Blog

Data Responsibility

A Curation of Tools for Promoting Effective Data Re-Use for Addressing Public Challenges

In this blog, the Data Program provides a curation of tools that we’ve developed over the years to enable systematic, sustainable and responsible re-use of data - i.e. data stewardship.

Data can be a powerful tool for change, if made accessible and leveraged responsibly. Since The GovLab’s Data Program began work six...

Data Artefact Study

The GovLab Releases New Study on Population Density Data and Its Uses

Today, The GovLab is releasing a new report examining data and information about population density that can help to create social and...

City Incubator

Open Data Policy Lab City Incubator Announces Inaugural Cohort

Announcing the participants in a program meant to empower public intrapreneurs within cities around the world to develop their data innovation ideas into reality.

In spite of a global pandemic, cities around the world are continuing to build and scale impactful, effective, equity-driven, and open data...

Open Data's Impact

How Ukraine Is Using Open Data to Tackle Corruption

Guest post from Dmytro Buhanevych, Program Coordinator at the Eurasia Foundation

Key Takeaways Digitalization of government plays a key role in democratization and increase in transparency and accountability in...

The “Onion Model”

A Layered Approach to Documenting How the Third Wave of Open Data Can Provide Societal Value

There’s a lot that goes into data-driven decision-making. Behind the datasets, platforms, and analysts is a complex series of...

City Incubator

Announcing the Open Data Policy Lab's City Incubator

A program that helps public intrapreneurs within cities around the world to develop their data innovation ideas into reality by providing dedicated support across a 6 month period.

Hackathons. Data Jams. Dashboards. Mapping, analyzing, and releasing open data. These are some of the essential first steps in building a...

Data Stewards Academy

Announcing the Launch of Data Stewards Academy Executive Education Course Second Cohort

Today the Data Stewards Academy welcomed a new cohort of learners for the second iteration of its executive education course: Developing a...

Data Responsibility

LAUNCH: New Interactive Tool to Enable Trusted Data Collaboration in Society

Public Beta of the Data Responsibility Journey Mapping Tool

Data Collaboratives, the purpose-driven reuse of data in the public interest, have demonstrated their ability to unlock the societal value...

Data Stewards Academy

Apply Now for the Second Cohort of the Data Stewards Academy Executive Education Course

Developing a Data Reuse Strategy for Public Problems, a Data Stewards Academy executive education course, is now accepting applicants for...

First Anniversary of the Open...

A Selection of Activities, Achievements, and Future Priorities

When The GovLab launched the Open Data Policy Lab one year ago with support from Microsoft, we did so in a strange and uncertain world. Much...

Data Stewards Academy

Testimonials and Lessons Learned from a First-of-Its-Kind Data Stewardship Executive Education Course

Access the course syllabus here In late 2020, The GovLab’s Open Data Policy Lab initiative, supported by Microsoft, announced the...

New Brief

What Is Mobility Data? Where Is It Used?

Mobility data is data about the geographic location of a device passively produced through normal activity. Throughout the pandemic, public...

#Data4COVID19

What is the potential of mobility data to tackle pandemics?

Thinking about March 2020 can be a surreal experience. This time last year, people around the world were just entering lockdown — for...

#Data4COVID19

What was the role of Open Government Data in the early days of COVID-19?

This summary was originally published by the OECD on its website. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the demand for access to timely,...

Primer 8: Tracking, Monitoring, and Clarifying Decision and Data Provenance

Capturing data-handling and decision-making processes to ensure coordination

Download the Primer Why Data and decision provenance are key to reducing data risks while re-using data in the most impactful way. By...

Primer 7: Fostering Public Data Competence

Engaging citizens to promote wider use of data informed by local contexts and priorities

Download the Primer Why Facilitating greater data competence within the general public is an important step to ensuring that it could...

Primer 6: Creating the Technical Infrastructure for Re-use

Investing in innovative and sophisticated technologies to improve data use on data supply and demand sides

Download the Primer Why Open data portals have been key in enabling open data, combining various institutional datasets and allowing users...

Primer 5: Establishing Governance Frameworks

Creating safeguards to mitigate risks of harmful outcomes

Download the Primer Why Even 20 years into the digital revolution, rules and regulations dictating data usage remain sparse. While this...

Primer 4: Supporting New Data Intermediaries

Engaging actors who can lower transaction costs in data collaborative relationships

Download the Primer Why Matching the supply of data with those who demand it can be costly in terms of time, resources, and staff....

Primer 3: Articulating Value and Building an Impact Evidence Base

Demonstrating the concrete, tangible value of increased access to and re-use of data

Download the Primer Why In the past, open data advocates have tended to argue for increased data re-use by relying on normative arguments....

Primer 2: Fostering and Distributing Institutional Data Capacity

Taking steps to avoid consolidating and siloing of data skills and resources, and instead catalyzing such capacity to filter into daily institutional operations

Download the Primer Why Organizations across sectors can increase the societal and organizational value created through data re-use by...

Primer 1: Creating and Empowering (Chief) Data Stewards

Developing and nurturing responsible data leaders to support impactful data re-use

Download the Primer Why The Third Wave brings with it a focus on the institutional arrangements that need to be reimagined to achieve a more...

#Data4COVID19

Have we built the data infrastructure and ecosystem needed to tackle pandemics and other dynamic threats?

A year ago, the COVID-19 pandemic became real for people across the world. Though the spectre of the virus had been seen in the days and...

The Third Wave of Open Data

Open Data Policy Lab Releases Third Wave of Open Data Toolkit

DOWNLOAD THE TOOLKIT Open data and data re-use, when leveraged responsibly, can enable innovative problem-solving. On issues as complex and...

Open Data Day 2021

How to unlock open data's potential moving forward?

By Andrew J. Zahuranec, Andrew Young, and Stefaan G. Verhulst. Originally published at Data & Policy    For over a decade,...

Open Data Day 2021

Come sbloccare il suo potenziale proseguendo?

By Andrew J. Zahuranec, Andrew Young, and Stefaan G. Verhulst. Translated into Italian by Maurizio Napolitano. Per oltre un decennio, i...

Data Stewardship Course

ANNOUNCING: First of its Kind Executive Course on Data Stewardship — Focused on Data Re-Use in the Public Interest

Learn how to initiate a data strategy in the public interest from key players in the field

Today, the Open Data Policy Lab is excited to announce a first ever online executive course on Data Stewardship: Developing a Data Reuse...

The Third Wave of Open Data

Connecting the Past, Present, and Future of Re-Using Data to Advance Societal Goals

Our world faces many challenges ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to the threat of climate change to growing economic inequality. Faced...

Data to Go

The Value of Data Portability as a Means to Data Liquidity

If data is the “new oil,” why isn’t it flowing? For almost two decades, data management in fields such as government,...

The Data Assembly

Toward Responsible Data Re-Use for COVID-19 in New York City

Key Takeaways

The Data Assembly is an initiative from The GovLab supported by the Henry Luce Foundation to solicit diverse, actionable public input on...

Open Data and Climate Change

The World is On Fire. Data Can Help

Accelerating Data Collaboration

Right now, huge swathes of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest are burning. In the Arctic, ice has melted to near-record...

Summer of Open Data

Panel #10

Defining the Value Proposition, Building Common Infrastructure, and Avoiding Missed Use

Panelists, clockwise from top left: Andrew Young (The GovLab); Daniel Jarratt (Infinite Campus); Vanessa Brown (National Student...

Summer of Open Data

Panel #9

Incentives for Data Reuse, Frameworks for Collaboration, and Centering Data Responsibility

The Summer of Open Data is a three-month project spearheaded by the Open Data Policy Lab (an initiative of The GovLab with support from...

Summer of Open Data

Panel #8

Focus on Public Communication, Legal Mandates, and Data Ethics

The Summer of Open Data is a three-month project spearheaded by the Open Data Policy Lab (an initiative of The GovLab with support from...

Building a Knowledge Base

Selected Readings on Data Portability

Emerging Literature for Future Work on Data Portability

As part of an ongoing effort to build a knowledge base for the field of improving governance through technology, The GovLab publishes a...

Summer of Open Data

Panel #7

The Impact of COVID-19 on States, Localities, and Business

Clockwise from the top left: Stefaan Verhulst (The GovLab); Rudi Borrmann (Open Government Partnership); Kara Selke (StreetLight Data); and...

Summer of Open Data

Panel #6

Subnational Data, Sustainability, and Skills Development

Panelists, clockwise from top left: Stefaan Verhulst (The GovLab); Rhiannan Price (Maxar Technologies); Stephen Chacha (Tanzania Data Lab);...

Summer of Open Data

Panel #5

Data Reuse, Service Delivery, and Horizontal Silos

Panelists, clockwise from top left: Arturo Muente Kunigami (Inter-American Development Bank); Malarvizhi Veerappan (World Bank); Jaimie Boyd...

Summer of Open Data

Panel #4

Data Responsibility and New Forms of Collaboration

The Summer of Open Data is a three-month project spearheaded by the Open Data Policy Lab (an initiative of The GovLab with support from...

Summer of Open Data

#3: Keynote

Conversation with Taiwan's Audrey Tang

The Summer of Open Data is a three-month project spearheaded by the Open Data Policy Lab (an initiative of The...

Summer of Open Data

Panel #2

Data Re-Use from Local Government to the Corporate Sector

Panelists, clockwise from top left: Stefaan Verhulst, The Govlab; Paul Ko, LinkedIn; Denise Linn Reidl, City of South Bend, Indiana; Justine...

Summer of Open Data

Panel #1: Kick-Off

What Are The Contours of The Third Wave of Open Data?

Today, The Open Data Policy Lab is delighted to release the kick-off panel of our Summer of Open Data including three of the...

Summer of Open Data

Accelerating Data Collaboration

Jump Starting the Third Wave of Open Data

Despite the proliferation of data, its potential has yet to be realized in policy- and decision-making. Many of the most useful datasets...

Building a Knowledge Base

Selected Readings on Open Data Legislation and Policy

Outlining the Open Data Ecosystem

INTRODUCTION Amid increasingly pressing demands for information pertaining to public health, government response, and administrative...

Building a Knowledge Base

Open Data Index

10 Insights on the Value of Open Data

What’s the value of open data? For the last few years, The GovLab has curated and identified hundreds of studies on the use and value...

Launching the Open Data Policy...

From Idea to Reality

Why We Need an Open Data Policy Lab

The belief that we are living in a data age — one characterized by unprecedented amounts of data, with unprecedented potential —...