Understanding users' accessing behaviors to local Open Government Data via transaction log analysis

Abstract

The rapid development of Open Government Data (OGD) and the increasing attention on data use/reuse have stimulated many studies on data‐related issues. However, the findability of OGD is still one of the major challenges. Aiming to ameliorate the situation that “data is hard to find”, this paper examines OGD users' needs and accessing behaviors when interacting with local OGD portals. Transaction log analysis and web content mining were used in order to obtain insights from large groups of OGD users in an unobtrusive manner. Through analyzing transaction log data from three local OGD portals, including Open Data Philly (http://opendataphilly.org), Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center (http://wprdc.org) and Analyze Boston (http://data.boston.gov), our study shows that users relied on different channels to enter local OGD portals, and such channels have different impacts on user success in finding the sought‐after data. We also find that OGD users prefer browsing over searching when inside the portals, the utilization of different browsing entries, and users' data needs.

Promoting data use through understanding user behaviors: A model for human open government data interaction

“…A channel indicates a source or manner that assists people in finding the OGD portal's website. We found that OGD users use various channels to access OGD portals (e.g., P12, P14), such as search engines and referrals, aligning with previous work (Koesten et al, 2019; Xiao et al, 2020). By utilizing these channels, users can easily find the OGD portal's website and gain access to the information it contains.…”

“…Search & Browse are the two main search strategies people use to seek data (Xiao et al, 2020). Search refers to a keyword search strategy in which individuals enter search queries into OGD portals.…”

“…In addition to the stages of task, search, evaluation, and exploration found in Koesten et al's (2017) framework, Crusoe and Ahlin's (2019) framework also contains enriching phases, consisting of the activities of preparing, concocting, and making, specifically, the activities of data extraction, data casting, data mapping and so on. Also, by using large‐sized transaction log data, three studies examined OGD users' online accessing behavior patterns (Ibáñez & Simperl, 2022; Kacprzak et al, 2019; Xiao et al, 2020). However, when these frameworks were used independently, conceptual gaps in the frameworks were revealed.…”

Exploring learning opportunities for students in open data portal use across data literacy levels

“…Participants in the LoDL faced different challenges at the concrete experience stage. When seeking data, this group was more likely to use a browsing approach, which, while common among OD users (Xiao et al , 2020), was ineffective. Due to limited knowledge of how data are structured and methods to handle data, tooltips may not be enough to help inexperienced data users, who may benefit more from walk-through tutorials or wizards that scaffold procedural knowledge.…”

“…Participants were asked to find an appropriate data set and research the salaries for two occupations, one defined (Librarian) and one of their own choosing, on behalf of a friend and to write up their findings using an email template. Salary data is a common OD search topic (Xiao et al, 2020), and the task scenario focused on career planning, a life-task of relevance to university student Learning opportunities for students participants, to increase validity and participant engagement (Borlund, 2003;Kelly, 2009). Study tasks required the use of one of three salary-related data sets among the 160 data sets available through the portal: the Employee and Remuneration and Expenses Earning over $75,000 (ERE-75K) data set.…”