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Reimagining Open Data during Disaster Response: Applying a Feminist Lens to Three Open Data Projects in Post-Earthquake Nepal

Published: 16 April 2023 Publication History

Abstract

Open Data has become a prominent ideal in humanitarian information work and is increasingly promoted for crisis situations to increase effectiveness, accountability, and empower citizens. However, like all socio-technical systems, open data platforms for disasters make implicit and explicit assumptions about data, data users, disasters, and the context of use. In this paper, we turn to feminist theory to examine three open data projects rolled out in the aftermath of the 2015 earthquake in Nepal. We used the seven principles of Data Feminism introduced by D'Ignazio and Klein to design an evaluative framework for the three projects. We use this framework to highlight and link the socio-political nature of both disasters and open data platforms. In our results, we highlight significant gaps in how these projects made labor (in)visible, engaged with affective aspects of disaster, addressed context, and challenged power. We argue that these gaps are reflective of dominant practices in open data for disasters and serve as opportunities for designers and crisis informatics researchers to reimagine the potential of such projects. We propose four ways of doing so based on feminist principles and values.

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    cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
    Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction  Volume 7, Issue CSCW1
    CSCW
    April 2023
    3836 pages
    EISSN:2573-0142
    DOI:10.1145/3593053
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    Published: 16 April 2023
    Published in PACMHCI Volume 7, Issue CSCW1

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    1. disaster response
    2. feminism
    3. open data

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