Briefing paper: What is open data and why does it matter?
Open data that can be freely used, re-used, and redistributed, has the potential to drive innovative solutions to some of Scotland’s biggest challenges. An open data culture leads to improved government, economic growth, insight, and a more participatory democracy. However, despite the benefits demonstrated by those leading the way in open data, Scotland is moving at a glacial pace and the gap with other countries is widening.
In 2015, the Scottish Government launched its Open Data Strategy which set out its vision that, by 2020, Scotland will value data and responsibly make use of it in order to improve public services and deliver wider societal and economic benefits for all.
Since 2015, Scotland’s data has been ‘open by default’ but progress remains slow and over half of councils still make no open data provision. Although the Scottish Government permits the reuse of core website content, 30 of the 32 local councils do not. Our briefing paper indicates that over 95% of the data that could and should be open is still locked up, at an estimated annual cost to the Scottish economy of just over £2bn.
Globally, governments and political unions, including the EU, prioritised actions which in many cases overtake Scotland’s progress in the delivery of Open Government data plans. This includes creative use of open data from countries including Kenya, Romania, Mexico, Honduras, Paraguay and Uruguay. Urgent action is needed to ensure Scotland doesn’t miss out.
Our briefing paper, published in partnership with Open Data Scotland by lead author Ian Watt, calls for a number of specific actions from national and local government, as well as large institutions such as the NHS and Scottish Universities, to address the issue including:
Scottish Government adopting open data as a core part of their digital strategy with appropriate resource
Creation of a national open data portal
Development of common open data publishing standards for Scotland
Working together with UK Government and commercial partners to accelerate superfast broadband provision as called for in DHI’s previously published paper on Levelling up high speed broadband