Open data policy development: How can municipalities take account of residents’ perspectives?

In many countries, governments encourage municipalities to develop open data policies and subsequently open up data. Municipal open data policies are often supply-driven and not based on residents’ wishes. Municipalities lack insight into residents’ perspectives on opening up municipal data and often do not know how to take them into account when developing their open data policies. This paper aims to reveal residents’ perspectives on municipal open data policies and provide recommendations for municipalities on how to account for them when developing future open data policies. Using Q-methodology and applying it to the municipality of Delft in the Netherlands, we elicited the perspective of four main groups of residents on the development of the municipal open data policy as follows: 1) ‘the oblivious residents’, 2) ‘the distrustful residents’, 3) ‘the trusting, passive residents’, and 4) ‘the open data advocates’. We found that all residents considered transparency important for the quality of public administration, and that municipal transparency is currently lacking. We then provide recommendations for policy makers responsible for municipal open data policies and suggest directions for open data theory development concerning municipal open data policy.Information and Communication TechnologyTransport and Logistic

Het aanbod van kinderopvang in Nederland in 1996

Analysis of day-care efficiency, quality, and accessibility. Characteristics of day-care centres / pedagogical vision of the day-care centres / flexibility and accessibility of care / composition and number of staff members of day-care centres / capacity of day-care centres / financial aspects / characteristics of buyers of places at day-care centres / location manager: education, training, working experience, opinion about child-care, visiting events in the field of childcare Background variables: basic characteristics/ occupation/employment/ educatio

Choosing cooperation over competition; hospital strategies in response to selective contracting

Summary With the introduction of market competition in health care, the Dutch government enabled health insurers to contract hospital care selectively. The assumption is that “selective contracting” will stimulate efficiency, effectiveness, and innovation and will diminish overcapacity. In 2010, the first Dutch health insurers started experimenting with “selective contracting” by setting a minimum treatment volume per year for complex treatments. In an explorative, multiple case study among 15 hospitals in five regions, we found that instead of competing, hospitals started to cooperate and strengthen their networks. The government intended to remove redundant hospital capacity and improve quality by stimulating specialization and concentration. Our study showed that specialization was indeed stimulated, which may have increased quality of care. However, facilitated by the absence of a countervailing power (government or insurer), hospitals in our cases negotiated to the effect of preserving hospital capacity. Within the current political debate between supporters of competition and advocates of a national health service, the importance and role of the (medical) networks should be taken into account. Otherwise, the outcomes of health care governance will be different than intended by either party