Open Data Use and Why it Matters

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Screenshot of the Gun Map
Programmers explain how to turn data into journalism & why that matters | Poynter.

Transparency does have limits. That is a policy issue that a PSA must work through. In my particular open data initiative, we have laid out several principles regarding security and privacy. I brought this up on a Linkedin post a few weeks ago and this was part of my question to +Alex Howard about #opendata and #journalism.

The now infamous "gun map" that identified by name registered gun owners is a good example of how not to use open data. This, I know, was not a PSA that published this data. It was a newspaper. However, I feel open data and big data evangelists need to start having a discussion about the right to privacy and our ethical boundaries. The gun map, as an example, would have been just as effective as a heat up of gun ownership density.

The article "Programmers explain how to turn data into journalism & why that matters" by Jeff Sonderman referenced at the top of this entry goes into journalism ethics, why the gun map matters and the difference between data dumping and journalism.



Journalists are not PSAs and have a different set of ethics to consider than do PSAs. Those of us that work in PSA need to start having the ethical discussions journalists are having. How does a transparency driven open data initiative balance open data sets with the need for a citizen's right to privacy? I have read that many open data initiatives are driven by releasing FOIA data. This, in my opinion, is not transparency and is an ethical gray area. FOIA information does contain personally identifiable information and does not need to be part of an open data set.


Fortunately, most open data initiatives seem to be concentrating on data aggregations and visualizations and not just dumping data for the sake of saying "we did it".

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