Information just wants to be free!
It’s embarrassing, but in my youth I could often be heard telling people “Information just wants to be free!” I can’t even remember what I meant now. I was probably crazed with power at the time. But I was on a phone conference with Microsoft earlier today, and at one point somebody started to talk about how we would have to discuss how to deal with proprietary data collected during a humanitarian response. Suddenly, the years rolled back and information just wanted to be free again…
One of the problems that I’ve faced repeatedly is that UN or NGOs in the field just aren’t very good at sharing their information, either with their peers or with the beneficiaries. Most often, the objection is raised that, if we share information (particularly from assessments), our “competitors” might take that information, use it to develop a project proposal, and take all the cash from our donors’ pockets.
Please. Donors don’t give us money because our assessments are amazing, or because our project proposals are dazzling. Trust me, I’ve seen a lot of assessments and proposals in my time, and generally they’re crap (especially in a sudden-onset emergency, when everybody’s losing their marbles). The donors give us money because we already have a contract with them, or we know them from that bar in Kabul, or because we happened to drive past their office and they desperately need to spend a $500,000 budget by lunchtime.
If we’re talking about a public entity (a non-governmental organisation) using public funds (either from a government or from the general public) to carry out public service (providing relief to communities) in a foreign country where the government has a clear stake in responding to and recovering from a disaster?
All the data collected by that NGO should be made freely available as quickly as possible, with the only possible exceptions made for privacy or security issues.
Discuss.
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Paul,
Enjoying your blog, which touches on many topics of interest to me. I have thought a lot about the topic in this post so, while late, wanted to reply.
I have been wondering about the incentives for NGOs to share information. While I agree that they should, I believe they don’t always get ahead in the short-run. I think that those who have accurate data and other well-articulated ideas and information do actually worry that others will “borrow” their ideas. I have found very few that believe in the gift economy, where sharing ideas eventually benefits your project and organization in the long-run. Not sure if you would agree, but I am often surprise at the way organizations are territorial.
Another problem I have seen on any open forum to discuss development or humanitarian issues is quality control of the exchanges. No matter how interesting the topic, once a few “loud talkers” jump in and start posting/sharing random and useless information, anyone with any real work to do quickly loses interest. Openess is great and sharing with everyone is a value I support, but for some reason, I think the purpose-driven and well-facilitated online exchange just hasn’t worked yet for most of the NGOs I have seen and worked with.
I do agree with your conclusion!
Paul Lawrence
12 Dec 05 at 18:37
Thanks for the comment, Paul. The way the system works at the moment, there’s a range of disincentives to sharing information. However, looking at the work of projects such as ReliefWeb or organisations such as MapAction, it’s clear that their reputations are being built on the provision of information. Obviously it helps that they’re not operational, but there’s no reason why other organisations can’t achieve similar ends. Rather than looking at it as a gift economy, we should see it as service provision - if people value the service, they tend to respect the provider.
Administrator
23 Dec 05 at 9:04