Transparency International: Does open data make development more accountable? The case of Colombia

[Tracey P. Lauriault]

It is an interesting question!  I would say sometimes, and it depends on who is mobilized around the information being disseminated, as the information on its own cannot bring forward much change.

http://blog.transparency.org/2012/12/13/does-open-data-make-development-more-accountable-the-case-of-colombia/

Lisa Parks critically discusses this further here - Digging into Google Earth: An analysis of ‘‘Crisis in Darfur”, Geoforum 40 (2009) 535–545
Abstract:

Google publicists have suggested the Crisis in Darfur is an example of the Google Earth software’s ‘‘suc- cess at tangibly impacting what is happening on the ground.” Yet whether or not Google Earth’s interface, along with a medley of other media representations of the conflict, have impacted events on the ground or led to coherent policies of humanitarian intervention remains open to debate. This article draws upon critical approaches from media studies—namely discourse analysis—to analyze several aspects of the Google Earth/USHMM Crisis in Darfur project. While this project was no doubt developed with the noble intention of generating international awareness about widespread violence that has recently occurred in the Darfur region, it is important to evaluate how representations of global conflicts are changing with uses of new information technologies and whether such representations can actually achieve their desired impacts or effects. The article begins with a discussion of the Crisis in Darfur project’s history, proceeds to analyze some of the press coverage of the project and then moves to a critique of the layer using four categories of analysis: (1) the shifting role of satellite image; (2) the temporality of the inter- face; (3) the practice of conflict branding; and (4) the practice of ‘‘information intervention.” Throughout the article, I explore how the presentation of Darfur-related materials through Google Earth reproduces problematic Western tropes of African tragedy and misses an opportunity to generate public literacy around satellite images. I also consider how humanitarianism is intertwined with digital and disaster capitalism, and suggest that this instance of ‘‘information intervention” makes patently clear that high visual capital alone cannot resolve global conflicts.

--

Tracey P. Lauriault

Post Doctoral Fellow

Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre

https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault

http://datalibre.ca/
613-234-2805
 

[Peder Jakobsen]

interesting article, but unfortunately it starts off with a very narrow definition of open data:  

"After all, the point of open data is to make more accountable and effective decision-making"

Does a pencil have a specific purpose?  I hope not...

Sent from my iPhone

On 2012-12-13, at 12:59 PM, "Tracey P. Lauriault" <[hidden email]> wrote:

It is an interesting question!  I would say sometimes, and it depends on who is mobilized around the information being disseminated, as the information on its own cannot bring forward much change.

http://blog.transparency.org/2012/12/13/does-open-data-make-development-more-accountable-the-case-of-colombia/

Lisa Parks critically discusses this further here - Digging into Google Earth: An analysis of ‘‘Crisis in Darfur”, Geoforum 40 (2009) 535–545
Abstract:

Google publicists have suggested the Crisis in Darfur is an example of the Google Earth software’s ‘‘suc- cess at tangibly impacting what is happening on the ground.” Yet whether or not Google Earth’s interface, along with a medley of other media representations of the conflict, have impacted events on the ground or led to coherent policies of humanitarian intervention remains open to debate. This article draws upon critical approaches from media studies—namely discourse analysis—to analyze several aspects of the Google Earth/USHMM Crisis in Darfur project. While this project was no doubt developed with the noble intention of generating international awareness about widespread violence that has recently occurred in the Darfur region, it is important to evaluate how representations of global conflicts are changing with uses of new information technologies and whether such representations can actually achieve their desired impacts or effects. The article begins with a discussion of the Crisis in Darfur project’s history, proceeds to analyze some of the press coverage of the project and then moves to a critique of the layer using four categories of analysis: (1) the shifting role of satellite image; (2) the temporality of the inter- face; (3) the practice of conflict branding; and (4) the practice of ‘‘information intervention.” Throughout the article, I explore how the presentation of Darfur-related materials through Google Earth reproduces problematic Western tropes of African tragedy and misses an opportunity to generate public literacy around satellite images. I also consider how humanitarianism is intertwined with digital and disaster capitalism, and suggest that this instance of ‘‘information intervention” makes patently clear that high visual capital alone cannot resolve global conflicts.

--

Tracey P. Lauriault

Post Doctoral Fellow

Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre

https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault

http://datalibre.ca/
613-234-2805
 

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