Open Government Data Research Articles

Open government data initiatives in the Maghreb countries: An empirical analysis

This article explores the practices followed in preserving and sharing data in open data portals in the Maghreb countries, and assesses whether their structure and organization are consistent with the objectives of these portals. A set of characteristics that must be available in open data portals was developed and then used as a framework for analysing the structure and organization of open data portals in the Maghreb countries. The study adopted a content analysis approach to analyse the content of five open data portals (in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania). The findings indicate that open data portals in the Maghreb countries provide data from different ministries, local communities and organizations. The findings also indicate that the open government data portals in Algeria and Morocco lack translation of content into English, which affects non-Arabic-language speakers. Moreover, the adoption of open data policies is still in its early stages. The study’s originality lies in the fact that it is the first study that focuses on the countries of the Arab Maghreb and the extent of their progress in adopting and making open data available.

Factors in the adoption of open government initiatives in Spanish local governments

The Open Government Data (OGD) projects have spread rapidly in recent years, given that they involve a great transformative potential, whose aims to guarantee transparent government and stimulate the participation and citizenry engagement. It seems that there is a lack of studies analysing factors regarding both the access to OG projects and the volume and format of data published into OGD projects. Therefore, this paper seeks to identify main factors affecting both the way of accessing the OG projects and the volume and format of data published into OGD projects in larger Spanish municipalities (with >50,000 inhabitants and a sample of 145 municipalities). Our main findings seem to point out the intention of sample governments to increase their information disclosure as a way for enhancing their reputation or government's image introducing OGDPs initiatives. Also, it revels differences among analysed municipalities regarding the context in which the information is disclosed.

An Open Data Repository for Engineering Design: Using Text Mining with Open Government Data

Engineering Design (ED) is a complex process in which the reuse of knowledge is crucial: applying the knowledge consolidated in previous design activities to future design activities means performing them in a better way. The relevance of data in ED is even more crucial in a business context in which Data Science (DS) is literally revolutionizing the way companies operate and therefore also the way data are analyzed.Despite having been recognized as crucial for ED processes, data still remain closed in the domain and accessible only to their owners due to several constraints related to the private and proprietary nature of the acquired data. An answer to these challenges could be found in Open Data, but at the state of the art an operational Engineering Design framework to embrace them is still far to be achieved by both academia and industry.Given these issues, the aim of this paper is to give evidence that Text Mining can help to make a complex open database more effective to be used for the ED process, taking U.S. Open Government Data (OGD) repository as a case study. Open access to methods and data used within this research is provided.The results of this study allow us to understand for which purposes it is possible to apply the datasets and to comprehend the expertise and the data science methods needed for processing different data formats. Moreover, this work opens relevant implications and challenges for researchers, practitioners and policy makers operating in ED and DS domains that could become opportunities for future research and industrial applications.

Open Government Data (OGD) Research: Retrospection and Forethoughts

Open Government Data (OGD) initiatives around the world have rapidly expanded as a result of E-government (electronic government). In the past decade, research in OGD has increased, but the scope of OGD research has not expanded beyond four strands: research revolving around the literature review of OGD research; research focusing on the benefits and challenges of OGD initiative implementation; research on the quality of OGD portals; and examination of the usage and adoption of OGD. This study provides an overview of these strands and an outlook on the future of OGD research. In addition to summarising the discussion in the preceding sections, the conclusion presents the study's limitations and implications for practitioners.

Transparency of open data ecosystems in smart cities: Definition and assessment of the maturity of transparency in 22 smart cities

• Smart city data portals’ compliance with the transparency requirements is investigated. • Four levels of maturity are defined to assess transparency of smart city data portals. • Expert assessment is used to assess the transparency of smart city data portals. • Smart city portals are ranked determining their level of transparency maturity. • Open data ecosystem is conceptualized and 5 types of current ecosystems are identified. This paper focuses on the issue of the transparency maturity of open data ecosystems seen as the key for the development and maintenance of sustainable, citizen-centered, and socially resilient smart cities. This study inspects smart cities’ data portals and assesses their compliance with transparency requirements for open (government) data. The expert assessment of 34 portals representing 22 smart cities, with 36 features, allowed us to rank them and determine their level of transparency maturity according to four predefined levels of maturity - developing, defined, managed, and integrated. In addition, recommendations for identifying and improving the current maturity level and specific features have been provided. An open data ecosystem in the smart city context has been conceptualized, and its key components were determined. Our definition considers the components of the data-centric and data-driven infrastructure using the systems theory approach. We have defined five predominant types of current open data ecosystems based on prevailing data infrastructure components. The results of this study should contribute to the improvement of current data ecosystems and build sustainable, transparent, citizen-centered, and socially resilient open data-driven smart cities.

Pembangunan Portal Open Data untuk Mendukung Open Government dan Smart City (Studi Kasus: Pemerintah Daerah Kota Gorontalo)

Gorontalo City has a Smart City program that can help community activities, one of which is through easy access to data. However, currently stakeholders and the community have not been able to access these data easily, transparently, and accountably. The purpose of this research is to build an open government data portal application in Gorontalo City to make it easier for stakeholders and the public to access data in a transparent and accountable manner as an effort to create a more open government (Open Government), participatory, and innovative. The research method used in this research is the prototyping method, which is a software system development method where developers and users can interact with each other during the system creation process so that users can clearly define their needs to be translated by developers into application form. The prototyping method includes data collection for various sectors in each SKPD in Gorontalo City, data analysis, system prototype development which is an overview of the application being built, prototype evaluation, system coding namely the development of open data portal applications, system testing, and system evaluation by users. The results showed that the open data portal made it easier for stakeholders and the public to access data. With this open data portal application, the performance of the Gorontalo City government is more transparent and accountable in providing information for the people of Gorontalo City in particular and the public in general.

Systemic effects of an open government program on data quality: the case of the New York State’s Food Protection program area

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the open government data initiative in the Food Protection program area within the New York State’s Department of Health to assess the impacts of opening data in terms of data quality and public value. An ecosystem lens is used to explore the dynamics of actors and their interactions, the processes involved in the program and the consequences such interplay brought forth to data quality.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected through 15 semistructured interviews with multiple stakeholders from different sectors, such as county officials, administrators and technicians, food sanitarians, data journalists and restaurant owners. At the analysis stage, the ecosystem perspective helped to capture the big picture of the open data actor interrelationships within this community regarding the food service inspections datasets.FindingsPrior research suggests that open data initiatives enhance data quality. However, this study shows how opening data can adversely affect the quality of data. Results are explained by competing dynamics and conflicting interests among open data actors, undermining the expected public value from open data initiatives.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are in contrast with the mainstream open data literature and helps open data scholars to anticipate some currently unexpected results of open data initiatives. Limitations include potential biases associated to interpretation of interview data and that the results are based on a single case study.Practical implicationsThis study makes governments and policymakers alert about the possibility of similar open data byproducts and unwanted outcomes and helps them to design more effective open data policies, hence gaining higher economic advantage while lowering costs of open data initiatives.Originality/valueDetailed open data and open data case studies through the ecosystem perspective are still scarce and can enrich discussions about open data policy design and refinement in the public sector. The data used for this research are not used in any prior papers, and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to identify such adverse effects of data quality that have been reported.

Who Is the Most Effective Country in Anti-Corruption? From the Perspective of Open Government Data and Gross Domestic Product

Corruption represents the misuse of public power by government departments for personal gain, hindering a country’s economic growth. Corruption cannot be eliminated by implementing the national democratic system, and mature democratic countries also exist with varying degrees of corruption. Corruption affects people’s trust in the public sector and the country’s economic development. Open government data can help people understand the governance performance of the government to reduce corruption in the public sector. Citizens can use open government data to generate innovative applications and economic value. This study uses a two-stage data envelopment analysis method to assess the anti-corruption efficiency of 21 countries from 2013 to 2017 through open government data, the corruption perception index, and GDP data. Then, the efficiency analyzed is introduced into the BCG (Boston Consulting Group) matrix to observe the distribution of these 21 countries. Analyzing the results showed that Uruguay and Costa Rica in Central and South America are the two most influential countries in fighting corruption. Turkey is at the bottom in the evaluation of anti-corruption efficiency. In addition, discussions of the included countries for their possible improvement in anti-corruption are also provided by using the association rule’s analysis. The study results will provide a reference for governments to effectively carry out anti-corruption work in the future.

English–Korean speech translation corpus (EnKoST‐C): Construction procedure and evaluation results

AbstractWe present an English–Korean speech translation corpus, named EnKoST‐C. End‐to‐end model training for speech translation tasks often suffers from a lack of parallel data, such as speech data in the source language and equivalent text data in the target language. Most available public speech translation corpora were developed for European languages, and there is currently no public corpus for English–Korean end‐to‐end speech translation. Thus, we created an EnKoST‐C centered on TED Talks. In this process, we enhance the sentence alignment approach using the subtitle time information and bilingual sentence embedding information. As a result, we built a 559‐h English–Korean speech translation corpus. The proposed sentence alignment approach showed excellent performance of 0.96 f‐measure score. We also show the baseline performance of an English–Korean speech translation model trained with EnKoST‐C. The EnKoST‐C is freely available on a Korean government open data hub site.

Bir Yerel Hizmet Olarak Açık Yönetişim Veri Uygulamaları: Türkiye’de Büyük Şehir Belediyelerinden Örnekler

This study aims to investigate the extent to which Open Government Data (OGD) practices as a part of local services provided by metropolitan municipalities in Turkey. Supporting local authorities in terms of the OGD practices in the United States in 2009 has caused significant change not only in local governments of the United States but also in various municipalities all over the world. These caused further debate about the contents of data that has been disclosed by local authorities. Although the debate about the transparency, participation, and collaboration between the municipalities and society kept the interest alive for the OGD practices, there is not much to say for Turkey’s metropolitan municipalities. Currently, there are only four metropolitan municipalities consisting of Istanbul, Izmir, Balikesir, and Konya Metropolitan Municipalities that have open data portals. In that context, this study aims to take a closer look at the OGD applications in those municipalities. Results show that metropolitan municipalities suffer from providing insufficient quantity and quality of data. Municipalities are not aware of the relationship between the data formats and potential outcomes for society. Thus, limited data publishing policies are not causing better civic engagement between municipalities and locals. Thus, these disorganizations reduce the metropolitan municipalities’ transparency, participation, and accountability.

Open Government Data in Gulf Cooperation Council Countries: An Analysis of Progress

Open government data (OGD) has been introduced relatively recently in Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCC Countries). However, progress has been significantly less than either hoped for or expected. The purpose of this research is to explore the reasons for this lack of progress. To do so, the attitudes and views of a range of senior government department (OGD-related) personnel were sought, using semi-structured interviews, and the results examined using thematic analysis. Unlike existing studies, which focus on external barriers to progress, this study focuses on internal factors which can result in a lack of progress to implementation, such as leadership attitudes, organisational culture and fear of failure. The findings show that considerable changes are required at both an ideological and practical level, if the gap between expectation and reality is to be closed. The paper concludes with recommendations of specific actions that can be taken to close this gap and the identification of areas where further study would be useful.

Map-based dashboard design with open government data for learning and analysis of industrial innovation environment

ABSTRACT Open government data has great potential to support various stakeholders for multiple purposes, such as participatory planning, smart city services, and strategic decision-making. However, many barriers stand in the way of efficient learning and analysis of the data. Suitable tools are needed to overcome these barriers. In this study, we designed and implemented a map-based dashboard called InDash to represent the spatial and semantic information of the industrial innovation environment at different levels of detail. We collected the open data from the statistical yearbook in 2015 Jiangsu, China, and selected 24 relevant factors from the categories of economy, inhabitance, infrastructure, and research & development to illustrate the design. To ensure the usefulness of InDash, we first analyzed and summarized the information needs and design requirements from the potential users. We then proposed the design requirements and designed the interface of InDash. Moreover, we evaluated the effectiveness of InDash using the think-aloud approach with 30 participants. The experiment results show that the users can efficiently learn and reason about the industrial innovation environment through InDash without intensive training.

Key factors and generation mechanisms of open government data performance: A mixed methods study in the case of China

Open government data (OGD) has attracted widespread attention and has been widely carried out on a global scale. With further promotion, OGD performance becomes a hot topic and meaningful enough for in-depth exploration. This research focuses on the influential factors and generation mechanisms of OGD performance. Based on the resource-based theory and institutional theory, this paper constructs a model from multiple dimensions of internal resources and external pressures. Subsequently, from the 122 cities in China that have constructed OGD platforms, this study adopts a mixed research methods approach, which combines the regression analysis method and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). The regression analysis results show that the organization arrangement, legal and policy, and horizontal pressure have direct positive effects on OGD performance. On this basis, this paper use QCA method to explore the configuration paths for the generation of OGD performance of cities in different geographic regions and at different administrative ranks levels. The QCA results provide different configuration paths to achieve better OGD performance, which verified the conclusions drawn by the regression analysis, also provides alternative paths for governments with different characteristics. This paper enriches the studies on OGD performance and provides more targeted paths together with references for the implementation of OGD.

Categorisation of Open Government Data Literature

Abstract Background: Due to the emerging global interest in Open Government Data, research papers on various topics in this area have increased. Objectives: This paper aims to categorise Open government data research. Methods/Approach: A literature review was conducted to provide a complete overview and classification of open government data research. Hierarchical clustering, a cluster analysis method, was used, and a hierarchy of clusters on selected data sets emerged. Results: The results of this study suggest that there are two distinct clusters of research, which either focus on government perspectives and policies on OGD, initiatives, and portals or focus on regional studies, adoption of OGD, platforms, and barriers to implementation. Further findings suggest that research gaps could be segmented into many thematic areas, focusing on success factors, best practices, the impact of open government data, barriers/challenges in implementing open government data, etc. Conclusions: The extension of the paper, which was first presented at the Entrenova conference, provides a comprehensive overview of research to date on the implementation of OGD and points out that this topic has already received research attention, which focuses on specific segments of the phenomenon and signifies in which direction new research should be made.

IMPLEMENTATION OF OPEN GOVERNMENT DATA IN ASIAN COUNTRIES: A REVIEW


 
 Open Government Data (OGD) is data gathered and processed by public sector or government agencies and made available to the public via a web portal. Many countries have implemented OGD in order to promote economic growth and social development (e.g., the UK, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, Netherlands, etc.). The purpose of this paper is to examine the implementation of OGD in a few Asian countries based on previous research, in order to understand the challenges and experiences of OGD implementation in these countries. Analysis was done on the relevant literature and online resources. The findings indicate that there are many benefits gained from the OGD implementation, at the same time there are challenges that need to be overcome before realizing these benefits. Additionally, it was found that there are several factors that contribute towards successful OGD implementation in those selected countries. Another finding is that there is not many past research related to OGD implementation in Asian countries, hence it can be concluded that OGD research in this region is still at infancy.
 

Availability and Access to Open Government Data in Nigeria: A Content Analysis of Government Websites and Nigerian Data Portal

Globally, democratic principles revolve around transparency, accountability and greater involvement of the citizens in government programmes and activities for sustainable development. This can only be achieved if the people have access to government information and this is why agitations for freedom of information continue to heighten. Open government data (OGD) play major roles in democratization of information and a propeller of transparency and open governance. This paper adopted descriptive informatics and literature review approach to examine the websites of major government ministries and agencies in Nigeria including Nigeria Data Portal to determine the availability and status of open government data. Findings reveal that while some websites have presence of OGD, over 60% are yet to provide such data in the website. Also the data portal has several government data but they are hardly updated. The paper also identified several challenges of OGD in Nigeria and proposed recommendations to mitigate the challenges.

Data Inventories for the Modern Age? Using Data Science to Open Government Data

This article describes how data science techniques—machine learning and natural language processing—can be used to open the black box of government data. It then describes how an incentive structure can be established—using human–computer interaction techniques —to create a new and sustainable data ecosystem. The particular focus is on the United States and on scientific researchers, who are major users of government data. However, the approach can be deployed to other use cases, such as data mentions in newspapers and government reports, and many other countries

County-city consolidation and sustainability: Empirical evidence from Taiwan’s local experience in the 2010s

ABSTRACT Governmental sustainable development pertains to the realm of collective action, which generates economies of scale in which the actors share the costs of their actions. Through consolidation, an originally adjoint city is merged with a county, facilitating the sustainable development of collective action within local governments. This study empirically corroborated the relationship between the time since local government consolidation (in years) and sustainability. Open government data were used to establish a secondary database; data from Taiwan’s 22 cities and counties were collected over a multiyear period, before and after county-city consolidation. Time-series analysis and event history analysis (survival analysis models) were employed to corroborate whether county-city consolidation positively affects sustainability. County-city consolidation contributed to improvements in sustainability, only in regard to the growth rate of per capita annual disposable income and the growth rate of tertiary education of 15+ age in the jurisdictions. This research then concluded that the extreme integration approach of local governments under county-city consolidation may promote collective sustainability-related benefits, but it may simultaneously enlarge the poverty gap in the society.

Unveiling environmental justice through open government data: Work in progress for most US states

AbstractOpen government data (OGD) are critical for environmental justice (EJ) policymaking, which is characterized by power and information asymmetries across government agencies, affected populations, and advocacy groups. We contend that not only should state governments provide OGD but also they should remove the burden associated with data access and use it to address the data divide and facilitate the participation of vulnerable populations in policymaking. Applying a user‐oriented approach, this article evaluates the completeness, usability, and accessibility of EJ‐OGD initiatives across the 50 US states. Results show that only one out of five states achieves at least half points on our EJ‐OGD Implementation Score, suggesting that most states do not provide OGD to answer two core EJ questions: “To what extent is my community exposed to environmental harm and health hazards? Is the exposure disproportionately high given my community's socioeconomic characteristics?” We discuss implications for equity and next steps for the government.

Development of an Open Government Data (OGD) Evaluation Framework for BIM

Open government data (OGD) provide an opportunity for developing various services by disclosing information monopolized by the government to the public so that the private sector can use it. The private sector is utilizing this to improve the work efficiency and productivity by collecting, analyzing, and reprocessing OGD for various work steps of a BIM-based design project. However, most studies on OGD focus on the functionality and usability of data portals and the factors for evaluating the data itself such as openness, accountability, and transparency. This study aims to provide an evaluation framework for OGD for the AEC industry to assess the data utilization environment in order to improve the productivity of BIM-based projects. Several OGD principles found within related literature are discussed, and from them we extract evaluation framework levels. Then, we validate the proposed framework by applying it to a case of developing a BIM-based design support system using OGD datasets. This research concludes by suggesting that to effectively utilize OGD in the construction industry, the private sector should simply view data after collecting them, create an institutional environment for creating new values by reprocessing data, and build an active data utilization roadmap based on this environment.