Data needs community. OpenStreetMap shows this clearly, without thousands of people updating and using the data, providing support and advocating, the OSM data set would fade. The DC app contest successfully brought a community together around a data release that could’ve gone unnoticed … of course us data geeks would’ve known, but the impact and potential is known when the community base is wide. This is the same reason why we’re staying in Kenya for another six months … we want to make sure the community around Map Kibera [http://mapkibera.org] is sustainable.
So I think this is a major missing piece in development generally, and not something the Unlocking Aid Information paper highlights. So my suggestion would be to add a 4th recommendation to this effect.
Data needs community. OpenStreetMap shows this clearly, without thousands of people updating and using the data, providing support and advocating, the OSM data set would fade. The DC app contest successfully brought a community together around a data release that could’ve gone unnoticed … of course us data geeks would’ve known, but the impact and potential is known when the community base is wide. This is the same reason why we’re staying in Kenya for another six months … we want to make sure the community around Map Kibera [http://mapkibera.org] is sustainable.
So I think this is a major missing piece in development generally, and not something the Unlocking Aid Information paper highlights. So my suggestion would be to add a 4th recommendation to this effect.
Nat Torkington wrote up a solid piece that makes a similar case. http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/02/rethinking-open-data.html
-Mikel