Delivering Equity with Big and Open Data

The era of Big and Open Data offers public organizations innovative ways to help develop new and valuable services through the use of their data by third parties. By making data available using open standards, such... [ view full abstract ]

The era of Big and Open Data offers public organizations innovative ways to help develop new and valuable services through the use of their data by third parties. By making data available using open standards, such organizations place no restrictions upon how their data are used. These new, digitized services are frequently designed explicitly for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, further expanding the potential value and usability – with no direct development costs for the data provider. At the same time, however, this loss of control on the part of public organizations shifts the authority over inventing, designing, and implementing digital services to outside actors. Whether this shift results in increased value in digitized public service delivery for individuals and diverse groups is an open question

This paper examines the potential advantages and risks for disadvantaged and minority groups that arise from digital service design and delivery in a big and open data-based institutional arrangement. It develops empirically testable propositions for how the replacement of front-line bureaucrats with algorithm-based decision-making mediated by software applications can either improve or worsen service delivery and outcomes for these groups. It draws from the work on representative bureaucracy in public administration to identify the avenue for this potential change, and integrates work on bias and available recourses in algorithms, user interface design, and the organizational and social culture of software design and engineering to inform both future empirical research agendas and current practitioners’ decision-making around digital service delivery.