[CODATA-international] Digital Feudalism

Fri Oct 18 05:41:41 EDT 2019

Dear Geoffrey

Perhaps, the governance of the Global Data Governance initiative should
be an agenda item. It would be good to have fair representation (for me,
the scary word is "global" rather than governance) and since the
International Science Council have such, its very appropriate that they
lead this initiative.

Best regards
Anwar

Dr A Vahed
Director: DIRISA 
Pretoria, South Africa
http://www.dirisa.co.za
Telephone +27 (0)12 841 2954
ORCID: 0000-0002-5595-3904

>>> BOULTON Geoffrey <Geoff.Boulton at ed.ac.uk> 16/10/2019 21:19 >>>
[The e-mail server of the sender could not be verified (SPF Record)]

I should mention that the International Science Council (outcome of a
merger between ICSU and ISSC - the International Social Science Council
-  is shortly to launch a major initiative on Global Data Governance
(please don*t be upset by the world governance), that will deal with
many of the issues raised in this correspondence. It will of course be
highly contested by precisely some of those interests also referred to
in this correspondence. However, if the science community does not take
a lead on this one, you can be sure that someone else will.

It would be interring and useful to have colleagues' ideas on what the
kick-off agenda should be. It would also be interesting the hear from
those colleagues who thing it is a thoroughly bad idea,

Best wishes

Geoffrey

On 16 Oct 2019, at 18:48, Kiringai Kamau
<kiringai.kamau at godan.info<mailto:kiringai.kamau at godan.info>>
wrote:

Thanks, Alex for yours!

Your discussion makes the reason to have a more focused discourse among
stakeholders which this platform provides part of. It would make good
sense to align this with some of the data think Tanks and present the
case for in-depth analysis for a continental level discussion. We are
gearing for the ACFTA, which will drive intra-Africa Trade. Investment
in infrastructure is definitely critical for this.

The GODAN Africa Agenda is to promote a concensus on an Open data
paradigm that anonymizes data for access, use and reuse for innovation.
Intra-country data needs to be as raw as the users may seek to do. It
makes sense for each country to plan its own strategy on hosting, but
GODAN supports countries think through the internal processes. Alone,
however, we are not able to do it which is why we are a network to work
with those who share our vision of making evidence available for
decision making using data openness.

The best locale for the kind of discussion we seem to hold is at the AU
or ECA, who could kick start the discussions then regions and countries
can take that forward but from the perspective of breaking the big pan
African challenge into smaller achievable milestones. If we do have any
representatives of the AU, ECA, or any institutional initiatives that
believe in the goal of GODAN, in this forum, kindly inbox me so that we
can side chat on the possibilities.

Sincerely,

Kiringai

This discu

On Wed, Oct 16, 2019 at 5:21 PM Alex de Sherbinin
<adesherbinin at ciesin.columbia.edu<mailto:adesherbinin at ciesin.columbia.edu>>
wrote:
Dear Kiringai,

Thanks for your thoughtful response. I don't think that the cloud makes
in-country or regional investments in the establishment of data
repositories redundant. A repository could use the cloud for storage or
backup and still require domain expertise for the curation,
documentation and stewardship of data according to community standards.
Note that the CoreTrustSeal certification requires repositories to
identify their domain and mission, which is considered critical for
understanding the needs of the user community.

One of the issues I have with the current approach to putting data in
open repositories (Dryad, Figshare, etc.) is that the data are often not
well documented (unless accompanied by a journal article) or
discoverable, e.g. through catalog searches. Something else I've
encountered in Africa is a reluctance by national governments to entrust
their data to cloud services hosted in Europe or North America. There
may really be no threat to data security or breaches at all, but there
is a perception that such a threat exists or that this is a form of
neo-colonialism (exportation of data). Lastly, someone else raised the
issue that the cloud requires monthly fees. Unfortunately this may
represent an obstacle to donors, who can pay for infrastructure but not
necessarily monthly fees. Perhaps those policies can be changed in
recognition of the new reality. Or perhaps a continental/regional
approach could mean that a repository is supported by fees coming from
multiple member countries.

I am not opposed to a continental/regional approach to data
repositories, but where do we begin? With the AOSP? The African Union?
And is it just one big open repository serving all domains from health
to agriculture to climate or biological sciences, or could we envision
various domain repositories being set up with core funding serving
continental or regional needs (say under the umbrella of ECOWAS or CILSS
in the West African context)?

In any case - I wanted to make this point to the group at large, in
case others have thoughts. I would like to follow up with you for some
more discussions on possible GODAN-WDS collaboration in the region.

Alex

On Sun, Oct 13, 2019 at 12:56 AM Kiringai Kamau
<kiringai.kamau at godan.info<mailto:kiringai.kamau at godan.info>> wrote:
Alex,

As you well mention, the Cloud makes in-country investments redundant.
and may to some extent be unnecessary. As Africa moves to centralize
rather than decentralize within the Continental Free Trade Area and the
Malabo Agendas, we may want to think of Africa's open data space as the
policy environment where much of what emerges from your
workshop/conference will get better mileage for realization.

GODAN's Africa Agenda is to support a melting pot of innovation using
data. It is my view that once data is openly available, the temptation
of taking it away to any place or location after a project is done
becomes unnecessary. We make a deal of data theft because someone having
it has better mileage in what they can propose to us...what if everyone
has access, can use and reuse the data for innovation-based not on
information asymmetry but rather on their ingenuity?

If we could do this, then the pan African institutions would focus on
what brings development rather than other parochial
interests...investment would be promoted and development achieved.

I would be keen to discuss with your team on the possibilities of
moving to a more centralized open data space that can inspire innovation
as we work together within the GODAN Agenda. Unfortunately, we shall be
finishing the Africa Geospatial Data and Internet Conference in Accra at
the time yours kicks off.

Inbox me for further discussion on how we can work together.

Kiringai,

On Sat, Oct 12, 2019 at 9:53 PM Alex de Sherbinin
<adesherbinin at ciesin.columbia.edu<mailto:adesherbinin at ciesin.columbia.edu>>
wrote:
This conversation offers a good opportunity to make everyone aware of a
conference coming up on 23-25 October in Dakar: "Open Science in the
South: Issues and Perspectives for a New Dynamic"  
https://opensciencesud.sciencesconf.org/.

At this conference I am co-organizing with a colleague from WDS (Arona
Diedhou) and partners from Agrhymet, Centre de Suivi Ecologique and
WASCAL a workshop on developing West African research data repositories.
One of the arguments I plan to make is that the absence of national /
regional repositories, along with policies in countries requiring
repatriation of data (or at least maintenance of a copy in country),
there will continue be a lack of "restitution" of research findings and
development project data in the region. I'd be happy to know if others
are making such arguments, or if indeed in the age of the cloud this
seems too parochial. Obviously this would require training and funding. 
If anyone can point me to initiatives that would support this effort,
that would be most welcome.  I am hoping to convince IRD, the lead
organizer, that investment in this area would be a tangible output from
the conference.

Cheers,
Alex de Sherbinin
vice chair, WDS scientific committee

On Sat, Oct 12, 2019 at 9:42 AM Kiringai Kamau
<kiringai.kamau at godan.info<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto:codata-international-bounces at lists.codata.org>>
on behalf of Trimpact - Niek
<niek at trimpact.nl<mailto:niek at trimpact.nl>>
Sent: 11 October 2019 18:12:22
To: 'Ernie Boyko' <boykern at yahoo.com<mailto:boykern at yahoo.com>>;
'CODATA International'
<codata-international at lists.codata.org<mailto:codata-international at lists.codata.org>>;
'Suchith Anand'
<Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto: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

<image001.png>  Bringing value to life

Mezenlaan 138  -  6951 HR Dieren  -  The Netherlands * T +31 61 13 81
061

KvK: 64218422   - niek at trimpact.nl<mailto:niek at trimpact.nl> -
www.Trimpact.nl<http://www.trimpact.nl/>

Van: CODATA-international
<codata-international-bounces at lists.codata.org<mailto: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<mailto:codata-international at lists.codata.org>>;
Suchith Anand
<Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto: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<mailto: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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_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kiringai Kamau

GODAN Africa Lead
Programme for Capacity Development in Africa (P4CDA Africa)
[https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=12AWUTz9vDpZ0noUjKIgOkRgn3DFNmMB1&revid=0BzY0XhCFp0GaZC9zTGx0RkJmWDMraFIxQzM3MzJwOGhNbitJPQ]
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Road
Cell: +254 722 800 986/+254 733 375 505
Email: kiringai.kamau at godan.info<mailto:kiringai.kamau at godan.info> or
kiringai at perfect.africa<mailto:kiringai at perfect.africa>

Website: www.godan.info<http://www.godan.info/> or
www.perfect.africa<http://www.perfect.africa/>, Tweeter:
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Alex de Sherbinin, PhD
Associate Director, Science Applications Division
Deputy Manager, NASA SEDAC
CIESIN, The Earth Institute at Columbia University
P.O. Box 1000 (61 Route 9W), Palisades, NY 10964
Web: www.ciesin.columbia.edu<http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu/> and
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Tel. +1-845-365-8936,  Skype: alex.desherbinin

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_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kiringai Kamau

GODAN Africa Lead
Programme for Capacity Development in Africa (P4CDA Africa)
[https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=12AWUTz9vDpZ0noUjKIgOkRgn3DFNmMB1&revid=0BzY0XhCFp0GaZC9zTGx0RkJmWDMraFIxQzM3MzJwOGhNbitJPQ]
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<mailto:kiringai.kamau at godan.info> or
kiringai at perfect.africa<mailto:kiringai at perfect.africa>

Website: www.godan.info<http://www.godan.info/> or
www.perfect.africa<http://www.perfect.africa/>, Tweeter:
@kiringaik, Skype: kiringai.kamau

--
--------------------------------------------------
Alex de Sherbinin, PhD
Associate Director, Science Applications Division
Deputy Manager, NASA SEDAC
CIESIN, The Earth Institute at Columbia University
P.O. Box 1000 (61 Route 9W), Palisades, NY 10964
Web: www.ciesin.columbia.edu<http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu/> and
http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu<http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/>
Tel. +1-845-365-8936,  Skype: alex.desherbinin

--
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kiringai Kamau

GODAN Africa Lead
Programme for Capacity Development in Africa (P4CDA Africa)
[https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=12AWUTz9vDpZ0noUjKIgOkRgn3DFNmMB1&revid=0BzY0XhCFp0GaZC9zTGx0RkJmWDMraFIxQzM3MzJwOGhNbitJPQ]
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<mailto:kiringai.kamau at godan.info> or
kiringai at perfect.africa<mailto:kiringai at perfect.africa>

Website: www.godan.info<http://www.godan.info/> or
www.perfect.africa<http://www.perfect.africa/>, Tweeter:
@kiringaik, Skype: kiringai.kamau

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