The next speaker at the 5th Data Donation Symposium at the Weizenbaum-Institut in Berlin is Joris Mulder, representing the Dutch LISS panel study which asked panel participants to donate their insights on energy use. LISS is a representative Dutch panel of some 7,500 participants; it includes a data donation element built on the Port software which only extracts the data points that are required.
However, in this study people were asked to directly upload their energy use insights as unstructured data to the survey. These may include screenshots, datasets, emails from energy providers, and other materials, and such participation was incentivised by a small additional payment. Some 80% of panel members reported having access to some form of energy insights, and some 35% indicated a willingness to actually donate such insights. This was affected by the value of incentive payments.
Of these willing participants, some 83% actually did donate some materials, but only 47% provided minimally useable materials as defined by the criteria of the study (at least seven days of data, and at least daily measurements). In total, this equates to less than 8% of the total number of participant in the LISS survey. 68% of uploaded materials required parsing data from graphical representations.
Men, younger participants, and those with higher education were more willing to donate information; many of the materials uploaded were still personally identifiable and required time-consuming manual redaction. The question arising from this is how to retain broad participation while reducing manual processing requirements, then.
