several centuries, in the analog, pre-computer world. Developing countries are good case studies  
from  this  point  of  view,  because  they  are  often  leapfrogging  from  oral  tradition  straight  to 
computers in all fields, not just e-government. 
Land ownership in India, discussed by Gurnstein in 2010, is a perfect example of the problems  
carried by digitization that requests for Open Data only expose, without creating them. Digitization  
can certainly increase efficiency, transparency and economic activities, but fully achieves these  
goals only by: 
• standardizing as much as possible all concepts, formats and procedures. 
• replacing completely, at least in standard day to day procedures, whatever other records and  
ways of working existed before 
Gurnstein wrote: 
"The problem of open access in the case of land records in India is... the manner in 
which the data tends to get encoded. Typically, digitization of land records would mean 
either scanning the record as it is, or inputting all the data on the record as it is, 
without changing any fields. But ways of maintaining land records are highly diverse... 
Private ownership is not the only means of holding a land parcel. When it comes to 
land ownership, for example, it may eliminate the history of land, how were sub-
divisions and usufruct rights negotiated and enforced." 
Another risk of digitization and e-government (without openness, that is) is lack of contact between  
citizens and institutions: 
"Prior to digitization, land records in India were available to people who made 
requests with village accountants for them. .. after digitization of several services, 
village accountants no longer personally visit the villages they are in charge of... What 
has happened with digitization is a reorganization of earlier forms of social and 
political relations. Accountability has moved from the immediate village level" 
Of course, all these problems existed well before computers and return every time the political or  
social order changes. The demand for Open Data is only increasing, by orders of magnitude, the  
numbers of times in which we meet them. 
3.5. The nature of Open Government and the relationship 
between citizens and Government
Open  Data  are  an  essential  part  of  Open  Government.  Almost  everybody  agrees  with  this. 
Agreement on what exactly defines Open Government is, however, less universal. In January 2011  
Lucas Cioffi, replying to Alex Howard, wrote: 
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Copyright  2011 LEM, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna. This work is released under a Creative Commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)