Page 24 - Proceedings of the 2017 ITU Kaleidoscope

2017 ITU Kaleidoscope Academic Conference

would have been useless; and such data, with value acquired, 1.3. Transformation of public policy making
gives rise to new social relationships, around which new
rights and obligations are formed. In terms of social governance, the primary value of big data
is to enable more scientific decision making. Recent practice
(a) Data ownership in some countries indicates that big data can motivate the
government, social organizations, businesses, and
For the purpose of accurate and precise analysis for different individuals to jointly participate in public policy making and
industries and sectors, a premise is to collect data in to facilitate the government to pay due attention to the
connection with all participants. That is to say, the predictability, public participation and objectivity of public
application of big data relies on an open data environment, decision making.
namely, data produced by an individual in a network shall be
readily accessible to other persons at any time. However, a (a) Predictability
core question arises: does the participant whose data is used
own his data? In practice, such ownership may be disputed, The government always prefers a public policy to be
but for sure, opening and using data will result in new rights predictable, while big data analysis technology can help to
and obligations in connection with data ownership. identify trends and establish a mechanism for a more
effective and timely forecast of public affairs. The UN
(b) Right to data Global Pulse is a program using big data to monitor and
analyze the sentiment of Twitter and Facebook data and text
Big data has been widely applied to facilitate the government messages across the world and to provide an early warning
to carry out social governance and provide public service, of disease, turbulence or racial conflicts.
and as a result, open government data is an important issue
across the world. Globally, the government tends to (b) Public participation
formulate guiding strategies or policy documents for open
government data. For instance, in 2009 and 2013, US A characteristic of big data is that it is derived from scattered
President Obama twice signed the open data executive orders; individuals that are connected in real-time. The collected
in 2010 and 2011, the UK twice published the Letter to data can be used to explore more valuable information. The
Government Departments on Opening up Data, and the advantage of policy makers is that, with big data, some
Chinese government also promulgated a series of national public administration policies, previously dominated by
policies, including the Action Plan to Promote Big Data governments only, now can be decided through collaboration
Development. As for the form, generally, data is opened at a between the government and social organizations.
single national portal, and for the present, such data By involving all stakeholders in the process of policy making
platforms have been established in about 52 countries and
regions. In such a context, a new concept of civic right is and allowing social organizations and individuals to
participate in public administration, the government can
1
derived, i.e. the right to data . More and more countries and
governments begin to attach importance to this right and effectively define public policy.
consider it as fundamental and as important as other civic
rights. To highlight this right is to allow the public to obtain (c) Objectivity
any data without involving state security and secrecy.
Moreover, the right to data also fairly reflects the degrees of Through data collection and in-depth quantitative analysis,
social democracy and government openness. big data can discover previously unknown relevance. Thus,
objective data can be used to predict probabilities and
(c) Data privacy changes, analyze trends, and provide a more objective basis
for decision making. With regard to government
administration, prior to the age of big data, mass data
People produce and leave their digital footprints anytime and
everywhere. These traces, t, if gathered and combined can collection and processing was difficult; the government
possessed more data than other social organizations and
reveal every aspect of a person’s life. Undoubtedly, personal
privacy is involved in such traces of data. If the right to data individual persons, but only to a limited extent, and its policy
making had to be based on limited sample statistical data and
is still characterized by traditional invisible property in many
aspects, the lack of privacy arising from data footprints rely heavily on personal experience and judgment. In
contrast, the application of big data technology will provide
results in rights and obligations that are totally new.
policy making with a more objective basis, reduce personal
subjective errors, and contribute to scientific policy making
and efficient government administration.

1 See Former Prime Minister of UK David Cameron: Letter to on-opening-up-data.
government departments on opening up data, 2010.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/letter-to-government-departments-

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