Back to Roots: Reconsidering Data-As-Resource to Introduce a Commons-Based Modulating Approach to Open Data

Abstract

This paper takes the lead from the acknowledged ongoing mismatch between open data provision and actual open data demand by users, both public and private. To tackle such mismatch, the paper suggests remodulating data openness through a commons approach, which seeks to account for all data actors’ needs, while maintaining their interests in balance. In other words, data commons enacts an ecosystemic approach by default to data provision and demand, whereby data actors and their relations are mutually co-dependent. Yet, the application of the concept of the commons to data is not straightforward. This is due to data’s hybrid nature, which requires reconsidering the normative understanding of data as a resource, if we really want to develop a governance model that is beneficial to all actors and the whole data ecosystem. Building on recent literature in this direction, the paper will briefly outline the pillars of a commons-based data ecosystem.