A sample of "data hugging" excuses
Andrew Stott at OKCON 2011
The following sample gave us Andrew Stott (@DirDigEng) in his presentation at OKCON 2011
"Implementing an Open Data programme within government"
Sample of "data hugging" excuses:
- It's held separately by n different organisations and we can't join it up
- It will make people angry and scared without helping them
- It is technically impossible
- We do not own the data
- The data is just too large to be published and used
- Our website cannot hold files this large
- We know the data is wrong
- We know the data is wrong, and people will tell us when it's wrong
- We know the data is wrong, and we will waste valuable resources inputting the corrections people send us
- People will draw superficial conclusions from the data without understanding the wider picture
- People will construct league tables from it
- It will generate more Freedom of Information requests
- It might be combined with other data to identify individuals/sensitive information
- It will cost too much to put it into a standard format
- Our IT suppliers will charge us a fortune to do an ad hoc extract