Open is Not Enough: Designing for a Networked Data Commons

Citation

Singh G, Wilson A, Hamilton H & Lockley P (2023) Open is Not Enough: Designing for a Networked Data Commons. In: Sustainable Networked Learning.. Research in Networked Learning ((RINL)). New York: Springer, pp. 49-66. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-42718-3_4

Abstract
Recently, researchers within the Networked Learning (NL) community have tried to (re)claim NL’s roots in critical pedagogy and (re)assert its commitment to social justice. However, NL has also been criticised from within for not adequately or explicitly addressing power dynamics and structural inequalities. There is a perception that NL needs to network itself with more emancipatory agendas and movements to develop a more political and ethical agenda of its own. In this chapter, we attempt to network Networked Learning with Open Data through the concept of a networked data commons, using the example of open data relating to waste and waste management in Scotland. We explore some of the challenges of designing technologies for Open Data and reflect on how these challenges relate to the need for a design approach that explicitly recognises the different kinds of lives and persons that may co-operate through a convivial technology. In this context, we plug NL into a theoretical and methodological design assemblage that connects concepts of openness, data literacy, (de)coloniality, and participatory. Finally, we consider how the approaches we have been developing might benefit research that informs the design of networked learning technologies.