Identifying and mitigating risks to the quality of open data in the post-truth era

Big Data analysis often relies on open data, integrating it with large private data sets, using it as ground truth information, or providing it as part of the input to large simulations. Data can be released openly by governments to achieve various objectives: transparency, informing citizen engagement, or supporting private enterprise, to name a few. To the latter objective, Big Data analytics algorithms rely on high-quality, timely access to various data sources, including open data. Examples include retail analytics drawing on open demographic data and weather forecast systems drawing on open weather and climate data. In this paper, we describe the rise of post-truth in society, and the risks this poses to the quality, integrity, and authenticity of open data. We also discuss approaches to identifying, assessing, and mitigating these risks, and suggest future steps to manage this data quality concern.

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