Donazione come condivisione. Verso la 'filantropia dei dati'

In today network and data-driven societies, connections between ICT technology and the new practices of corporate philanthropy are innovatively redefining and reshaping the major characteristics of giving. Together with the advancement of digital environments, where ‘technological actors’ such as Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook produce, receive and exchange large amounts of data, ‘data philanthropy’ has been thought of and proposed as a theoretical and social movement aimed at fostering knowledge and information sharing. It encourages, first and foremost, companies to ‘donate’ their own data, so as to create new forms of knowledge, and, secondly, charities and grant-making organizations to share data about philanthropy. Although the movement is still under development, and issues it faces –from privacy to reasons related to business and marketing strategies— are not easy to solve and they impede changes to the status quo, information flows are gradually, but radically, proceeding from the private and the third sectors to civil society, so as to open up the ‘black boxes’ of knowledge. By starting from the premise of this new digital phenomenon, i.e., big data, this contribution explores the main ethical, legal and social issues arising in generating innovative sources of virtual knowledge, creatively mediated by the web and ICT technology. The analysis posits that the advance of data philanthropy can provide fertile ground for both a democratic and participatory rethinking of giving, and the construction of relations between institutions, industries, non-profit organizations and citizens, as trustworthy ‘bridges of knowledge’ based on solidarity and collaborative commitment.