What is the public value of your data use?

What is the public value of your data use?

The data solidarity team based at the University of Vienna has created a new online tool. What is the purpose of the tool?

Understanding and governing data use for the betterment of society has become increasingly important in public policy and everyday life. Governments worldwide are formulating strategies to release 'high value' open data with the aim of benefiting the environment, economy, and society as a whole. 

Solidarity-based data governance (data solidarity)—by strengthening collective control and ownership of data—helps to ensure that the benefits and costs of digital practices are borne collectively and fairly. Next to preventing harm, data solidarity foregrounds the public value that specific instances of data use create.

But how do we know how much public value specific instances of data use are likely to create? This is where our new online tool comes in. The Public VaLUe Assessment TOol (PLUTO) can be used by anyone, such as  representatives of businesses or public bodies wanting to know how much public value specific uses of data may create, or patients and other citizens who are asked to share their data to be used for specific purposes.