Two preliminary views of the future of the open data movement in Latin America were presented at The First Global Conference on Transparency Research held May 19-20 at Rutgers University-Newark, N.J. (See overall report in FreedomInfo.org.)
One examination concluded that it is still “early days” and suggests that better coordination is needed between right to information campaigners and open data activists.
The paper states in part:
If ATI activists and civic hackers manage to target particular topics adding “value” to the discussion, demand for open data could eventually increase in the region. One key point of the Open Government Data movement seems to be tying people’s lives with specific open data initiatives. Thus, the framing “Open Data” may need to be associated to substantive problems.”
Another paper, on Brazil, was a bit more optimistic, turning up evidence of the “the emergence of a new level of demand for transparency: what is not confidential should be available on the Internet in the open data format.”
“Despite relatively late in adopting ODG, Brazilian state and federal governments are doing their first movements and creating new standards and practices which are going to spread in Brazilian public sector,” state the authors.
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