Open Supply Hub (OS Hub) recently participated in the Open Data Institute’s (ODI’s) data for workers’ rights peer-learning network (PLN), a collaborative initiative aimed at enhancing the use of open data. During this 8-month program in partnership with Humanity United, we had an opportunity to engage with six different organizations from all over the world and work together to surface similar data challenges, compare insights about workers’ rights across various sectors and geographies, and share best practices. Following our first reflection on this experience, 5 lessons sparked by the ODI PLN, we explore how the ODI PLN has inspired us to examine how to position our open supply chain data to maximize impact, influencing our strategy for the next three years.
Open Isn’t Enough: How to Maximize the Impact of Supply Chain Data
Through roundtables, tool sharing, and workshops at the ODI PLN, as well as our interactions with other participants, these five integral qualities rose to the surface as ways to go beyond just opening up data – to opening up data to inspire action and collaboration:
1. Openness isn’t always the answer.
While openness is often beneficial, it’s not always the best approach. Sometimes, maximizing impact means carefully managing data privacy and ownership. This policy ensures that the data is used ethically and benefits all stakeholders involved. Even open data platforms need to interrogate if they are the best place for a dataset or if certain data points and stakeholders would benefit from greater privacy and control.
2. Making Data FAIR:
It’s important to constantly evaluate and re-evaluate if an open dataset is following the FAIR principles, asking, “Is my dataset FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable? Here’s a high-level example of how we’re looking at this at OS Hub:
- Findable:
What are we doing? As an open and free platform, we make our data available right from our home page.
What could we do better? We’re working on better optimizing our platform for search (SEO) so that when stakeholders are trying to find a free and open supply chain dataset, our tool pops right up!
- Accessible:
What are we doing? At the heart of our platform, we’re making messy supply chain data easier to use. We clean supply chain data with our matching algorithm and open it to all with various tools like overlap searches, which make the tool easier to navigate than traditional spreadsheets, as well as issue-specific datasets and critical maps, such as the Turkiye/Syria earthquake map.
What could we do better? We have two big gaps in making our tool even more accessible: translation and mobile access. These are priorities for us as we look at future iterations of OS Hub.
- Interoperable:
What are we doing? Making supply chain data easy to exchange and share is the primary reason we’ve created a free, universal ID for production locations: the OS ID. Integrating OS IDs into various platforms, like our ongoing collaboration with Wikirate, exemplifies this ambition. Discussions with other PLN participants are paving the way for further integrations, ensuring a seamless user experience.
What could we do better? To make the most of the OS ID, many organizations are integrating with our platform via API. We’re constantly building new resources and improvements to make this as seamless and easy as possible. Additionally, we know interoperability isn’t something that one organization can ensure alone. That’s why we’re a part of building a global supply chain data exchange standard.
- Reusable:
What are we doing? Our data is available for download into machine-readable formats as well as via API. The dataset is built around a very basic set of data points outlined via various resources and guides on our website and tailored to specific stakeholder groups. Many researchers and organizations rely on this comprehensive data for their work, utilizing it to conduct in-depth analyses and drive impactful projects.
What could we do better? Stakeholders have shared that we could provide clearer meta-data and glossaries directly in our downloads from our platform, so users don’t have to seek out separate resources upon download.
3. Supporting Unions as a Critical Stakeholder:
The ODI PLN has provided us with valuable opportunities to engage with trade unions, allowing us to focus on their perspectives and challenges regarding sharing if/where unions are operating. This is and will be a focus area for OS Hub in the coming year, as they are a key stakeholder in the due diligence and just transition programs that so many are using our platform to build. We invite unions and related actors to reach out and collaborate with us in designing solutions that will allow unions to be a part of open supply chain datasets like ours. Together, we can create a more inclusive and effective data-sharing environment.
4. Pointing OS Hub Users to Rich Worker-Related Datasets:
OS Hub is not and should not be the repository for every single data point related to supply chains. What we can do is point users to the organizations and places where rich datasets about a production location or region exist. Many of our PLN peers either work with or directly collect critical data for advocating for workers’ rights – like wages and working hours. We aim to enhance our collaboration with these workers’ rights organizations to make it easier to navigate or connect to their datasets via OS Hub or OS IDs, to ensure that those looking for data to support fair labor practices and worker well-being can find the data they need.
5. Incorporating Perspectives from Around the World:
The diverse experiences shared within the PLN highlight the importance of constant engagement with local, regional, and global communities to inform the design of an open dataset. Stories from different sectors worldwide have inspired increased participation across various regions. The network’s collaborative approach to problem-solving illustrated that initiatives should be globally inclusive to avoid exacerbating existing inequities. Having a global group like this underscored the need to always keep this blueprint in mind when building our future programs, whether we are actively a part of a formal PLN or not.
Our goal isn’t just to build an open supply chain dataset – our goal is to open up supply chain data so that it can be used and trusted as a force for good. That means that being open isn’t enough. Incorporating these learnings into our decision-making processes will help us build new programs, resources, functionality, and engagement opportunities, making our platform more accessible to civil society organizations (CSOs) and impact-driven programs around the world. Want to join us? We’d love to hear from you.
OS Hub is a non-profit platform that relies on philanthropic support to sustain the world’s most complete, open and accessible supply chain map. Join us in powering the transition to safe and sustainable supply chains by making a donation today.
