Abstract: The disclosure of open government data is a complex activity that may create public value yet might also encounter risks, such as the misinterpretation and misuse of data. While politicians support data release and assume that the positive value of open data will dominate, many governmental organizations are reluctant to open their data, as they are afraid of the dark side. The objective of this paper is to provide a decision-making model that assists in trade-offs between the pros and cons of open data. Data disclosure is dependent on the type of data (e.g. its sensitivity, structure and quality) and…the context (e.g. organizational policies, legislation and the political influences). Based on the literature and fifteen in-depth interviews with public sector officials and data archivists, this paper identifies contextual and dataset-related variables which influence a trade-off. A decision-making model is presented capturing trade-offs, and in this way providing guidance for weighing the creation of public value and the risks. The model can be used for decision-making to open or not to open data. It is likely that the decision regarding which data should be opened or closed will shift over time.
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Keywords: Open data, decision support, data release, trade-offs, positive effects, risks, variables
Abstract: This section presents a selection of papers on open data policy-making from the 19th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research 2018 (dg.o 2018). To position the research discussed in this section meaningfully, our introductory article aims to create an overview of the state-of-the-art of open data policy-making research and to derive an emerging research agenda from this overview. We found that much research has been done in the field of open data in the past few decades. However, the number of conducted systematic literature reviews concerning open data research is limited and literature reviews that have included aspects related…to open data policy-making are even more rare. Our analysis of eight systematic literature review articles that include the topic of open data policy-making shows that these articles contain four main content-related elements: open data policy-making, a discussion of open data policy-making research, theory used in open data policy-making research and suggested areas for future research about open data policy-making. We discuss each of these areas and we outline emerging research directions categorized by three main topics: 1) open data policy-making and theory development, 2) open data policy-making effects, and 3) open data policy-making from a multi-actor perspective. Finally, we provide an overview of the papers included in this section on open data policy-making.
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Keywords: Open data, policy, policy-making, literature review, state of the art, research agenda
Abstract: Open data ecosystems are expected to bring many advantages, such as stimulating citizen participation and innovation. However, scant attention has been given to what constitutes an open data ecosystem. The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of essential elements of open data ecosystems for enabling easy publication and use of open data. To achieve this objective, the literature has been reviewed and a scenario about the publication and use of open data has been analyzed. It was found that various applications, tools and portals are available which together can form an ecosystem. The best functionalities of this…ecosystem can be selected and utilized by open data providers and users. To create an open data ecosystem at least four key elements should be captured, namely, 1) releasing and publishing open data on the internet, 2) searching, finding, evaluating and viewing data and their related licenses, 3) cleansing, analyzing, enriching, combining, linking and visualizing data and 4) interpreting and discussing data and providing feedback to the data provider and other stakeholders. Furthermore, to integrate the ecosystem elements and to let them act as an integrated whole, there should be three additional elements 5) user pathways showing directions for how open data can be used, 6) a quality management system and 7) different types of metadata to be able to connect the elements.
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Keywords: Open data ecosystem, open data, open government, ecosystem, architecture, infrastructure, innovation
Abstract: Creating commercial value through open data use in open data ecosystems is a wicked problem. This problem is characterized by a lack of specific formulation, complex interactions amongst a variety of stakeholders, a lack of criteria determining a satisfactory solution, including what constitutes `value', and uncertain outcomes. Wicked problems cannot be solved by only considering part of the problem. Yet, open data efforts all too often focus mainly on open data publication and neglect the use of the data; while it is the use of data (not just publication) that generates value. This paper addresses the question: Which policy guidelines…can support commercial value creation from open data? This study first elicits characteristics of wicked problems for studying the wicked problem of commercial open data value creation. Subsequently, we use the wicked problem characteristics to study open data innovation in two countries and consult experts. This work results in eliciting four policy guidelines that can help to derive greater commercial value from open data ecosystems. The four policy guidelines show that governmental open data policies for commercial value should pay attention to: 1) increasing the knowledge of open data ecosystem stakeholders about contextual factors influencing open data use and commercial value creation, 2) ensuring the availability and quality of five types of resources: open data, open Information Technology (IT), internal IT, knowledge and governance, 3) cooperating between businesses and citizens to create alliances, and 4) reducing the negative effects of value creation by companies in the open data ecosystem. These policy guidelines are expected to stimulate commercial value creation with open data use.
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Keywords: Open data, commercial, companies, value creation, wicked problem, ecosystem