and standards to donors. Here are some of the key issues we discussed.

1. What is open development? Our definition was an attempt to make information about the development process open and transparent for all those who care about it and deal with it, including donors, recipients, taxpayers, regulators, practitioners, and academics. One desired end result is to create a feedback loop.

2. Data sharing should be part of the planning process. It must be considered at the inception to allow for easy sharing. There is a value in unstructured data, before it is assembled into a written document. Projects could be designed with shorter, smaller reports that include leading and lagging indicators.

3. It is incumbent on the implementers of a project to share data. One example of best practice here is the AMREF project in Katine, Uganda. In partnership with Barclays Bank and the Guardian, AMREF allows public scrutiny of its ongoing project.

After our session, the subject of communicating the value of open data and standards come up in conversation with Owen Barder of aidinfo. How do you show donors the possibility of how the data can be used (when sometimes we don’t even know)? He pointed to an example of a new technology sited in an article titled "Web Squared" by Tim O’Reilly and John Battelle.

Imagine if you had a device that could give you information about what was around you. Let’s say you walk by a school in Cambodia. You point the device at a building and on the screen appears the names of donors who funded the construction of the school or the provision of text books. Nice credit for the donors.

But imagine the school is in ruins and the device tells you how much money has been poured into it. Who would want to be associated with failure? This topic also came up in our session and it is one of culture. In some sectors, such as technology, failed enterprises means you have learned a lot. In development, particularly in Washington, we avoid public exposure and the risk of public failure. Maybe that is why we are willing to release data to the taxpayers—but only after the report has been vetted, polished, and refined for public consumption.