A Conceptual Framework for Open Government Data: Drawing upon Conditions Surrounding Use

Public decision-makers’ interest in digital technology has fuelled the debate about the potential of open government data (OGD) as a foundation and driver for economic growth, competitiveness, innovation, job creation, and soci- etal progress in general. These potentials create high expectations sustained by a plethora of economic and societal forecasts about OGD. However, there appears to be a lack of scholarly literature about OGD use from which value stems. This paper addresses this concern by developing a conceptual framework scoping con- ditions surrounding OGD use. The conceptual framework, built on the literature, gathers three major components, i.e. (1) the characteristics of the datasets, (2) the features of the OGD portal, and (3) the organizational resources and capabilities, which altogether afford use. The paper also provides some insights for research- ers and policymakers. By structuring conditions surrounding OGD use in organ- izations, the framework allows to further distinguish between the opportunities offered by the OGD portal and respective datasets from the actualization of those opportunities by organizations throughout use

A Conceptual Framework for Open Government Data: Drawing upon Conditions Surrounding Use

Public decision-makers’ interest in digital technology has fuelled the debate about the potential of open government data (OGD) as a foundation and driver for economic growth, competitiveness, innovation, job creation, and societal progress in general. These potentials create high expectations sustained by a plethora of economic and societal forecasts about OGD. However, there appears to be a lack of scholarly literature about OGD use from which value stems. This paper addresses this concern by developing a conceptual framework scoping conditions surrounding OGD use. The conceptual framework, built on the literature, gathers three major components, i.e. (1) the characteristics of the datasets, (2) the features of the OGD portal, and (3) the organizational resources and capabilities, which altogether afford use. The paper also provides some insights for researchers and policymakers. By structuring conditions surrounding OGD use in organizations, the framework allows to further distinguish between the opportunities offered by the OGD portal and respective datasets from the actualization of those opportunities by organizations throughout use

Satisfaction with Open Government Data Portals: A User-Centric Configurational Perspective

Open Government Data (OGD) has become an important theme of digital transformation strategies as it promises data-driven innovation and greater transparency in government. Many governments have chosen to implement national data portals to grant access to large amounts of public sector datasets. However, the expected uptake by the economy and society has been slow, and criticism towards the basic idea of open government is growing. In this paper, we take an in-depth look at how the perceptions of the features of the portal lead to users’ satisfaction with the OGD portal. Taking a user- centred perspective, we apply a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis methodology to identify different configurations which lead users to be satisfied with the OGD portal. Based on our empirical analysis, we formulate concrete recommendations on how the results can be used to define tailor-based strategies targeting the features of the OGD portals

Big and Open Linked Data (BOLD) to Create Smart Cities and Citizens: Insights from Smart Energy and Mobility Cases

Part 2: Open and Smart Government; International audience; Smart cities focus on using existing resources in a better way to improve the urban environment. At the same time Big and Open Linked Data (BOLD) can be used to better understand the use of the resources and to suggest improvements. The objective of this paper is to investigate the complementariness of the smart cities and big and Open Data research streams. Two inductive cases concerning different aspects of smart cities, energy and mobility, are investigated. The idea of using BOLD for smart cities seems initially straightforward, but the cases show that this is complex. A taxonomy for forms of collecting and opening data is derived. A major challenge is to deal with data distributed over various data sources and how to align the data push with the citizensâ needs. This paper highlights a continuous scale between open and closed data and emphasizes that not only Open Data but also closed data should be used to identify improvements. BOLD can contribute to the âsmartnessâ of cities by linking and combining data or employing data or predictive analytics to improve better use of resources. A smart city only becomes smart when there are smart citizens, businesses, civil servants and other stakeholders. Document type: Part of book or chapter of boo

Acceptance and use predictors of open data technologies: Drawing upon the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology

AbstractPolicy-makers expect that open data will be accepted and used more and more, resulting in a range of benefits including transparency, participation and innovation. The ability to use open data partly depends on the availability of open data technologies. However, the actual use of open data technologies has shown mixed results, and there is a paucity of research on the predictors affecting the acceptance and use of open data technologies. A better understanding of these predictors can help policy-makers to determine which policy instruments they can use to increase the acceptance and use of open data technologies. A modified model based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) is used to empirically determine predictors influencing the acceptance and use of open data technologies. The results show that the predictors performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and voluntariness of use together account for 45% of the variability in people's behavioral intention to use open data technologies. Except for facilitating conditions, all these predictors significantly influence behavioral intention. Our analysis of the predictors that influence the acceptance and use of open data technologies can be used to stimulate the use of open data technologies. The findings suggest that policy-makers should increase the acceptance and use of open data technologies by showing the benefits of open data use, by creating awareness of users that they already use open data, by developing social strategies to encourage people to stimulate each other to use open data, by integrating open data use in daily activities, and by decreasing the effort necessary to use open data technologies

A State-of-the-Art Analysis of the Current Public Data Landscape from a Functional, Semantic and Technical Perspective

Open Government Data initiatives and particularly Open Government Data portals have proliferated since the late 2000’s. A comprehensive analysis of the capabilities and potential of these initiatives is currently missing from the recent research literature. In order to address this gap, the paper at hand aims towards analyzing the landscape of Open Governmental Data in the European Union from a functional, semantic and technical perspective. Our research focused on the collection and categorization of an indicative number of public data sources for each of the 27 European Union country-members through investigating their services and characteristics. By modeling and classifying the data sources according to their key attributes, we were able to proceed to their statistical analysis and assessment in terms of their content, licensing, multilingual support, acquisition, ease of access, provision and data format. Our results portray the current quality of Public Sector Information infrastructures and highlight what still needs to be done in order to make public data truly open and readily available for researchers, citizens, companies and innovation in general

Strategies and Approaches for Exploiting the Value of Open Data

Data is increasingly permeating into all dimensions of our society and has become an indispensable commodity that serves as a basis for many products and services. Traditional sectors, such as health, transport, retail, are all benefiting from digital developments. In recent years, governments have also started to participate in the open data venture, usually with the motivation of increasing transparency. In fact, governments are one of the largest producers and collectors of data in many different domains. As the increasing amount of open data and open government data initiatives show, it is becoming more and more vital to identify the means and methods how to exploit the value of this data that ultimately affects various dimensions. In this thesis we therefore focus on researching how open data can be exploited to its highest value potential, and how we can enable stakeholders to create value upon data accordingly. Albeit the radical advances in technology enabling data and knowledge sharing, and the lowering of barriers to information access, raw data was given only recently the attention and relevance it merits. Moreover, even though the publishing of data is increasing at an enormously fast rate, there are many challenges that hinder its exploitation and consumption. Technical issues hinder the re-use of data, whilst policy, economic, organisational and cultural issues hinder entities from participating or collaborating in open data initiatives. Our focus is thus to contribute to the topic by researching current approaches towards the use of open data. We explore methods for creating value upon open (government) data, and identify the strengths and weaknesses that subsequently influence the success of an open data initiative. This research then acts as a baseline for the value creation guidelines, methodologies, and approaches that we propose. Our contribution is based on the premise that if stakeholders are provided with adequate means and models to follow, then they will be encouraged to create value and exploit data products. Our subsequent contribution in this thesis therefore enables stakeholders to easily access and consume open data, as the first step towards creating value. Thereafter we proceed to identify and model the various value creation processes through the definition of a Data Value Network, and also provide a concrete implementation that allows stakeholders to create value. Ultimately, by creating value on data products, stakeholders participate in the global data economy and impact not only the economic dimension, but also other dimensions including technical, societal and political

E-Governance: Strategy for Mitigating Non-Inclusion of Citizens in Policy Making in Nigeria

The Nigerian federation that currently has 36 states structure adopted the Weberian Public Administrative system before now as an ideal way of running government, which was characterized with the traditional way of doing things without recourse to the deployment of Information Communication Technology (ICT). Today e-governance is seen as a paradigm shift from the previous way of governance. Research has shown that, the adoption and implementation of e-governance is more likely to bring about effective service delivery, mitigate corruption and ultimately enhance citizens’ participation in governmental affairs. However, it has been argued that infrastructure such as regular electricity power and access to the Internet, in addition to a society with high rate of literacy level are required to effectively implement and realize the potentials of e-governance for improved delivery of services. Due to the difficulties currently experienced, developing nations need to adequately prepare for the implementation of e-governance on the platform of Information Communication Technology (ICT). Hence, this study seeks to examine whether the adoption and implementation of e-governance in the context of Nigeria would mitigate the hitherto non-inclusion of citizens in the formulation and implementation of government policies aimed at enhanced development. To achieve the objective of the study, data were sourced and analyzed majorly by examining government websites of 20 states in the Nigerian federation to ascertain if there are venues for citizens to interact with government in the area of policy making and feedback on government actions, as a way of promoting participatory governance. The study revealed that the adoption and implementation of e-governance in the country is yet to fully take place. This is due to lack of infrastructure, low level of literacy rate and government inability to provide the necessary infrastructure for e-governance to materialize. The paper therefore, recommends among others the need for the Federal Government to involve a sound and clear policy on how to go about the adoption and implementation of egovernance through deliberate effort at increasing budgetary allocation towards infrastructural development and mass education of citizens

The Impact of e-Democracy in Political Stability of Nigeria

The history of the Nigerian electoral process has been hitherto characterized by violence stemming from disputes in election outcomes. For instance, violence erupted across some states in Northern Nigeria when results indicated that a candidate who was popular in that part of the country was losing the election leading to avoidable loss of lives. Beside, this dispute in election outcome lingers for a long time in litigation at the electoral tribunals which distracts effective governance. However, the increasing penetrating use of ICTs in Nigeria is evident in the electoral processes with consequent shift in the behavior of actors in the democratic processes, thus changing the ways Nigerians react to election outcomes. This paper examines the trend in the use ICT in the Nigerian political system and its impact on the stability of the polity. It assesses the role of ICT in recent electoral processes and compares its impact on the outcome of the process in lieu of previous experiences in the Nigeria. Furthermore, the paper also examines the challenges and risks of implementing e-Democracy in Nigeria and its relationship to the economy in the light of the socio-economic situation of the country. The paper adopted qualitative approach in data gathering and analysis. From the findings, the paper observed that e-democracy is largely dependent on the level of ICT adoption, which is still at its lowest ebb in the country. It recognizes the challenges in the provision of ICT infrastructure and argues that appropriate low-cost infrastructure applicable to the Nigerian condition can be made available to implement e-democracy and thus arouse the interest of the populace in governance, increase the number of voters, and enhance transparency, probity and accountability, and participation in governance as well as help stabilize the nascent democrac