[CODATA-international] Digital Feudalism

Sat Oct 12 09:46:20 EDT 2019

Thanks for bringing this issue up.

Best regards,

Ahmad Mahdavi, professor emeritus at University of Tehran,

PhD, Entomologist/ ecotoxicologist, ICT for agriculture and environment,

Focal point for Mountain Partnership in the University of Tehran,

CMS preventing poisoning group, RAMSAR, WWN, SWS,

University of Tehran/ and Sustainable agriculture and environment.
Phone: +98-21-76281966 --- Mobile: +98-912-0762812.

P. O. Box: 19615-544, Tehran, IRAN.

On Sat, Oct 12, 2019 at 5:12 PM Kiringai Kamau <kiringai.kamau at godan.info>
wrote:

> Kassim, Niek
>
> As you rightly say, most of the projects are undertaken from a top-down
> perspective, with limited sharing of knowledge among all the actors ... the
> beneficiaries rarely get to see the definition of the mission and the
> impatience to get started by those coming with the project funds creates no
> opportunity for any preparedness among the beneficiary partners. Where
> knowledgeable persons exist, they may only be hosted within institutions.
> In many cases, such institutions are not core/key actors in the
> problem/project definition. They are only invited, by a higher privileged
> office/officer, when everything has been defined and pathways of
> implementation determined at a political level they cannot question.
> Economic or political interests are the pathways that those with interests
> use to take advantage of a system they may know presents the opportunity to
> give them leeway to mine data for their use and leave with it. The projects
> therefore are not defined with any other intention other than the data
> sourcing for a song and empty promises by those portending to possess the
> knowledge that will develop a beneficiary country.
>
> Realizing this challenge, the Global Open Data for Agriculture and
> Nutrition convened with ministers of the South-South an Open Data
> Conference in Nairobi where a Declaration was formulated. We are currently
> supporting African countries to evolve policies and frameworks that can
> advise compliance to national, regional and global agendas and in the
> process build local capacity key of which is data governance. I am
> convinced that we can sport feudal inclinations on behalf of partner
> countries in projects and therefore request anyone formulating a project
> that they feel should be bottom-up and create local knowledge should link
> up with GODAN through Suchith or myself (in case your area of focus is
> Africa).
>
> Thanks, Suchith for sharing the Feudalism concerns.
>
> Kiringai Kamau
>
>
> On Sat, Oct 12, 2019 at 10:16 AM Mwitondi, Kassim <K.Mwitondi at shu.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
>> This is an instance of a biased data ownership. A few years ago I was
>> working with a young African researcher on an agro-forestry research
>> project. No sooner had we started than I realused that her centre had only
>> some descriptive statistics but no direct access to the biomass data which
>> she and her colleagues had spent months collecting from two islands! The
>> vast chunk of the data had left with the development partners at the end of
>> the project. It turned out, nobody at the centre had any knowledge or
>> pressing interest to pursue the data and there was already new initiatives
>> to run another project, which in my view was almost a duplicate of the
>> first, but this time with a different development partner.
>>
>> To cut the long story short, I have come across several cases of data
>> ownership of this nature and my view is that it doesn't help much coining
>> terminologies, as the best that can be achieved is a blame culture. Would I
>> call that data capitalism? Colonialism? Feudalism? I never would! I have
>> learnt, over the years, that proper problem identification is a major
>> stride in working out the solution. Blaming it on one part marginalizing
>> the other when it comes to data generation, access and ownership is
>> stripping everyone on the project of a fundamental responsibility in
>> managing the project.
>>
>> Apparently, the problem starts with the project write-up. If the project
>> recipient is fully engaged from project initiation to delivery, they surely
>> should know how to access the data, as that is a key project deliverable.
>> My personal experience is that there are a several factors that lead to
>> this kind of situation. One, many project ideas are top-down, that is, they
>> are not developed within the working conditions of the recipients. Two,
>> there are often many gaps in engagement, mainly caused by near disparate
>> motives on many projects, with the funders, experts and recipients not
>> necessarily having the same perception, motives or knowledge. Put the two
>> together and add the determined project timeline, you have a near disaster.
>> But the tripartite interests to run projects continues and we are creating
>> a vicious cycle. What is the solution? It must start from the recipients
>> who must align each incoming project with their respective development
>> strategies. They must present themselves as equal partners in defining the
>> project problem and tracking and measuring its outcomes. They should be
>> able to quantifiable identify what worked and what didn't and any there
>> should be national institutions charged with such responsibility. I could
>> be writing all night, I would rather stop here for now.
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> KSM
>>
>> Dr Kassim S. Mwitondi
>> Sheffield Hallam University
>> Faculty of Science, Technology and Arts
>> Communication & Computing Research Centre
>> 9410 Cantor Building, City Campus
>> 153 Arundel Street
>> Sheffield, S1 2NU
>> United Kingdom
>> Tel. +44-114-2256914 (Direct)
>> Tel. +44-114-2255555 (General)
>> https://www.shu.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-profiles/kassim-mwitondi
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* CODATA-international <
>> codata-international-bounces at lists.codata.org> on behalf of Trimpact -
>> Niek <niek at trimpact.nl>
>> *Sent:* 11 October 2019 18:12:22
>> *To:* 'Ernie Boyko' <boykern at yahoo.com>; 'CODATA International' <
>> codata-international at lists.codata.org>; 'Suchith Anand' <
>> Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk>
>> *Subject:* Re: [CODATA-international] Digital Feudalism
>>
>>
>> Dear all,
>>
>>
>>
>> This is indeed a huge problem. I also recently learned that information
>> data from NGOs are best perhaps shared with some ministries in Bamako,
>> Mali, but not within a region where the work is being done. This implies
>> that local decision makers remain dependant on the information/data stream
>> back from the ministries which may take some months, if ever. This can
>> never be the purpose of the work executed.
>>
>>
>>
>> Since most of the projects are financed with public funding for the
>> benefit of de people in the given (development) country and
>> data/information belong in fact to the real funds provider of the work
>> (i.e. tax payers), claims of intellectual property rights that data belong
>> to the project executors seem not applicable. Consequently, data and other
>> information (e.g. lessons learned) should be shared at large to the
>> population and other relevant stakeholders to avoid duplication of efforts.
>>
>>
>>
>> A discussion worthwhile to be continued.
>>
>>
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>>
>>
>> Dr. Niek van Duivenbooden
>>
>>
>>
>>   *Bringing value to life*
>>
>>
>>
>> Mezenlaan 138  -  6951 HR Dieren  -  The Netherlands – T +31 61 13 81 061
>>
>> KvK: 64218422   - niek at trimpact.nl - www.Trimpact.nl
>> <http://www.trimpact.nl/>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *Van:* CODATA-international <
>> codata-international-bounces at lists.codata.org> *Namens *Ernie Boyko
>> *Verzonden:* vrijdag 11 oktober 2019 15:26
>> *Aan:* CODATA International <codata-international at lists.codata.org>;
>> Suchith Anand <Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk>
>> *Onderwerp:* Re: [CODATA-international] Digital Feudalism
>>
>>
>>
>> Thank you Suchith,
>>
>> I have not heard that term before but I did run into   related term this
>> week at the DDI-CODATA workshop here in Dagstuhl.  The term is Data
>> Colonialism.  This often happens when a foreign entity (e.g., a development
>> agency/project).e data are collected in a developing country and are taken
>> out of the country.  They will leave behind some summary tables but will
>> take the rich data and metadata away.  This makes it difficult to develop
>> the data analysis and management skills within the country.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks for the message.
>>
>>
>>
>> Cheers, Ernie
>>
>> +1-613-290-2804
>>
>> *Larrimac:  More than a golf course!*
>>
>> *CODATA: Making data work together to improve science to support decision
>> makers.*
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Friday, October 11, 2019, 08:51:29 AM EDT, Suchith Anand <
>> Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> I came across a recent op-ed by Prof. Mariana Mazzucato on “Digital
>> Feudalism”  at
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/platform-economy-digital-feudalism-by-mariana-mazzucato-2019-10?utm_source=Project+Syndicate+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d192f2bc47-sunday_newsletter_6_10_2019&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_73bad5b7d8-d192f2bc47-105013549&mc_cid=d192f2bc47&mc_eid=a8cee90b20
>>
>>
>>
>> Prof. Mazzucato is a leading researcher and thinker on Technology and
>> Innovation, advisor to the European Commission on research and innovation
>> strategy, and author of two important books on the subject “The Value of
>> Everything” and “The Entrepreneurial State”.
>>
>>
>>
>> The report on “Mission-oriented Research and Innovation in the European
>> Union” might be of interest
>>
>> https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/mazzucato_report_2018.pdf
>>
>>
>>
>> Since the use of cloud platforms for GIS data analysis is having a huge
>> impact on the GIS community, the subject is of relevance. I would like
>> learn more on this
>>
>>    1. Are there any examples of Digital Feudalism in GIS?
>>    2. How will Digital Feudalism in GIS affect our future generations?
>>    3. What policies are governments, regulators doing to reduce Digital
>>    Feudalism in GIS?
>>    4. What policies and curriculum are universities, educators adopting
>>    to reduce Digital Feudalism in GIS?
>>
>>
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>>
>>
>> Suchith
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
>
> _____________________________________________________________________________________________________
> Kiringai Kamau
>
> *GODAN Africa Lead*
> Programme for Capacity Development in Africa (P4CDA Africa)
>
> *GODAN Head Office*
>
> 845 Sherbrooke Street West, *Montreal*, Quebec, Canada H3A 0G4
>
> Macdonald Campus, McGill University, 21111 Lakeshore Road,
> Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC H9X 3V9
>
>
>
> *Programme for Capacity Development in Africa (P4CDA)*
>
> PO Box 1618, 00100 GPO Nairobi, 1st Floor, Nyaku House, Argwings Kodhek
> Road
>
> Cell: +254 722 800 986/+254 733 375 505
>
> *Email*: *kiringai.kamau at godan.info <kiringai.kamau at godan.info>* or
> kiringai at perfect.africa
>
> *Website*: www.godan.info or www.perfect.africa, *Tweeter*: @kiringaik,
> *Skype*: kiringai.kamau
>
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