“Open data offers a list of potholes in a city. Open services enable citizens and Government to work together to get the potholes fixed.”
As the UK Data Strategy Board issues its recommendations on a national data strategy, David Moody, head of worldwide product strategy at KANA Inc, argues that a clear commitment to “open services” is arguably more important:
“There is a real risk that the ambit of the Data Strategy Board’s report is too narrow. Open data is, of course, hugely valuable, but also intrinsically static without adequate means to aggregate, assimilate, analyse and share. I would argue that any national data strategy needs at its core a proper strategy for the easy flow of data – what I describe as “open services”.
Open data has been a huge theme in democratic debate for several years. We now have the potential to mobilise that data as it is being formed. “Open services” make it possible for consumers to use their instrument of communication – from Twitter to SMS – to approach government, share their observations, anxieties and more – and get a helpful reply. New technology is enabling open services to knit together consumer needs and corresponding services and is set to transform the way that we are served: from day-to-day issues like bin collection or pothole repair, to matters of life and death as we have seen in the reaction of the emergency services to the Boston Marathon tragedy.
Officials say that open data will contribute to growth and innovation, and improve services. They call it a revolution. But without adequate data mobility what’s the benefit to most taxpayers?
Open data is essentially a way for governments to provide free access to piles of raw data (often in very large spreadsheets). This data might include employment figures or anti-social behaviour report numbers or new business registrations. With this raw data, entrepreneurs can create new products and services. These may or may not prove useful to the rest of us. And so what about us? What do we get?
Here’s where open services come in. Open services make open data accessible to us, the taxpayer. How? Open services allow citizens to easily access information on government-related issues they care about (as opposed to millions of data points on spreadsheets) and get it right from their Facebook or Google home pages. They might use open services to see a list of recent payments they’ve made to government agencies for their taxes or check which rubbish bin to leave out on collection day. This isn’t all. With open services people could both view and pay their outstanding tax balance directly from their online bank account. Put simply: open services make things simple and convenient for all.
What’s more, open services have been successful elsewhere. Open311 is a standardized, open-access system created by local US governments. This service puts citizens’ needs first. In San Francisco, for example, citizens can go onto their Facebook page and report a pothole seen on the street. Again, what’s the difference between open data and open services? Open data offers a list of potholes in a city, while open services allow citizens and government officials to work together to get the potholes fixed.
And here’s another benefit. Open services save governments money. At a time when austerity is forcing government to do more with less, open services encourage and make it easy for ordinary citizens to help solve problems, like by pointing out those potholes in the streets.
Recent events such as the bombings at the Boston Marathon and natural disasters such as Superstorm Sandy illustrate how the public naturally comes together in times of crisis. After the marathon, authorities requested images and videos from the race to help solve the case. People responded, and the footage they sent helped identify people behaving differently in the crowd, eventually leading authorities to the Tsanraev brothers. Open services would have helped the public provide that information much faster, as well as send information for other uses such as communicating no-go areas directly to smartphones, or pictures that emergency room medics might use to be better prepared.
With all of these obvious benefits, why is the UK government more focussed on open data than on open services? Partly it’s because it’s easier to release floods of data than it is to create integrated open systems that connect government agencies and private institutions.
Open services also create privacy concerns. Clearly this is an issue for the UK government if the recent row over privatised postcodes is any indication. Just last week it emerged that the UK government would not make publicly available the Postcode Address File (the UK’s address database) but will keep it in the hands of the Royal Mail, saying, “The government’s primary objective in relation to Royal Mail is to secure a sustainable universal postal service.”
The UK isn’t the only country dragging its feet on open services. As it turns out, few other countries have adopted Open311 as an official standard. Of course, Open311 isn’t perfect. It’s focused only on issues related to public spaces (e.g. pothole reports), but it is a move in the right direction.
While the UK government has made great strides by making data more transparent, it needs to take the next step by creating services that engage its citizens, starting with Open311.”
Article by David Moody, head of worldwide product strategy for KANA Software. KANA first developed an implementation of the Open311 standard in 2011 and, from May 2013, will launch its own open services standard called OpenCEM that goes beyond Open311 by providing access to all government services.
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