In looking at the management of public data, this chapter therefore has a central focus on management techniques to improve data quality. These techniques are divided into two main groups. The first group is a detailed and comprehensives set of hard, rational, technical guidelines that address data gathering and data input. The second group builds from a soft analysis of personal motivations and their (often negative) impact on data quality.
The chapter will also consider what it means to adopt a hybrid approach to public data management. This can be seen to involve not just an accommodation between the hard and soft approaches introduced in Chapter 1 ; but also accommodation between the centralized and decentralized approaches discussed in Chapter 2.
Although many of the techniques presented can be difficult to implement, the chapter nonetheless provides some valuable tools to address data issues in the public sector.