Ownership

Definition

“Data ownership refers to both the possession of and responsibility for information. Ownership implies power as well as control. The control of information includes not just the ability to access, create, modify, package, derive benefit from, sell or remove data, but also the right to assign these access privileges to others (Loshin, 2002).” This definition is both related to the data itself (who owns data?), but also about the knowledge inside of it.

Definition source: Northern Illinois University (n.d.), Responsible Conduct in Data Management.

Stakes

part of: discrimination

Ownership should be considered in order to confront unbalanced power structures. Concrete actions can then be taken to provide more fairness in these structures (such as shifting ownership).

Where does it occur in the lifecycle?

1 - Set up

• Write Data Management Plan (DMP)

5 - Preserve & Share

• Create or choose an interface to publish data, analyses, visualisations and other publications

Questions to consider throughout your work

• Who (legally) owns the data you will produce?
• Who owns the data (legally) and is there consent for data archiving and sharing at the same time?

Examples

• Local Contexts: https://localcontexts.org/
  • Traditional Knowledge Labels: https://localcontexts.org/labels/traditional-knowledge-labels/
• District Six Museum: https://www.districtsix.co.za/
• Otherwise Property: A Conversation with Bernadette Atuahene. With Pressing Matters. Otherwise Property Conversations. 2024. Interview. https://pressingmatter.nl/otherwise-property-a-conversation-with-bernadette-atuahene/.

Good-better-best practices

Good	Better	Best
When writing metadata: Focus on the humanity of an individual before their identity/ies, e.g. always mention names before saying their social status.1	Acknowledge the sources from which your data comes from and interrogate them within your publications.	Share ownership of your project with affected communities. See: Collaboration.
“Do not use passive voice when describing oppressive relationships”.2		Rigorously evaluate your sources, tools and methods early on in the project, assess possible implications and make decisions to identify/include and use alternative sources, tools and methods that can mitigate biased output or biased inferences based on the output.

Resources

• Drieënhuizen, C. (2018). Mirrors of Time and Agents of Action Indonesia’s Claimed Cultural Objects and Decolonisation, 1947-1978. BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review, 133(2), 79-90. https://doi.org/10.18352/bmgn-lchr.10552

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1. Adapted from Archives for Black Lives, Anti-Racist Description Resources (2019), pp. 3-4. ↩

2. Taken from Archives for Black Lives, Anti-Racist Description Resources (2019), pp. 3-4. ↩