Background and Project Rationale
Tim Berners-Lee, the architect of the World Wide Web, taught us that the Internet is a function of the choices we make about data. He argued that policies to govern the data that underpin the internet must be coherent, interoperable, accountable, and built on trust. Although data is the most collected, analyzed, shared, and traded good or service around the world, we know little about how various types of data are governed at the national and international level. In this project, with help from a small team of researchers, we will map and assess laws and regulations focused on the governance of data. By so doing, we can gain a better understanding of innovative approaches to data governance and what comprehensive data governance looks like.
Project Strategy:
Questionnaire
We developed a questionnaire to provide background information for a desk study by the Hub on how our sample countries are governing data. We have limited our analysis to laws, regulations, directives, and executive orders–acts of state that are binding upon governmental entities.
View the latest iteration of the questionnaire here: Data Governance questionnaire
Trends regarding best practice
In this component, we will find patterns, summarize, and expand on specific cases found in the mapping of data governance from component one.
The policy brief will describe what comprehensive data governance may look like, noting that there is no one right path in a field with constant change. In short what is right for Mali may not be right for Brazil. Our analysis will summarize what the leaders are doing, delineate interesting ideas on strategies, and emphasize two key themes we have learned from previous work in this area: the importance of trust in data governance and the importance of coherence among data governance policies. We also note that countries that seek to govern data effectively encourage data sharing among different data controllers and involve the public in their governance strategies.
View the detailed proposal here: Global Data Governance Mapping Project