A longitudinal cross-sector analysis of open data portal service capability: The case of Australian local governments

Abstract

While open government partnerships and open government data initiatives around the world have proliferated in practice, empirical research is required to better understand open data policy and open data portal capability which would spur meaningful citizen engagement towards co-production of open services innovation through open data reuse. Specifically, relatively little has been empirically investigated about open data portal as supply-side service capabilities at the local government level. In this longitudinal research on twenty open data portals in Australia's largest cities, cross-sector analysis results find large variation in open data portal service capabilities, which are measured by open data policy intensity, open data provision, data format variety, and entrepreneurial data services, including analytics tools, data modeling, and hackathon idea competitions. Longitudinal cross-sector analysis results also find the important roles played by open data policy and dedicated open data portal investment as predictors of open data portal service capability improvements over time.