Creating an Aligned Open Data Culture
Open data initiatives that fail to gain traction and sustainability within an organisation often look, retrospectively, as if they were inevitably a waste of time and money. However, such open data initiatives are often the victim of being short-term projects with no focused leadership, often being assumed to be the remit of the IT or Communications department. To create a sustainable open data project that delivers value, a open data culture is required throughout the organisation. Key elements of a successful open data culture include:
Engagement and Buy-In:
It's vital to engage with both internal stakeholders (delivery teams and senior leadership) and external stakeholders (critics and friends) to get buy-in and support for open data strategies. This engagement helps in understanding what people want and need from the data.
The ODI conducts workshops with organizations to understand their values, strategic priorities, and existing policies. This helps in creating a tailored open data strategy that aligns with the organization's goals.
Interested in workshops? Contact the ODI
Educating and Informing
Many people still do not fully understand what open data is. Part of the process of developing an aligned open data culture involves educating stakeholders about the concepts and benefits of open data.
Read: What is open data?
Tool: The Data Skills Framework is used by organisations to inform their data literacy programmes, identify skill gaps and clarify the best places to invest in learning and capacity development.
Read: What is Data Literacy and how do we address it at the ODI?
3. Progress Over Perfection:
In order to keep momentum and learn from the experience it's wise to avoid waiting for perfect data quality or standardization before publishing data. The emphasis is on the importance of progress over perfection and the need to communicate the limitations and plans for improvement clearly.
Read: Why imperfect data can be useful to users
Working in the Open:
It's important to work in the open and being transparent about the processes and challenges involved in open data publishing. This includes communicating the steps being taken to address data quality and standardization issues.
Read: Writing a good open data policy
Strong Leadership
Part of a successful open data culture is having strong, committed and empowered leadership. A frequent reason for the failure of open data projects is that it does not have a sufficiently empowered champion in the organisation, or that it is given to someone (usually in IT or Communications) as an additional task rather than an important role with its own responsibilities.
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