Abstract
The expression ‘open data’ relates to a system of informative and freely accessible databases that public administrations make generally available online in order to develop an informative network between institutions, enterprises and citizens. On this topic, using the semantic network analysis method, the research aims to investigate the communication structure and the governance of open data in the Twitter conversational environment. In particular, the research questions are: (1) Who are the main actors in the Italian open data infrastructure? (2) What are the main conversation topics online? (3) What are the pros and cons of the development and use (reuse) of open data in Italy? To answer these questions, we went through three research phases: (1) analysing the communication network, we found who are the main influencers; (2) once we found who were the main actors, we analysed the online content in the Twittersphere to detect the semantic areas; (3) then, through an online focus group with the main open data influencers, we explored the characteristics of Italian open data governance. Through the research, it has been shown that: (1) there is an Italian open data governance strategy; (2) the Italian civic hacker community plays an important role as an influencer; but (3) there are weaknesses in governance and in practical reuse.
Highlights
The expression ‘open data’ relates to a system of informative and freely accessible databases that public administrations make generally available online in order to develop an informative network between institutions, enterprises and citizens.Open data (OD) can be regarded as an integral part of the open government movement (Yu and Robinson 2011; Kundra 2012; Ubaldi 2013; Gerunov 2015)
We outline the theoretical foundations of open government and the civic hacking culture; secondly, we illustrate the research design and the methodology used to define the main actors in the Italian OD system, to select the expert hackers, and to realise the online focus group; and thirdly, we present the results of the research concluding on the pros and cons of the OD system in Italy
In the first step of the research, the analysis of digital trails within the Google groups brought to light 670 discussion chats on the OD issue, and 50 Italian groups participating in the conversations
Summary
The expression ‘open data’ relates to a system of informative and freely accessible databases that public administrations make generally available online in order to develop an informative network between institutions, enterprises and citizens. The 2010 Digital Agenda of the European Commission and the 2013 G8 Open Data Charter are further examples of how political institutions consider OD to be an important resource that can: contribute to a more transparent and efficient government; strengthen democracy, by encouraging participation from citizens; and contribute to economic growth, by facilitating entrepreneurship, innovation and scientific discoveries, thereby improving citizens’ lives and contributing significantly to job creation (Huijboom and Van Den Broek 2011; Jetzek 2013; Jung and Park 2015; Donker and Van Loenen 2017) In addition to these social, political and economic benefits, we can mention operational and technical benefits, such as the ability to reuse data; optimisation of administrative processes, improvement of public policies, access to external problemsolving capacity, and fair decision-making (by enabling comparison, easier access to data and discovery of data); creation of new data derived from combining data; external quality checks of data (validation); sustainability of data (no data loss); and the ability to merge, integrate and mesh public and private data (Janssen et al 2012). We outline the theoretical foundations of open government and the civic hacking culture; secondly, we illustrate the research design and the methodology used to define the main actors in the Italian OD system, to select the expert hackers, and to realise the online focus group; and thirdly, we present the results of the research concluding on the pros and cons of the OD system in Italy
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