Open Government Data (OGD) initiatives can deliver many cultural and institutional benefits. This is why many governments are trying to establish an OGD ecosystem. However, although many countries have made good progress in doing so, some face significant challenges. In such cases, country-specific studies can prove valuable in understanding not only the current situation, but also in defining the obstacles to progress. As far as the authors of this paper can determine, this study is the first to examine the benefits of, and barriers to, implementation of the OGD initiative Saudi Arabia. The study conducts and analyses interviews with Saudi Arabian government officials in both leadership and technical positions, in order to obtain an informed view of the OGD initiative in Saudi. The study contributes to the existing knowledge base by identifying the main benefits of the Saudi Arabian Open Government Initiative and the barriers to its implementation.

Information sharing via social networking systems (SNS) is a common practice among academics, as well as others, that brings substantial benefits. At the same time, privacy concerns are widespread among SNS users, which may tend to inhibit their maximising the benefit from using the systems. This paper investigates the proposition that SNS user attitudes and behaviour are affected by privacy concerns, and that the effects are subject to significant cultural factors. A broad assessment of the literature provides the context for the study. Working in the context of Saudi Arabia, we apply a mixed-methods approach beginning with in-depth interviews, exposing in detail a range of views and concerns about privacy and SNS use, also allowing us to identify three key factors that bear on SNS usage and users’ concerns. Analysis of these factors in the light of the “theory of reasoned action” derives a structural model predicting several hypotheses relating the factors and users’ attitudes and behaviour. We assess the model through development of a questionnaire, administered to a large pool of academic participants, that allows us to examine how the model responds in general, and via multigroup partial least squares analyses, differentially to gender and to culturally distinct (Arab vs. non-Arab) constituents of the participant group. Results show good support for the hypotheses and clear gender and culture effects. Picking up issues from the interviews, discussion focuses on users’ views about SNS providers’ privacy policies and their inadequacy regarding culturally specific ethical concerns. We argue that these views may reflect different regulatory environments in combination with other cultural factors.

Recent advances in technology have made truly open and accessible government significantly more realisable. One of the ways in which governments are using this technology is in the implementation of online portals that allow open (i.e., public and unrestricted) access to data and use of data. Such portals can be used by citizens and professionals to facilitate improved decision-making across a wide range of areas, from car-parking to promoting entrepreneurialism. However, the existence of portals per se is not enough. To maximise their potential, users must also feel that they are both accessible and usable. To gain insights into the current state of usability of OGD portals for professionals working in data-related areas, a comparative study of the portals of the G7 group was carried out, using a mixed methodology. This is the first specific comparison of these portals for such users, as well as the first study to add a user-centred qualitative dimension to the research. The study’s findings showed that the G7 countries are not maximising the potential of their portals or collaborating effectively. Addressing these issues, and building better cross-national consistency, would help to improve the value delivered by investment in OGD portals. The study also further supported an existing user-centred, heuristic evaluation framework for application to a more specific user group, as well as more generally.

Understanding the fungal community structure of soil is important for optimizing their role as decomposers in the soil food web. In order to explore the fungal composition and diversity in Haibat Sultan Mountain soil, PCR used based cloning and sequencing of Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) of genome. Soil samples were collected from different depth points (1, 5 to 10 cm depth) and fungal universal primers targeting ITS2 region of the fungal genome were used to assess their diversity in soil samples. More than 1400 fungal clones were sequenced and led to detect total of 89 OTUs in all samples. The majority of the Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) belong to the Ascomycota (67.4%), the second most constituents of soil samples were Basidiomycota with (28.1%), and few members of Zygomycota were detected. Concluded that fungal richness and diversity were abundant at the depth of 1 cm and reached their peak at the depth of 5 cm, while at the depth of 10 cm, the fungal communities decreased. The highest Chao1 and Shannon value were obtained at the soil depth of 5 cm followed by soil depth 1cm, whereas the lowest value was detected in soil depth 10 cm. Results highlight the variations of fungal diversity at different depth points. Thus, further studies are needed to expand knowledge about fungi communities in soil through using high-throughput sequencing to improve detection fungi in soil.