BNews announced the first public event Open Government Data. Citizenship, Knowledge and Power, part of the Excellence Project Open Government Data – Knowing society through public administration data, to be held on 28 February at the University of Bicocca.
The project, on the one hand, questions the impact of the processes of datafication on knowledge and the lack of awareness that lies behind the great masses of data that are produced and used; on the other hand, it nourishes a dutiful reflection on the ethical-political implications, the risks for democracy and the new forms of power, well illustrated in the interview by Prof. Gabriele Giacomini:
With the Internet, quantitative pluralism has undoubtedly increased, qualitative pluralism is in danger of decreasing, hence the paradox. There is also something apparently paradoxical about the democratic system. For example, on the one hand, the digital world seems to give voice to the masses, but on the other, we see the emergence of platforms with great power.
In the interview published, the risks associated with minimising human control over the data analysis process also emerge when the mathematical algorithms of artificial intelligence intervene and, as a result, argues Prof. Sonia Stefanizzi, “the operations carried out, the correlations and even the information itself used in the processing remain a matter of opacity for the data controller“. This, of course, increases the risk of repeating the injustices that already exist in society. In the interview, Prof Stefanizzi explains that
Without a real rethinking of the way in which OGDs are produced, there is a risk, albeit unintended, of encouraging an uninformed and often distorted use of the information produced and/or of benefiting those who have the tools, time and resources to read and interpret it. And, conversely, to exclude those with fewer resources.
In summary, the efforts of the Department of Excellence research group are aimed at improving the quality and usability of the data produced by the PA, making it suitable for use in the world of scientific research, while at the same time increasing the level of awareness and knowledge of citizens about open data and its implications.
To read the full interview