Open data, a new public service

 

In mid-2018, I tried to obtain information about a series of companies and cooperatives that had accessed a certain benefit from the State for an investigation. Since I was sure that this information had to be published somewhere, I decided to search the government websites, and after confirming that it wasn’t there, I decided to call the corresponding office.

 

When I called the Directorate in charge of that program and answered various questions about why I wanted to access that information and where I was going to use it or who I worked for, the person on the other end of the phone gave me the most absurd answer I could have imagined: “I can’t give you that information because it’s public!” What did that person understand by public? I assumed that this gave me the right to consult it whenever I wanted. I correct myself, I didn’t assume, it’s something I know, since it wasn’t a state secret.

 

In this sense, Argentina, like other countries, has begun to move toward active state transparency; in our case with the approval by Congress of Law 27.275 on Access to Public Information. Quite an advance in the matter, although there is always room for improvement.

 

However, before continuing, I must ask you, have you ever wondered what open data is when we talk about governments? Have you wondered what that Law entails? In very brief words, it means, among other things, opening up state data and offering it online and actively to everyone, for free, to use as they wish.

 

However, having access to it alone is not enough. The data must be easy to understand and useful; otherwise, they are useless. To make it clearer, this is what the critical establishments identified in the Dock Sud area and the Total Polluting Agents of the Riachuelo basin look like in an Excel spreadsheet.

 

Open data from the Matanza Riachuelo Basin Authority[193]

 

Unintelligible. Right? Now, if that data is processed and presented on a map or a digital dashboard that filters, analyzes, and generates other graphics to help us easily understand the information, things change, and we can begin to investigate whatever we need or want from this dataset. Once we interpret the data, it is easier to formulate evidence-based public policies. This should be accessible to all citizens. Just as we criticize algorithms locked in a black box, modern states cannot function with black boxes, whether monetary or data. Why? Because the information is mine, yours, your friends’, your family’s, and your neighbors’. It belongs to the people. It does not belong to any political party or the current ruler, and that is why we will need civil society actors more than ever to help open and understand the contents of these boxes.

 

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[193] ACUMAR (2017). Establishments for Particular Monitoring in the Matanza Riachuelo Basin. Coordination of Inspection. Viewed on March 3, 2020, at https://datos.acumar.gob.ar/dataset/establecimientos-de-seguimiento-particular-en-la-cuenca-matanza-riachuelo.