This was presented by Maria Zuffova from the University of Strathclyde, at the Impacts of Civic Technology Conference (TICTeC2016) in Barcelona on 27th April. You can find out more information about the conference here: https://www.mysociety.org/research/tictec-2016/

1. Limiting freedom of information but
opening government datasets:
A fair exchange?
Mária Žuffová
maria.zuffova@strath.ac.uk
@mariazuffova
THE IMPACTS OF CIVIC TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE

2. OPEN GOV DATA VS. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
§ access
Marcello Graciolli (CC BY 2.0)
§ (e-)skills
Adam Fagen (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
§ state of political rights
and civil liberties
Mondspeer (CC0 1.0)
§ info structure & character
Karolina van Schrojenstein (CC BY 2.0)

3. RHETORIC VS. REALITY: OGD VS. FOI IN THE UK
Speeches by the Cabinet Office
§ search for ‘open data’ speeches on Gov.uk until 17th July
2015 (FOI Commission launched): 399 speeches
§ 22 speeches relevant
§ main message: UK as the most transparent and open
government
§ key words: transparency (217), openness (168),
accountability (46), responsiveness (8), access (31),
freedom of information (5), right to data (8)
Open Data White Paper - Unleashing the Potential
§ key words: transparency (96), openness (38),
accountability (5), responsiveness (0), access (87),
freedom of information (8), right to data (3), scrutiny (3)

4. Francis Maude’s speech at the Institute for Government on 11 December 2014
Excerpt taken from GOV.UK (Open Government Licence v3.0)
FROM OFFICIAL SPEECHES: OGD VS. FOI

5. Francis Maude’s speech at the Institute for Government on 11 December 2014
Excerpt taken from GOV.UK (Open Government Licence v3.0)
FROM OFFICIAL SPEECHES: OGD VS. FOI

6. Francis Maude’s speech at the OGP meeting in Dublin on 8 May 2014
Excerpt taken from GOV.UK (Open Government Licence v3.0)
FROM OFFICIAL SPEECHES: OGD VS. FOI

7. Francis Maude’s speech to FT Innovate on 6 Nov 2012
Excerpt taken from GOV.UK (Open Government Licence v3.0)
FROM OFFICIAL SPEECHES: OGD VS. FOI

8. ACCESS MATTERS

9. AVAILABILITY MATTERS
69 cities in the UK
§ still 27 of them does
not publish any
local government
information as
open data either on
their own local portal
or on the national
open government
data portal
DATA.GOV.UK
OGD VS. FOI IN THE UK CITIES

10. PRESS FREEDOM AND OPEN GOV DATA
CORRELATING INDICES
Press Freedom Index (FH)
§ Range: 0 – 100 (0 most free, 100 least free)
0 – 30 free media
31 – 60 partly free media
61 – 100 least free media
Open Data Index (OKFN)
§ Range: 0 – 100
(0 – no datasets available, 100 – all datasets
available)

11. PRESS FREEDOM AND OPEN GOV DATA

12. PRESS FREEDOM AND OPEN SPENDING DATA

13. PRESS FREEDOM MATTERS
From upper left: The Guardian, Committee to Protect Journalists, ibid, The Guardian, Vice News

14. CASE
STUDY:
OGD
VS.
FOI
IN
GLASGOW
Francis Maude’s speech at the Open Data Champions Event on 24 March 2015
Excerpt taken from GOV.UK (Open Government Licence v3.0)
CHARACTER OF INFORMATION MATTERS

15. CASE
STUDY:
OGD
VS.
FOI
IN
GLASGOW
CHARACTER OF INFORMATION MATTERS
No action for over a year
Screenshot from Data.glasgow.gov.uk, 20th April 2016

16. Information made available on
Data.glasgow.gov.uk
(373 published datasets)
§ Health care info & statistics
(50+)
§ Environment & energy
consumption info (50+)
§ Population statistics (50+)
§ Transport (40+)
§ Housing (20+)
§ Education (20+)
§ Commonwealth games (15+)
§ Cycling (10+)
Information sought through FOI
requests submitted to WDTK
(723 submitted FOI requests)
§ Local gov spending data (100+)
§ Transport (60+)
§ Education (50+)
§ Documents (40+)
§ Social care services (40+)
§ Housing (20+)
§ Local gov owned properties and
land (20+)
§ Waste (15+)
§ Surveillance and security (15+)
§ Urban planning (15+)
CHARACTER OF INFORMATION MATTERS

17. § OGD and FOI appeal to different users
‘Statistical techniques are often used for the collection, analysis,
interpretation and presentation of data. Yet statistical knowledge
is scarce’ (Janssen, Charalabidis, and Zuiderwijk, 2012).
§ OGD and FOI do not exist in a political vacuum
‘Government can provide open data on politically neutral topics
even as it remains deeply opaque and unaccountable’ (Yu and
Robinson 2012).
§ OGD and FOI do not deliver same outcomes
Open data provides information, FOI enables to seek
information.
CONCLUSIONS

18. • Identical FOI requests submitted to 69 UK cities
BONUS SLIDE: EXPERIMENT
Result WDTK E-mail
Full disclosure 12 15
Partial
disclosure
12 7
Information
withheld
0 2
Administrative
silence
4 7

19. Cabinet Office. (2014). Francis Maude’s speech at the Institute for Government on 11 December
2014. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/francis-maude-speech-on-open-
data-and-transparency
Cabinet Office. (2014). Francis Maude’s speech at the OGP meeting in Dublin on 8 May 2014.
Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/francis-maude-at-an-open-government-
partnership-meeting-in-dublin
Cabinet Office. (2015). Francis Maude’s speech at the Open Data Champions Event on 24 March
2015. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/open-data-champions-event-
francis-maude-speech
Cabinet Office. (2012) Francis Maude’s speech to FT Innovate on 6 Nov 2012. Available at: https://
www.gov.uk/government/speeches/francis-maude-speech-to-ft-innovate-conference
Cabinet Office. (2012), Open Data White Paper: Unleashing the Potential. Available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-data-white-paper-unleashing-the-potential
Janssen, M., Charalabidis, Y. and Zuiderwijk, A. (2012). ‘Benefits, Adoption Barriers and Myths of
Open Data and Open Government’. Information Systems Management, [e-journal], 29:4,
258-268.
www.gov.uk
www.data.glasgow.gov.uk
www.whatdotheyknow.com
Yu, H., Robinson, D. H. (2012). ‘The New Ambiguity of “Open Government”’. UCLA Law Review, 59:
178 - 208. Available at: http://www.uclalawreview.org/the-new-ambiguity-of-
%E2%80%9Copen-government%E2%80%9D/
REFERENCES