Purpose Citizen engagement is key to the success of many Open Government Data (OGD) initiatives. However, not much is known regarding how this type of engagement emerges. This study aims to investigate the necessary conditions for the emergence of citizen-led engagement with OGD and to identify which factors stimulate this type of engagement. Design/methodology/approach First, the authors created a systematic overview of the literature to develop a conceptual model of conditions and factors of OGD citizen engagement at the societal, organizational and individual level. Second, the authors used the conceptual model to systematically study citizens’ engagement in the case of a particular OGD initiative, namely, the digitization of presidential election results data in Indonesia in 2014. The authors used multiple information sources, including interviews and documents, to explore the conditions and factors of OGD citizen-led engagement in this case. Findings From the literature the authors identified five conditions for the emergence of OGD citizen-led engagement as follows: the availability of a legal and political framework that grants a mandate to open up government data, sufficient budgetary resources allocated for OGD provision, the availability of OGD feedback mechanisms, citizens’ perceived ease of engagement and motivated citizens. In the literature, the authors found six factors contributing to OGD engagement as follows: democratic culture, the availability of supporting institutional arrangements, the technical factors of OGD provision, the availability of citizens’ resources, the influence of social relationships and citizens’ perceived data quality. Some of these conditions and factors were found to be less important in the studied case, namely, citizens’ perceived ease of engagement and citizens’ perceived data quality. Moreover, the authors found several new conditions that were not mentioned in the studied literature, namely, citizens’ sense of urgency, competition among citizen-led OGD engagement initiatives, the diversity of citizens’ skills and capabilities and the intensive use of social media. The difference between the conditions and factors that played an important role in the case and those derived from the literature review might be because of the type of OGD engagement that the authors studied, namely, citizen-led engagement, without any government involvement. Research limitations/implications The findings are derived using a single case study approach. Future research can investigate multiple cases and compare the conditions and factors for citizen-led engagement with OGD in different contexts. Practical implications The conditions and factors for citizen-led engagement with OGD have been evaluated in practice and discussed with public managers and practitioners through interviews. Governmental organizations should prioritize and stimulate those conditions and factors that enhance OGD citizen engagement to create more value with OGD. Originality/value While some research on government-led engagement with OGD exists, there is hardly any research on citizen-led engagement with OGD. This study is the first to develop a conceptual model of necessary conditions and factors for citizen engagement with OGD. Furthermore, the authors applied the developed multilevel conceptual model to a case study and gathered empirical evidence of OGD engagement and its contributions to solving societal problems, rather than staying at the conceptual level. This research can be used to investigate citizen engagement with OGD in other cases and offers possibilities for systematic cross-case lesson-drawing.
Citizen engagement is key to the successful and sustainable use of Open Government Data (OGD), involving multiple activities ranging from the retrieval and conversion of raw data to OGD based applications, to the use of these applications to solve societal problems. However, there is a lack of insight into what drives citizens to engage in OGD initiatives. Such insight helps inform policymakers in stimulating and improving the engage ability of an OGD program. This study aims to identify factors that influence why citizens engage in OGD initiatives. To attain this objective, we conducted a single case study of citizen engagement in an open election data initiative in Indonesia. Our study shows that social altruism as an intrinsic motivation is a strong driver for citizens to start and continue engaging with open election data. Low data quality appeared not to hinder citizens from engaging in the OGD initiative; in contrast, it can lead to more engagement. Election is typically concerning with political participation, yet trust and political efficacy factors only marginally influenced citizen engagement in our case study. The case shows that, in a time-critical situation where potential social conflicts were seen to threaten the citizens' lives, collective actions are enabled by the availability of OGD. We draw some key lessons learnt for policymakers to enhance OGD engage ability. Further research is needed to examine whether factors found in this particular case also apply in different settings. CCS CONCEPTS• Social and professional topics → Government technology policy; Cultural characteristics; • Information systems → Collaborative and social computing systems and tools;
Citizens are increasingly using Open Government Data (OGD) and engaging with OGD by designing and developing applications. They often do so by collaborating in groups, for example through self-organized groups or government-induced open data engagement initiatives, such as hackathons. The successful use and engagement of OGD by groups of citizens can greatly contribute to the uptake and adoption of OGD in general. However, little is known regarding how groups of citizens develop in OGD engagement. This study aims at exploring and understanding the development stages of citizen groups in OGD engagement. To attain this objective, we conducted a comparative case study of group development stages in two different types of OGD engagement. Our cases show that leadership and diversity of capabilities significantly contribute to the success of citizen groups in OGD engagement. These findings suggest that connecting citizens having a diversity of expertise prior to the OGD engagement event helps to improve its effectiveness. This research is among the first to apply group development stages model in open data engagement studies and thus opening up new research opportunities concerning group developments in the open data literature.
Citizen engagement with open government data (OGD) can enhance the effectiveness of governments and improve not only the quality of public policy making but also public services provisioning and ability to address societal problems. Although previous research gives insight into citizen's drivers and inhibitors for engaging with OGD, they have not yet been integrated into a single conceptual model. The aims of this study are twofold: 1) to systematically review the literature on individual citizens' drivers and inhibitors for engaging with OGD and 2) to develop a conceptual model of citizen engagement with OGD based on the findings of the literature review. To attain this objective, the authors systematically analyzed 52 papers published in the period 2009-2019. Seven categories of drivers of citizen engagement are identified: citizen's profile, personal, performance-related, economic, social, technical, and political. Three groups of inhibitors are also identified: citizen's profile, technical, and political. This study helps in understanding how the engagement of citizens can be enhanced.
Previous research assumes that poor quality of Open Government Data (OGD), OGD portals, and the services provided for OGD may result in reduced trust of citizens in OGD. However, studies that empirically test this assumption are scarce. Using the Information Systems (IS) Success Model as a theoretical basis, this study aims to examine the effects of data quality, system quality, and service quality on citizens' trust in OGD. We used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to analyze the 200 responses to our online questionnaire. We found that trust in OGD can be predicted by citizens' perceptions of OGD system quality and service quality. Furthermore, citizens' perception of service quality positively influences their perceptions of data and system quality, whereas citizens' perception of system quality positively influences their perception of data quality. This study is among the first that quantitatively examines the effects of data quality, service quality, and system quality on citizen's trust in OGD. It contributes to the scientific literature by providing an operationalization of elements of the IS Success Model in the context of OGD and by developing and applying a model of factors influencing citizen's trust in OGD. While previous research finds that perceived data quality is the most crucial driver for trust in OGD, our study finds that citizens' perception of OGD service quality is a more important driver for trust in OGD. With regard to the practical contributions of this study, open data policymakers should be aware that citizens' perceptions on data quality can be greatly improved when appropriate human services are provided (e.g., designated civil servants offering support or help to data users) in addition to the provision of OGD portal functionalities (e.g., data visualization and comparison tools).
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