scholarly journals Politics, technology, and accountability: The Transparency Façade of Open Government Data Reforms in Paraguay

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-93
Author(s):  
David Riveros García

Governments have adopted the rhetoric of promoting transparency, citizen engagement, and accountability through technological innovation. The provision of open government data has been encouraged as a foundational reform in that direction. This study argues that, in Paraguay’s education sector, these reforms were never capable of matching said rhetoric. Using a case study design, the research shows that the stated goals of intuitively simplifying information to facilitate citizen monitoring of funds for education infrastructure were never realistically attempted by the government. It will advocate the relevance of considering the relationship between politics, accountability, and technology to uncover transparency façades.

Author(s):  
Nim Dvir

The Release of government dataset for public use can potentially strengthen the relationship between the government and its constituents. However, research shows that there are several challenges for open data effectiveness. This paper reviews current determents and issues associated with the open government data (OGD) procedures. The review concentrates on two ends of the spectrum: First, from the perspective of the preparation by the government, focusing on the organization of traditional governmental datasets and how the recording of the data is administered. Second, from the perspective of the users, focusing on the way in which the data is released to the general public and on human-computer interaction (HCI) issues between end-user and data-consumption interfaces. Following a thorough analysis of these two opposing challenges, the paper proposes approaches to mitigate them. This review and subsequent recommendations contribute and expand current understanding of open government data effectiveness and can lead to public policy changes, development of new procedures and strategies, and ultimately improvements at both ends of the federal open data endeavor.


Author(s):  
Nim Dvir

The Release of government dataset for public use can potentially strengthen the relationship between the government and its constituents. However, research shows that there are several challenges for open data effectiveness. This paper reviews current determinants and issues associated with the open government data (OGD) procedures. The review concentrates on two ends of the spectrum: First, from the perspective of the preparation by the government, focusing on the organization of traditional governmental datasets and how the recording of the data is administered. Second, from the perspective of the users, focusing on the way in which the data is released to the general public and on human-computer interaction (HCI) issues between end-user and data-consumption interfaces. Following a thorough analysis of these two opposing challenges, the paper proposes approaches to mitigate them. This review and subsequent recommendations contribute and expand current understanding of open government data effectiveness and can lead to public policy changes, development of new procedures and strategies, and ultimately improvements at both ends of the federal open data endeavor.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 1042-1065
Author(s):  
Anne Gottfried ◽  
Caroline Hartmann ◽  
Donald Yates

The business intelligence (BI) market has grown at a tremendous rate in the past decade due to technological advancements, big data and the availability of open source content. Despite this growth, the use of open government data (OGD) as a source of information is very limited among the private sector due to a lack of knowledge as to its benefits. Scant evidence on the use of OGD by private organizations suggests that it can lead to the creation of innovative ideas as well as assist in making better informed decisions. Given the benefits but lack of use of OGD to generate business intelligence, we extend research in this area by exploring how OGD can be used to generate business intelligence for the identification of market opportunities and strategy formulation; an area of research that is still in its infancy. Using a two-industry case study approach (footwear and lumber), we use latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modeling to extract emerging topics in these two industries from OGD, and a data visualization tool (pyLDAVis) to visualize the topics in order to interpret and transform the data into business intelligence. Additionally, we perform an environmental scanning of the environment for the two industries to validate the usability of the information obtained. The results provide evidence that OGD can be a valuable source of information for generating business intelligence and demonstrate how topic modeling and visualization tools can assist organizations in extracting and analyzing information for the identification of market opportunities.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Lnenicka ◽  
Stuti Saxena

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the select Smart Cities of Czech and Indian counterparts and assess the extent to which open government data (OGD) standards are being adhered to using select indicators. Design/methodology/approach This study integrates the benchmarking frameworks provided in literature on OGD and apply them to evaluate the OGD standards of the Smart Cities’ websites. Findings Whereas the Czech Smart Cities are relatively more advanced in their OGD initiatives, the Indian counterpart is far lagging behind in their endeavors. Originality/value While there are many studies on OGD and Smart Cities, there has been no study which seeks to appreciate if the OGD initiatives are being adhered to by the Smart Cities.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 434-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuti Saxena

Purpose With the ongoing drives towards Open Government Data (OGD) initiatives across the globe, governments have been keen on pursuing their OGD policies to ensure transparency, collaboration and efficiency in administration. As a developing country, India has recently adopted the OGD policy (www.data.gov.in); however, the percolation of this policy in the States has remained slow. This paper aims to underpin the “asymmetry” in OGD framework as far as the Indian States are concerned. Besides, the study also assesses the contribution of “Open Citizens” in furthering the OGD initiatives of the country. Design/methodology/approach An exploratory qualitative following a case study approach informs the present study using documentary analysis where evidentiary support from five Indian States (Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, Sikkim and Gujarat) is being drawn to assess the nature and scope of the OGD framework. Further, conceptualization for “Open Citizen” framework is provided to emphasize upon the need to have aware, informed and pro-active citizens to spearhead the OGD initiatives in the country. Findings While the National OGD portal has a substantial number of data sets across different sectors, the States are lagging behind in the adoption and implementation of OGD policies, and while Telangana and Sikkim have been the frontrunners in adoption of OGD policies in a rudimentary manner, others are yet to catch up with them. Further, there is “asymmetry” in terms of the individual contribution of the government bodies to the open data sets where some government bodies are more reluctant to share their datasets than the others. Practical implications It is the conclusion of the study that governments need to institutionalize the OGD framework in the country, and all the States should appreciate the requirement of adopting a robust OGD policy for furthering transparency, collaboration and efficiency in administration. Social implications As an “Open Citizen”, it behooves upon the citizens to be pro-active and contribute towards the open data sets which would go a long way in deriving social and economic value out of these data sets. Originality/value While there are many studies on OGD in the West, studies focused upon the developing countries are starkly lacking. This study plugs this gap by attempting a comparative analysis of the OGD frameworks across Indian States. Besides, the study has provided a conceptualization of “Open Citizen” (OGD) which may be tapped for further research in developing and developed countries to ascertain the linkage between OGD and OC.


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