Journalists and the intermediation of open data

Enaholo, Patrick; Dina, Doyinsola

doi:10.47622/978-1-928502-12-8_2

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 58 publications

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“…Open government data initiatives (open data for short) are projects with a broad number of stakeholders that create value by reusing information from operational databases, releasing social and commercial value, making the government more transparent and accountable and enabling participatory government (Attard et al , 2015). However, open data initiatives usually encounter barriers and impediments that keep them away from getting close to their full potential and may also lead to some unexpected or less expected outcomes (Davies et al , 2013; Schwegmann, 2013; Meijer et al , 2014; Web Foundation, 2015; Crusoe, 2016; Enaholo, 2016; OECD, 2016). To capture the environmental complexity and actor interrelationships in an open data community, scholars suggest the ecosystem perspective (Harrison et al , 2019) as a holistic lens that captures a community of stakeholders, their power position and their interactions that form chains of value creation (Pollock, 2011; Harrison et al , 2012; Helbig et al , 2012; Zuiderwijk et al , 2014; Heimstädt et al , 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systemic effects of an open government program on data quality: the case of the New York State’s Food Protection program area

Najafabadi

Cronemberger²

2022

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Purpose This paper aims to explore the open government data initiative in the Food Protection program area within the New York State’s Department of Health to assess the impacts of opening data in terms of data quality and public value. An ecosystem lens is used to explore the dynamics of actors and their interactions, the processes involved in the program and the consequences such interplay brought forth to data quality. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected through 15 semistructured interviews with multiple stakeholders from different sectors, such as county officials, administrators and technicians, food sanitarians, data journalists and restaurant owners. At the analysis stage, the ecosystem perspective helped to capture the big picture of the open data actor interrelationships within this community regarding the food service inspections datasets. Findings Prior research suggests that open data initiatives enhance data quality. However, this study shows how opening data can adversely affect the quality of data. Results are explained by competing dynamics and conflicting interests among open data actors, undermining the expected public value from open data initiatives. Research limitations/implications The findings are in contrast with the mainstream open data literature and helps open data scholars to anticipate some currently unexpected results of open data initiatives. Limitations include potential biases associated to interpretation of interview data and that the results are based on a single case study. Practical implications This study makes governments and policymakers alert about the possibility of similar open data byproducts and unwanted outcomes and helps them to design more effective open data policies, hence gaining higher economic advantage while lowering costs of open data initiatives. Originality/value Detailed open data and open data case studies through the ecosystem perspective are still scarce and can enrich discussions about open data policy design and refinement in the public sector. The data used for this research are not used in any prior papers, and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to identify such adverse effects of data quality that have been reported.

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