Shifting the finnish mindset

29.4.2010 www.kasvi.org 1

Shiftingthe Finnish Mindset

Open Data Taking Root in Finland

Jyrki J.J. KasviParliament of Finland, Committee for the Future


Current situation in Finland

Companies, universities and public authorities have to pay at least extraction costs to use public data– Redundant data collection

and storage • (soon to be illegal in fact)

Data is left unused and does not benefit anyone– Income from access fees is

only a fraction of the potential– The million monkeys are not

releasedWikimedia Commons

YourPublic Data


Challenges

Cooperation between local and state authorities– Authorities collecting data (for example geoinformation) do

not recognise each others' needs. Harmonisation and standardisation

– Data formats and computer systems are incompatible– In addition to technology, knowledge management processes

have to be compatible Usability and tracking

– Services built on open data have to be certain that the data is always available

– End-user wants to be sure that the service is built on untampered source data

Sensitive information – Military installations and potential terrorists' targets– Privacy (RFID, positioning, databases)


E.g. Military secrets

Actually all this has already beenavailable from commercial servicesthat can be more easily supervised.


Mashups would find new opportunities

Combination of dynamic position data and static geoinformation – Ubiquitous mobile services and entertainment

• Navigators are only a humble beginning Crowdsourcing integrates people with public data

– Creating public data together (e.g. Fixmystreet)• In Finland: Collection of algae data on Baltic sea

Mashups may point out social issues– Data mining may find surprising correlations

• Health care resources and reasons of death• Average income and learning results in schools

– Requires a lot from politicians and media• correlation ≠ causality


Surprising correlations


Finland in crossroads

Lack of political interest and passion– Development of open data has been civil servant driven – The first Somus MindTrek competition in 2009

”Payment basis act” is the key– Ministry of Finance has been opposing open data to

defend extraction cost fees– For example geodata infrastructure law left the usage

question open and only refers to the act Mindset is changing rapidly even in the Ministry

– Upside: everything can be changed through one law – Downside: ensuring compensatory funding for the

authorities losing fee incomes– The biggest challenge is wiping out the deeply rooted

attitude: power = control over information


Open information society = Open API

I an open information society all public data and metadata are available to all through an open API for free. – API (Application Programming

Interface) provides access to data in a machine readable format

Companies and citizens utilise the data to create their own services – Mashups of different data– People know best what they want– Open API facilitates also

multidiciplinary public services

Wikimedia Commons


Redefining publicity

Poor usability of public paper records has effectively protected citizens' privacy– Only yellow press goes through celebrities' public

records– What happens when everybody's records can be

accessed with a couple of clicks?– Everbody can experience what it is like to be a Talent

star or an MP– The end of double standards or the beginning of

neomoralism? Protection of privacy in the age of openness may

require us to redefine limits of publicity


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Discussion

U.S. Army Photo

Shifting the finnish mindset

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