The values of open data in terms of accessibility, research scrutiny, and data transparency are important ethical values that all scientists should aspire to achieve. As part of the drive for open science in general, the development of open data and, associated with it, open access, are key characteristics. Although these may be the key drivers for open data in science, the potential to inform policies and to support non-academic sectors are also high on the political agenda for geographical science, placing the issue of “open data” firmly within the context of the neoliberalisation of universities and academics. Open data becomes a common resource from which other researchers, business, and government can extract value. This paper addresses the contexts in which open data is being encouraged and identifies concerns that these policies may need to be sensitive to, such as existing and emerging power relations within which data is produced and consumed. Viewing open data in this context illuminates some potential ethical issues that the benign ideal of open data could produce. We explore the importance of viewing research and research outputs within the dimensions of a dynamic set of power relationships, which often go unnoticed by practitioners. This suggests the debate over open data needs to be sensitive to the contexts within which researchers work and implicitly emphasise the key role that data, and its production and sharing, play in these relationships. By thinking about the different values of “data” defined by these relations, it is possible to untangle how the seemingly unquestionable drive to open data may pose problems for some researchers. It is suggested, however, that some of these potential issues could be creatively used to address issues of unequal power relations and so enable a greater and mutually rewarding flow of open data between researchers.

中文翻译：

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开放数据的价值

开放数据在可访问性、研究审查和数据透明度方面的价值是所有科学家都应该渴望实现的重要伦理价值。作为推动开放科学的一部分，开放数据的发展以及与之相关的开放获取是关键特征。尽管这些可能是科学中开放数据的关键驱动因素，但为政策提供信息和支持非学术部门的潜力也在地理科学的政治议程上占据重要位置，将“开放数据”问题牢牢置于大学和学术界的新自由化。开放数据成为其他研究人员、企业和政府可以从中提取价值的公共资源。本文讨论了鼓励开放数据的背景，并确定了这些政策可能需要敏感的问题，例如生产和消费数据的现有和新兴权力关系。在这种情况下查看开放数据阐明了开放数据的良性理想可能产生的一些潜在的道德问题。我们探讨了在一组动态的权力关系的维度内查看研究和研究成果的重要性，而这往往被从业者忽视。这表明关于开放数据的辩论需要对研究人员工作的环境敏感，并暗中强调数据及其生产和共享在这些关系中发挥的关键作用。通过思考这些关系定义的“数据”的不同值，有可能解开看似不容置疑的开放数据驱动如何给一些研究人员带来问题。然而，有人建议，其中一些潜在问题可以创造性地用于解决不平等的权力关系问题，从而在研究人员之间实现更大和互惠互利的开放数据流。