Enlist OpenFisca as a UN Digital Public Good

[ericherman]

Digital Public Goods is defined by unicef/publicgoods-candidates as open source software, open data, open AI models, open standards and open content that adhere to privacy and other applicable best practices, do no harm and are of high relevance for attainment of the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Does that definition apply to OpenFisca as well?

Could OpenFisca qualify to become a Digital Public Good?

If so, the page "Contributing to Digital Public Goods" describes how to nominate a codebase for inclusion in Digital Public Goods.

[ericherman]

It seems to me there are some gaps which would need to bridged, for instance by expanding the contributing file or adding a code of conduct file.

[MattiSG]

Thanks @ericherman! This is interesting indeed. I don't identify a clear outcome from being listed as a “Digital Public Good” beyond reputation, so I wouldn't prioritise the associated work yet 🙂

For future reference, I believe that the X-road entry would be a good example, as it is also infrastructure (compared to more topical entries).

[ericherman]

@MattiSG The codebase stewards of the Foundation for Public Code would be happy to do the work to nominate the codebase ( starting here: https://submission.digitalpublicgoods.net/form ). We may not have all the answers, thus we might need to mark some items "unknown" until we get answers from you or another member of OpenFisca. Please let us know if you would like us to start that.

[MattiSG]

Awesome, thank you very much for this offer! It would surely benefit OpenFisca, so your contribution is very welcome 😃

[ericherman]

The process has begun:

• https://github.com/unicef/publicgoods-candidates/pull/760
• https://github.com/unicef/publicgoods-candidates/pull/761

[ericherman]

Unknowns from https://github.com/unicef/publicgoods-candidates/pull/760/files

• [x] isOwnershipExplicit
• [x] isPrivacyCompliant
• [x] supportStandards
• [x] implementBestPractices
• [x] stepsToPreventHarm
• [x] over-all check that the other information was guessed correctly

Probably needs improvement from https://github.com/unicef/publicgoods-candidates/pull/761/files

• [ ] Sustainable Development Goals Number
• [ ] SDG evidenceText
• [ ] SDG evidenceURL

[Ainali]

For more context, here are the full questions where we answered unknown:

• Is the ownership of the project and everything that the project produces clearly defined and documented? (i.e. This can be through copyright, trademark, or other publicly available information.)
• Has this project taken steps to ensure adherence with relevant privacy, domestic, and international laws? For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union or the Supplementary Act A/SA.1/01/10 on Personal Data Protection for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) (yes/no)
• Does this project support standards? 
• Was this project built and developed according to or in adherence with any design, technical and/or sector best practices or principles? i.e. the Principles for Digital Development?
• On the whole, does this project take steps to ensure that it anticipates, prevents and does no harm?

If the answer is Yes, for some an extra motivation is needed and a URL supporting the claim.

And for the Sustainable Development Goals it was "Please identify which of the Sustainable Development Goals this project is relevant to" with checkboxes for all 17 goals and if one was checked, the follow-up question "Please supply information or link to support relevance to SDG x (Explain how this solution is relevant):"

[MattiSG]

Thanks @ericherman & @Ainali! 😃

I added comments & suggestions on https://github.com/unicef/publicgoods-candidates/pull/760.

I like how the “additional steps taken to prevent harm” question made me think about how we could raise awareness of reusers on the ethical and legal constraints revolving around automated decision-making 🙂

Listing all SDGs in https://github.com/unicef/publicgoods-candidates/pull/761 is the heaviest part of the work, which I was a bit concerned about. I believe that we should maximise the number of SDGs that are tackled by OpenFisca and should have a community-vetted description for each of them. This political statement will be important and useful for the community. As it is quite a bit of work, I intend to wait until https://github.com/unicef/publicgoods-candidates/pull/760 receives some feedback from the @UNICEF team to assess better how much investment is warranted 😉

[MattiSG]

🍾

After quite a bit of work and an overly long time, I sent last month our complete application… and we are now officially recognised as DPG!