Now more than ever, the future is open

In September 2018, a new edition of the International Open Data Conference (IODC) took place in Buenos Aires, the global event that probably has the highest influence in determining the future of public open data policies worldwide and whose last edition was held in Spain a couple of years ago.

During a whole week more than 1,500 participants from 85 different countries met in Argentina to participate in 20 events and more than 70 sessions with 200 speakers, all of them sharing experiences and debating the future of data opening under the slogan "The Future is Open”. In fact, the motto chosen this year played on purpose with the double meaning: on the one hand with the conviction about the need to continue driving openness, while on the other hand it demonstrate the need for a debate on the future of the open data community itself. And this is the year of the tenth anniversary since the principles that guide the opening of government data and marked the beginning of open data movement in governments were developed. However, this apparent environment of uncertainty is just a natural part of the evolution cycle of all trends related to new technologies that have reached their peak of expectations, and to a large extent promoted by both the maturity of the sector and the new scenarios and open debates around privacy management and the ethical use of data. The debate throughout the week was divided into two main thematic areas:

1. On the one hand, an extensive review on how social pressure, political climate and technological change have influenced the trajectory of open data during this decade.
2. At the same time, the debate also focused on the new challenges that appear on the horizon, such as the quality and usability of the available data.

In general, it could be considered that the field of open data has matured and now presents some of the aspects that are necessary to ensure long-term sustainability. Obvious progress has been made in terms of community building, development of standards and policies, definition of new standards and, above all, in terms of the availability of data and its use across a wide spectrum of sectors. However, there are still several aspects to be improved:

1. Organizations that promote data opening should develop new capacities to respond to the new ethical challenges associated with the data.
2. Big global agreements related to opening policies should continue to be fostered in order to drive collaboration and maximize the chances of success.
3. Encouraging the data opening directed towards a specific purpose and responding to concrete problems to increase the impact of open data.

Again, as in previous editions, issues such as the important role of statistical institutes, access to public information, open cities, data journalism, open contracting or the role of open data in global development were part of the recurrent discussions during those days. However, we can also observe how some new topics emerge with strength among those valued as the most interesting by the audience:

1. The enormous challenge of properly managing the governance of data in all its areas: technical, legal, knowledge and decision-making capacity.
2. The exploitation of open data as an innovation tool.
3. The need for higher and better training, both in the public and private spheres, to facilitate the correct management and exploitation of data.
4. The problem of the gender gap that has been replicated from the real world to the digital one through the data itself.
5. The need to incorporate the data opening within the processes of digital transformation that most governments and organizations are already implementing.
6. The importance of following certain ethical principles in data management.
7. The important role that open data can play when facing the challenges of artificial intelligence.

With all above, it is clear that IODC is already much more than a conference and has become a space to discuss and design the future of the next ten years of open data within the global agenda. In this regard, four possible scenarios were presented:

• The opening of data is maintained as an independent field with specialized organizations supporting and fostering it, as it happens now.
• The opening of data is embedded as a necessary part of various specific sectors to virtually cease to exist as an independent field.
• The open data community evolves towards a new field of work that includes not only openness, but also other new challenges related to data.
• Efforts are concentrated in other emerging fields related to data such as security and privacy, and openness is a secondary aspect.

Now it is up to all of us as a community to start writing the next chapter in the history of open data and to define which scenario we want. The next publication of the final version of the 39 chapters of the report on the State of Open Data will provide all the necessary material for this reflection, and the next International Conference that will take place in Nairobi in 2020 will give us a new opportunity to maintain close link and strengthening the open data space.

Content prepared by Carlos Iglesias, Open data Researcher and consultan, World Wide Web Foundation.

Contents and points of view expressed in this publication are the exclusive responsibility of its author.