Open government data portals: Predictors of site engagement among early users of Health Data NY

Abstract

A key premise of open government data (OGD) policies is enhanced engagement between government and the public. However, it is not well understood who the users of OGD are, how to tailor OGD content, and which communities to target for outreach. We examined users' engagement with Health Data NY, New York's health oriented OGD portal, to understand user characteristics associated with increased site engagement. We used Google Analytics data to classify four site engagement metrics into high versus low engagement and used logistic regression to test associations between higher site engagement and gender, age group, device type, and consumer interest. We found that being in a younger age bracket, male, a desktop user, and a Technophile are associated with higher engagement. The findings contribute to further understanding OGD initiatives and consumer health information behavior. More broadly, we demonstrate how OGD managers can leverage their web analytics data to understand which users are most engaged, thereby enabling them to better target their content.