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codeforamerica / civic-tech-patterns

common patterns and anti-patterns for civic tech and civic apps
http://codeforamerica.github.io/civic-tech-patterns
BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised" License
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Neither open data nor open source in government are political; neither are they neutral. #51

Open carlvlewis opened 5 years ago

bensheldon commented 5 years ago

Thanks @carlvlewis for contributing!

Can you please expand a little more on this pattern and how an ideator or practitioner can apply (or avoid) it?

carlvlewis commented 5 years ago

I was very sleepy when writing this! Avoid the pattern of thinking open gov and open data only have merit in anti-corruption and ‘good government.’ Often, civic tech communities of practice, in championing the release of public data, claim the mantle of nonpartisanship and neutrality. But information isn’t a neutral force. Sometimes, it will have political effects. It’s also a terrible riff on Melvin Kranzberg: “Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral.”