Governance, Transparency and the Collaborative Design of Open Data Collaboration Platforms: Understanding Barriers, Options, and Needs (original) (raw)
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As a field of practice and research that is fast-growing and a locus for much attention and activity, open government data (OGD) has attracted stakeholders froma variety of origins. They bring with thema variety ofmeanings for OGD. The purpose of this paper is to show how the different stakeholders and their different perspectives on OGD can be analyzed in a given context. Taking Chile as an OGD exemplar, stakeholder analysis is used to identify and categorize stakeholder groups in terms of their relative power and interest as either primary (in this case, politicians, public officials, public sector practitioners, international organizations) or secondary (civil society activists, funding donors, ICT providers, academics). Stakeholder groups sometimes associated with OGD but absent from significant involvement in Chile – such as private sector- and citizen-users – are also identified. Four different perspectives on open government data – bureaucratic, political, technological, and economic – are identified from a literature review. Template analysis is used to analyze text – OGD-related reports, conference presentations, and interviews in Chile – in terms of those perspectives. This shows bureaucratic and political perspectives to be more dominant than the other two, and also some presence for a politico-economic perspective not identified from the original literature review. The information value chain is used to identify a “missingmiddle” in current Chilean OGD perspectives: a lack of connection between a reality of data provision and an aspiration of developmental results. This pattern of perspectives can be explained by the capacities and interests of key stakeholders, with those in turn being shaped by Chile's history, politics, and institutions. Overall, stakeholder analysis and perspectives analysis are shown from this case to be workable techniques for OGD that add value by exposing the identity, power, motivations, and worldview of key actors. They provide a necessary foundation of knowledge for both researchers and practitioners who need to understand the different meanings of OGD in any particular context.
The Roles Of Governments In The Open Data Ecosystem
2019
, 2013). The motivations to the use of open government data have been attracting les attention than those of providing them. This situation becomes more pronounced when approaching the use of OGD by the government and public organizations, even if the audience of OGD includes government employees (Smith & Sandberg, 2018; Davies, 2010). Studies have been demonstrated that the main interesting subjects in OGD are professionals and citizens (Heise & Naumann, 2012), focusing respectively on the development of innovation based on OGD and its transparency and accountability. However, the use of OGD by the public sector is not explicit in the literature. OGD is open to both the public and the private sectors (Jetzek, Avital e Bjorn-Andersen, 2014). Consequently, it makes sense that public organizations also use OGD (from other OGD public providers) in decision-making and innovation, as well as that the literature covers this topic. Studies by Vieira and Alvaro (2018), Zhu (2017), Léveillé and Timms (2015), and Parycek, Höcht, and Ginner (2014) investigate users of OGD with multiple stakeholders, including government. However, the literature about the specific use of OGD by the government is not common. The use of OGD by government needs more attention than just the data disclosure because the government has an essential response to create public value (Ruijer et al., 2017; Pereira et al., 2017). Governments can use OGD to improve public services, decisionmaking, and define and monitor public policies implementation (Gascó-Hernández et al., 2018; Susha, Grönlund & Janssen, 2015). Public organizations need to pay special attention to improve cooperation between government organizations and stakeholders involved in producing useful OGD (Yang, Lo & Shiang, 2015). Based on the aspects discussed, this paper aims to discuss the twofold role of government in the open government data ecosystem (provider or user). This article is organized in five sections. In this section, the motivations for the study are presented, and the research problem and objectives are defined. Section 2 discusses the theoretical elements guiding the study. Section 3 describes the operationalization of the study, and section 4 presents the data analysis. The concluding remarks are set forth in Section 5. 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Open Data (OD) is the one that is free for use, without copyright restrictions, available for anyone, and machine processable (Zhang, Hua & Yuan, 2018). Open Government Data (OGD) is the OD that comes from public sector (Saxena, 2017). Around the world, governments enable open data and create expectations to transform the data into social benefits, when data generate knowledge or ideas to create public value (Ruijer et al., 2017). OGD can improve open government (Yang & Wu, 2016) because data disclosure creates a set of public sector information useful for all stakeholders, including the government itself (Galiotou & Fragkou, 2013; Linders, 2013; O'Riain et al. 2012). The information obtained from OGD can produce knowledge or ideas to be used in initiatives aiming to increase public value, which can benefit all stakeholders (Lourenço, 2015). The effective use of OGD depends on how data are disclosed and also the objective of using them (Attard et al., 2015). Transparency itself is not the only objective of OGD, which is relative to the data usefulness and demands strategic decisions before its disclosure (Dawes,
JeDEM - eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government
Open Government Data (OGD) is an important driver for open innovation among public entities. However, extant research highlights a need for improved feedback loops, collaboration, and a more demand-driven publication of OGD. In this study, we explore how public platform providers can address this issue by enabling collaboration within OGD ecosystems, both in terms of the OGD, and any related Open Source Software (OSS) and standards. We conducted an exploratory multiple-case study of four OGD ecosystems with diverse characteristics, using a qualitative research approach. Based on the cases, we present a conceptual model that highlights different attributes of OGD ecosystems that may help public entities in designing and orchestrating new or existing OGD ecosystems. We conclude that enabling collaboration in an OGD ecosystem is a complex exercise yet believe that it offers ways for public entities in how they can leverage open innovation to address their goals and directives.