Why do you use the index?

In order to submit India related datasets.

What do you remember from your last visit of the index?

I remember the Index being a very transactional website, a website with a clear purpose.

I remember the objective statement to be clear.

I remember there are options to include datasets for your country.

I remember there are instructions and informations about the categories of datasets.

What is your understanding of the OpenDRI Index?

The OpenDRI Index is a website that helps you upload datasets related to disaster risks in your country.

Have you searched data on the Index?

Yes. That’s how I understood the datasets were not stored on the website, but only their metadata.

❓ I wondered how the metadata were kept in sync with the sources?

Aside of that, I was not looking for country data, nor any specific dataset.

🗣 I was interested in discovering how the data were organised.

🗣 I understand the OpenDRI Index collects the data, reflects their availability and tells us how is a government or country equiped to face disaster risks.

❓ What about if a source adds new datasets on their website, or if the dataset change (location, name, formats, its objectives, etc.) or if a dataset is removed? Is it reflected on the OpenDRI Index?
⁉️ If so, there are high chances OpenDRI Index data to become inconsistent or outdated.

I question the kind of effort in submitting datasets.

😒 It means additional work for me, to maintain the consistency and up to date informations. This is something that I need to be clear about with my management, to have that time to maintain the datasets metadata.

😒 It is a push effort, I need a motivation to do this work. What is this motivation to put the data on the Index?

😒 I need to convince the agencies to open their datasets, most of them are closed. What is my benefit to do so?

😶 There is no clear answer about that.

💡 In an ideal way, I see these two things:

there is a mechanism that pulls changes from the source website and the OpenDRI Index reflects those changes. I imagine a routine that figures out sources has changed, with some form of system notification;
to compare countries, there must be a way to compare contents of datasets otherwise we are comparing apples and bananas. Two same datasets from different countries can contain datapoints which make them uncomparable. They must share enough common ground to be useable.

What is your understanding of the scoring system?

I think i understood how it was calculated, based on known and existing datasets.

🤨 I don’t think they take in account the usability of datasets (coverage, trustworthiness, usefulness in case of events).

😒 In a way, there is nothing about the reliability of the data but the 10 open data criteria.

❓ So how do I convince my people to open their datasets?

Is comparing with datasets of other countries useful to you?

Yes, it is always interesting to see what the best countries do. And why is that so.

But it’s hard to compare things which are not alike.

❓Apart from rating the openness, why is the Index not addressing:

the quality of the datapoints, so as the shared open data is really useful
the everyday management of disaster risks by each country for the various types of hazards

For instance, have the datasets been used to respond to disasters in the past? That link is missing.

❓ So if I spend time on the Index, what will I get out of it? If I share the datasets from our open data portal, I get some green ticks, but “how are they used” is the useful point for me.

Conclusion: how was the interview time for you?

I really like that you are trying to build and reflect at the same time. I see so many cases where people get stuck in the building phase, without caring about the usability.

I think it is useful and worthy to find out.