AirGradient Open Data Survey Results: How our Community wants to Share their Air Quality Data.

For around a year we have been in touch with another monitor manufacturer that produces its own monitors but also runs a very popular map application. It seems that they are happily using our data (completely for free from now more than 1000 monitors) but when I recently asked them to share the data from their own monitors they refused.

This did not feel right to me, but I wondered if I’m too sensitive on this issue and was curious to know what our broader community thinks about this issue. So I launched a short survey on this topic, and I am happy to be able to say that the feedback and results paint a very clear picture.

We received more than 400 responses, which I think is a new record of any survey we launched.

In the first question, I wanted to confirm if what I feel is an unfair behavior is shared by our community members and I am glad to report that I’m not alone with this.

Question 1

Do you think it’s fine if 3rd parties (e.g. other monitor manufacturers) use open-data from our community members but refuse to share their own data in return?

In the next question, I proposed an approach that we distinguish on how we share our data based on if the counterparty is also promoting open data and data sharing.

Question 2

Would you support the approach that AirGradient offers two opt-ins (licenses) for data sharing. One where we only allow the data to be shared with NGOs for non-profit use or with partners that share their own data in return. Basically partners that share our open-data philosophy. Another separate opt-in where people enable to share their data with anyone no matter how the data is used.

The result of this question was even more clear-cut with 408 respondents supporting this kind of approach and only 5% disagreeing.

I believe that this gives us a clear mandate to change our data sharing approach and we are currently discussing the details with some of our trusted partners. We want to make sure that our data remains as open as possible and creates maximum impact but at the same time “motivating” organisations or companies to become more open towards sharing their own data.

I want to underline that we have the clear policy that the owner of the monitor owns the data, and can do whatever they want with it. Above would only apply if the data is shared through our data platform with the data receivers using our infrastructure. We will soon announce the exact changes that we will implement in this regard.

The last question of the survey was about how we as AirGradient should deal with partners that are not transparent in regards to their data usage and sometimes maybe even intentionally opaque.

Question 3

Do you think AirGradient should explicitly name companies and organizations that pretend to be ‘community focused’ but in reality do not share fundamental principles of Open Data?

Here we have a very interesting result from 430 respondents. I believe this is a clear statement that AirGradient should continue taking a stand. However, the respondents are evenly split on how aggressive we should be with calling others out. This actually reflects our internal discussions at AirGradient where we often debate how strong we should be in our communication. For the time being we are following this approach.

I also would like to share some of the individual comments from the respondents:

• “Perhaps a way to be subtle in shaming one-way sharing is to post a list of those who use the data appropriately and those who do not embrace the openness of sharing both ways. I personally would like to know who NOT to support.”

• “There will always be companies focused on profit. Money makes the world go round, and you shouldn’t focus on calling them out. It takes away from your mission and could create a negative perception.”

• “This is a delicate situation that needs to be handled with care. Calling out other companies should be done only in extreme cases, such as when someone blatantly uses the data but refuses to share their own while still claiming to support open data.”

• “Yes, these actors need to be called out as much as possible. F** those free-balling corps.”

• “I condemn companies that take without giving back. But I don’t think it’s worth your time to pursue a crusade against them. You have more important and noble goals.”

• “Call ‘em all out by informing users that some vendors may be taking but not sharing. There’s no gray area here. They are using AirGradient’s resources for free.”

We also received countless super positive messages from community members how much they appreciate what we are doing. I shared this with the whole AirGradient team (now more than 20 people) and it was extremely motivating for them to see these messages of support.

So, a big thank you to all people that took part in this survey and for sharing your thoughts!