How open data was used to uncover the elite benefiting from Myanmar’s jade trade(medium.com)
medium.com
How open data was used to uncover the elite benefiting from Myanmar’s jade trade
https://medium.com/@opencorporates/how-open-company-data-was-used-to-uncover-the-powerful-elite-benefiting-from-myanmar-s-multi-1ef35f88d6bd#.ommzbiwrk
2 comments
OpenCorporates limits you to 500 req/month + hard to download data in bulk (you have to pay) => This is a good example of what Open Data should not be.
The crazy part is how they receive so many OpenData prizes while being so closed.
The crazy part is how they receive so many OpenData prizes while being so closed.
The data is under a share-alike license which means if you're not going to share the results of the whatever you're going to do with the data with the rest of the world. A lot of academics, open data projects, NGOs and journalists use our Open Data API without any problem but ofcourse, we use the profits from selling our data to businesses to support the organisation. We think it's really important an organisation such as OpenCorporates remains sustainable and that's why we have this model.
That's a fair reasoning. I'm just saying that this is not opendata for me. And calling yourself opendata is misleading in my opinion.
I've been spending a lot of time in Myanmar over the past 3 years. While there is incredible progress on some fronts, corruption and asset grabbing by those in power is so entrenched that I'm pretty sure nothing will change as a result of this investigation, except perhaps removal of some data from public records.
The country is deeply in need of public revenue to fund the most basic public needs, like functional roads and sanitation, but vast amounts of the natural resource wealth are being misappropriated with no end in sight.