Open data is all the rage these days, but is simply opening up aggregate public information for outside analysis enough to change the world for the better? A new article by Mike Gurstein, Editor of the influential Journal of Community Informatics, argues that open data may merely make the rich richer and the poor poorer, unless the "open access" paradigm is extended with what he calls "effective use." Here at ReadWriteWeb, we often write about the potential for innovation created by aggregate online and public data. Leading technology publisher Tim O'Reilly is a big, open data proponent as well (his newest conference is all about big data), but he called Gurstein's article a "sobering account of how open data is used against the poor..." "We need to think deeply about the future," O'Reilly said this afternoon.
This is an important read, and an important article to comb through for references out to other journals and other texts; this is a well established pattern of "capitalism;" we're touching on the capitalist modus operandi here. Very important. See also:
Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide
,
Toward Digital Equity: Bridging the Divide in Education
