In 2009, President Obama issued a Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government. That memorandum has been followed by additional memorandums and Executive Orders resulting in the Open Government Initiative. As a result of this initiative, governments (both federal and local) are releasing data feeds, which have enabled the creation and use of new applications, from real-time accurate traffic information to localized crime reporting.
While the Initiative is presented as “an unqualified good” there are some questions about the impact on citizens. As such, the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and Microsoft have issued an RFP to further explore the technical, legal, and regulatory implications of Open Data. From the solicitation:
The Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and Microsoft are issuing this request for proposals (RFP) to fund scholarly inquiry to examine the civil rights, human rights, security and privacy issues that arise from recent initiatives to release large datasets of government information to the public for analysis and reuse. This research may help ground public policy discussions and drive the development of a framework to avoid potential abuses of this data while encouraging greater engagement and innovation.
This RFP seeks to:
- Gain knowledge of the impact of the online release of large amounts of data generated by citizens’ interactions with government
- Imagine new possibilities for technical, legal, and regulatory interventions that avoid abuse
- Begin building a body of research that addresses these issues
The full solicitation can be viewed here. Proposals are due September 25, 2014, with results to be disseminated at a workshop in May of 2015.
