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I'm part of Sunlight Foundation's local team working on opening up local governments and city data, specifically. We're working on a blog post rounding up the most common reasons cited by governments to not release data** and then refuting each one. 

We've rounded up the reasons cited for not releasing data, but now we're trying to refute each one. We're hoping to round up ideas by Sept. 9. 

So, we're curious:  What are your best responses when people tell you they can't open data? / What are the best responses you've heard (or given) for releasing or sharing data?

*EDIT on Sept. 4: Thanks for the feedback, all! We're working toward sharing the crowdsourced list of reasons people have given us for not releasing data, and at that time we'll re-open the discussion on reasons TO release data.

**EDIT on Sept. 5: We've posted a blog rounding up the reasons people have cited for NOT releasing data and have re-issued the challenge to help refute each reason. Learn more here: http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/09/05/reasons-not-to-release-data/

**EDIT on Sept. 16: Thanks to everyone who has responded on the Google doc or through this platform. We're rounding up all the reasons and responses now, and we'll be sure to share it here.

**FInal update on Sept. 30: We are now starting to roll out the rebuttals as blog posts, and the first one went live today: http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/09/30/reasons-to-not-release-data-part-1-apathy/

Thanks so much to all of you who contributed ideas for this project throughout its evolution! We couldn't have done it without the help of so many different perspectives, and we feel the end result is richer for it. If you'd like to share, please join the continuing conversation by using #whyopendata.

Alisha Green
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    Hi Alisha, I think you will get better responses if you get specific. How about, for each reason, you open up a question about how to refute it. – fgregg Aug 30 '13 at 20:05
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    Yeah - Stack Exchange posts work less well as discussion forums, and better at providing specific answers to a single specific question. – Eric Mill Sep 01 '13 at 20:52
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    this is a great topic. You might want to create a question per reason you identified so the community can answer per reasons (and so get specific answers following SE standards) – magdmartin Sep 04 '13 at 17:45
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    Maybe we should break out the 50 questions as community owned questions. – fgregg Sep 05 '13 at 19:58
  • I can't comment on a deleted answer - it was simply a website to find the e-mail addresses of executives at corporations. – Taal Sep 06 '13 at 14:04
  • Let me know if you would like support in creating some or all of these questions on the community here per the suggestion from @fgregg. – Jeanne Holm Sep 06 '13 at 14:21
  • Thanks for the feedback, everyone. If you'd like to take some of the questions from the list we've compiled and make them into their own questions with links back to this posting and/or our blogpost, please feel free to do so. We agree this could help generate more focused feedback. We may post some of the questions individually as well. – Alisha Green Sep 06 '13 at 20:00
  • You guys took the question I put a bounty on and split it up into two other questions?....well can you at least refund my bounty then @JeanneHolm – Taal Sep 07 '13 at 04:45
  • @AlishaGreen Let me know if my novel of an answer helped at all - I read through your site more and it seems you tend to be more specific about getting govenment data? My answer is more about sneaky ways to get data heh. Government wise, I'm still struggling to find data in a zip code format from the buearu of labor statistics. I think you have to request it...but I'm not sure. (and it's probably tiger data. I hate tiger data. Why must the zip codes be skewed even more! ) – Taal Sep 08 '13 at 00:08
  • @Taal : there's a moderator option for 'remove bounty', but I have no idea if it'll refund it or not. – Joe Sep 09 '13 at 01:20
  • @JeanneHolm I know there's a way to refund the bounty - I think "remove bounty" is the way. It was done for me on another site. – Taal Sep 09 '13 at 05:47
  • After looking into it, I think the only way I can do this is if I close the question and refund the bounty but I'm not sure the question is closed per @AlishaGreen. – Jeanne Holm Sep 09 '13 at 12:55
  • Thanks again for all the feedback. We are focusing on responses for when governments don't want to open up data, but the commercial / corporate examples are interesting, too. We're closing this question, so please feel free to break out some of the questions into their own posts here on Stack Exchange. We'll be breaking out a few shortly as well. @JeanneHolm, would you mind closing the question? – Alisha Green Sep 09 '13 at 15:49
  • @Taal : bounty removed, and it seems to have refunded. (although, it worried me for a minute, as I guess they have some caching, as it didn't show up immediately) – Joe Sep 09 '13 at 18:36
  • If you've broken out one of these questions, would you mind also sending a link to me or to local(at)sunlightfoundation(dot)com so we can track responses? I see @fgregg has already broken out at least two here http://opendata.stackexchange.com/questions/1082/how-should-i-respond-if-a-government-official-says-she-wont-release-data-becaus and here http://opendata.stackexchange.com/questions/1081/how-should-i-respond-if-a-government-official-says-he-wont-release-data-because – Alisha Green Sep 09 '13 at 22:01
  • See also http://opendata.stackexchange.com/questions/1082/how-should-i-respond-if-a-government-official-says-she-wont-release-data-becaus – Dan Oct 03 '13 at 20:50

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"Oops! I'm sorry, I can't be your customer."

-- by which I simply mean this: they can't, and so I can't. There are plenty of other people who are interested in having an open and honest relationship with their customers; companies who don't, aren't interesting to me, and I'm frankly unwilling to waste my time with people that I can't trust.

boisvert
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    Can you be more specific about this response or provide an answer for the question? Thanks! – Jeanne Holm Sep 06 '13 at 13:45
  • So of all the products, services, goods, and food you eat now...if you asked them for some data that you were dong a project on..which sometimes could be considered on the gray line of proprietary or not....if they said no would you....for instance, just stop purchasing that product/using that service? – Taal Sep 08 '13 at 15:04
  • @Taal, I'm strange I know :) it's a judgement call, but my ethics play a big part on where I spend. But the real argument is whether companies that close their doors may lose custom, not my custom as a result. – boisvert Sep 08 '13 at 22:55
  • @boisvert if you read my post I think I may have beat you in the strangeness department. Although I have an idea that some of those tricks..well perhaps hopefully derivatives of a few at least ;) someone found useful. I do have experience that backs up what you say (or at least being treated poorly in contrast to being treated awesome) as being a large factor for many customers and their decision on what to buy or where to shop. I actually even see myself doing this sometimes even though I can't afford to. I guess the human emotion of "revenge" actually may subtly govern humanity in a way. – Taal Sep 10 '13 at 08:49
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In the end it boils down to two reasons people don't want to share their data. The first is that the data actually is non-existent. In this case people are just lying.

The main reason however, is that there can be legitimate reason to keep data closed. Ranging from commercial reasons, as an entrepreneur you sometimes simply need to keep the data to yourself keep the lead. This can especially be the case when you are alone to competing to larger teams. Another reasons to hide the data is when people would get hurt when it get revealed. You don't want to share of names of people how files a police report against a someone having a gun. I guess there are a multitude of reasons, you don't want to share.

I do expect however that people are transparent about why the data is not open. If it is just "because I say so". Well then I consider them to be of the "inventing-data kind".

Andra
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