1. Information sharing as a habit
of citizenship: Is there an
obligation to share?
Todd Suomela, Suzie Allard
University of Tennessee, USA

2. Data Sharing
Citizenship
Citizen
Science
How do these overlap?

3. Components of citizenship
• Membership
– Sense of belonging, community
• Rights
– Civil rights, freedom of speech, assembly
• Participation
– Obligations, voting

4. Two major traditions
• Republican
–From ancient Greek
tradition
–Required participation
in government or
military
• Liberal
–Legal membership
without required
participation
–Rights traditions

5. Birds + People = Data
eBird is an online checklist for avid birders to report their
observations and turn it into data, and eventually science.

6. Science + Citizens = ?
Benefits: better understanding of the environment,
engaging citizens with important issues such as climate
change

7. 1 Billion Users on Facebook by 2012?
People are sharing more and more data.
Source: http://connect.icrossing.co.uk/facebook-hit-billion-users-summer_7709

8. What if we were obligated to
share?
• Benefits
– Improving citizenship
– Improved understanding (of the world and
ourselves)
• Risks
– Endangering privacy
– Losing trust

9. A fundamental tension
• Citizenship depends upon compromise
• The internet is large, it contains
multitudes
– But so does the world

10. Implications for the future
• Think beyond Facebook and consider
other forms of data sharing
• Information professionals must promote
education to help people distinguish
data sharing and data taking
• Develop the connections between e-
government research and data sharing

11. Dank u
Todd Suomela - tes@utk.edu
Suzie Allard - sallard@utk.edu