What does the pressure associated with the growing demand for "open science" to make research data publicly accessible mean for ethnographic research? What challenges, problems and opportunities are associated with the processing and archiving of ethnological research data in repositories, especially for possible subsequent use? What boundary shifts in the relationship between public and private go hand in hand with making ethnographic data available and which materials are actually suitable for this? How much effort is involved in preparing research materials and which publics should be addressed at all? These and other aspects were discussed in December 2021 by a total of nine social and cultural anthropologists working at different universities and research institutions in an online discussion round. The text presented here is a slightly edited, but otherwise unchanged version of this exchange of ideas, approved by the discussion partners, with which the group would like to encourage reflection on this central topic.