“Usage by stakeholders” as the objective of “transparency-by-design” in open government data

Abstract

Purpose While “transparency-by-design” serves as the antecedent of any Open Government Data (OGD) initiative (Janssen et al., 2017), its logical objective would be the extent to which data “usage” is facilitated. This paper aims to underscore the significance, drivers and barriers to ensure “usage” of data sets conceding that re-use of data sets is one of the key objectives of any OGD initiative. Design/methodology/approach With a documentary analysis approach, the OGD initiative of Sri Lanka is investigated for the present purpose. Furthermore, the theoretical model of citizen engagement in OGD suggested by Sieber and Johnson (2015) is being referred to appreciate the extent to which the usage of data sets is facilitated via the OGD platform. Findings There are drivers as well as barriers as far as facilitating the usage of the data sets in the Sri Lankan OGD initiative is concerned. For instance, some of the drivers are the provision of suggesting data sets or the possibility of referring to data sets which are historical in nature. However, there are countless barriers to usage than the drivers. For instance, there is absence of metadata in the data sets; the data sets are not updated regularly; there are historical data; the formats of the data sets are limited in nature and are not user-friendly; there is no facility of conducting data visualization or analytics, and there is no collaborative approach towards building further the OGD initiative. Research limitations/implications As only one case study is probed in the paper, further research is warranted to undertake a comparative approach by taking two or more case studies into consideration. Practical implications This study holds relevance for Sri Lankan Government and other stakeholders (policy makers, citizens, developers and the like) so far as furthering of user engagement in OGD initiative is concerned. Social implications Facilitating more usage by citizens would increase their engagement, and they might derive value out of the data sets. At the same time, the government’s objective of ensuring increased usage of the data sets would be better realized. Originality/value “Transparency-by-design” approach had its focus on the publishing phase of OGD, and this paper seeks to provide its logical conclusion by emphasizing upon “usage by stakeholders” because by opening data sets, the government has the target to ensure that these open data sets are being used and re-used. Therefore, it is the outcome which is being discussed with the support of a case study set in the background of Sri Lanka’s Open Data initiative. Besides, this is the first study which probes the OGD initiatives of Sri Lanka – therein lies the major contribution of the study.

Summarizing the decadal literature in open government data (OGD) research: a systematic review

“…For instance, OGD-focused research has been more potent in the USA and the European countries. However, of late, academic interest is brewing in the developing countries too (Saxena, 2017a(Saxena, , 2017b(Saxena, , 2017c(Saxena, , 2017dSaxena and Janssen, 2017;Saxena and Muhammad, 2017). At the same time, there is research veering around the bottlenecks in implementing OGD initiatives (Charalabidis et al, 2016).…”

Open Government Data Use by the Public Sector - an Overview of its Benefits, Barriers, Drivers, and Enablers

“…Literature reviews [6], [3], [24], [4], [36] Conference and journal articles [15], [10], [1], [12], [43], [44], [13], [19], [5], [35], [29], [31], [34], [27], [16], [30], [7], [8], [21], [11], [25], [9], [20], [28], [17], [22], [33], [32], [18], [23], [14], [42], [26] Barriers [15], [1], [12] , [10], [13], [19], [5], [35], [29], [31], [34], [27], [16],…”

“…Pressure from external stakeholders to use open data [21] Raise OGD use awareness [34] Policy and legal Existence of public policies of open data [24], [20] Existence of laws governing the use of open data [25], [21] Existence of regulations, standards, and standards for using open data [24] Economic and financial Existence financial resources have a significant positive influence on open data success [17] Organizational and institutional Open data use is institutionalized in the Administration [30], [24], [17] Operational and technical Provision of proper OGD infrastructure [24] Data available in user-friendly formats [31] Data search facilities available [31] Existence of historical data [29] Existence of metadata [31] Possible to share data via social media [31] Provision of data suggested by users [29] The following section briefly summarizes findings specific to the public sector. It presents our conclusions and suggestions for future research.…”

“…Saxena focused on the perspectives of developing countries. The author investigated the significance, drivers, and barriers to ensure the use and reuse of OGD in Sri Lanka [29], Oman [30], and the Philippines [31]. Moreover, Shao and Saxena [32] identified organizational, social, legal, and technical barriers toward instituting a robust OGD initiative in Tanzania.…”

Assessment of the Usability of Latvia's Open Data Portal or How Close Are We to Gaining Benefits From Open Data

“…One of the most crucial aspects for open data and OGDs, which affects users' intention to reuse data and increase their value, however, is rarely ensured, is a frequency of updates (Janssen et al, 2012), (Saxena, 2017), (Smith et al, 2018). Since there is a major challenge in most cases to understand when the data are up to date, this aspect was analysed taking into account the frequency of updates promised by the data publisher and the actual frequency of updates.…”