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The opening of data has been credited for improving transparency and for providing a window on government functioning. Although this relationship is intuitively apparent, it is in fact complex and the mere opening of data might not actually yield transparency. In this paper, a comprehensive model of determinants that enable or impede transparency enabled by open government data and the expected effects have been derived by surveying public administration and information systems literature. Public administration literature tends to be focused on factors such as participation and trust, whereas information systems literature focuses on factors such as user interface, user experience, and data quality. Digital government literature attempts to bridge these elements. The Window Theory is introduced, in order to unify existing models by integrating a broad range of factors within a single model. The Window Theory can be used to develop contextdependent models that are both comprehensive and parsimonious.

Part 2: Open and Smart GovernmentInternational audienceSmart 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 citizens’ 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 ‘smartness’ 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

Purpose Many governments are working toward a vision of government-wide transformation that strives to achieve an open, transparent and accountable government while providing responsive services. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the concept of transparency-by-design to advance open government. Design/methodology/approach The opening of data, the deployment of tools and instruments to engage the public, collaboration among public organizations and between governments and the public are important drivers for open government. The authors review transparency-by-design concepts. Findings To successfully achieve open government, fundamental changes in practice and new research on governments as open systems are needed. In particular, the creation of “transparency-by-design” is a key aspect in which transparency is a key system development requirement, and the systems ensure that data are disclosed to the public for creating transparency. Research limitations/implications Although transparency-by-design is an intuitive concept, more research is needed in what constitutes information and communication technology-mediated transparency and how it can be realized. Practical implications Governments should embrace transparency-by-design to open more data sets and come closer to achieving open government. Originality/value Transparency-by-design is a new concept that has not given any attention yet in the literature.

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