scholarly journals Open data from the Brazilian government: Understanding the perspectives of data suppliers and developers of applications to the citizens

Author(s):  
Narallynne Araújo ◽  
Fernando Figueira Filho ◽  
Leandro Melo

Open Government Data (OGD) is seen as a way to promote transparency, as well as to provide information to the population by opening data related to various government sectors and processes. By using applications developed with this type of data, citizens gain knowledge about a certain public sphere; governments, in turn, are able to promote transparency and improvements through the interaction with citizens who use such applications. To create these applications, developers need to extract, process and analyze OGD available by data suppliers. This research was conducted in two phases: the first sought to investigate the perspective of developers who use Brazilian OGD; in the second phase, we investigated the perspectives of data suppliers. Through semi-structured interviews with twenty-four developers and data suppliers, this work reports what motivates them to work with OGD, as well as the barriers they face in this process. Our findings indicate that both participants seek to promote transparency for the population, but they run up against poor data quality, cultural barriers, among other issues. We present and qualitatively characterize these issues, providing recommendations for the improvement of the Brazilian OGD ecosystem.

Author(s):  
Narallynne Araújo ◽  
Fernando Figueira Filho ◽  
Leandro Melo

Open Government Data (OGD) is seen as a way to promote transparency, as well as to provide information to the population by opening data related to various government sectors and processes. By using applications developed with this type of data, citizens gain knowledge about a certain public sphere; governments, in turn, are able to promote transparency and improvements through the interaction with citizens who use such applications. To create these applications, developers need to extract, process and analyze OGD available by data suppliers. This research was conducted in two phases: the first sought to investigate the perspective of developers who use Brazilian OGD; in the second phase, we investigated the perspectives of data suppliers. Through semi-structured interviews with twenty-four developers and data suppliers, this work reports what motivates them to work with OGD, as well as the barriers they face in this process. Our findings indicate that both participants seek to promote transparency for the population, but they run up against poor data quality, cultural barriers, among other issues. We present and qualitatively characterize these issues, providing recommendations for the improvement of the Brazilian OGD ecosystem.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (15) ◽  
pp. 5204
Author(s):  
Anastasija Nikiforova

Nowadays, governments launch open government data (OGD) portals that provide data that can be accessed and used by everyone for their own needs. Although the potential economic value of open (government) data is assessed in millions and billions, not all open data are reused. Moreover, the open (government) data initiative as well as users’ intent for open (government) data are changing continuously and today, in line with IoT and smart city trends, real-time data and sensor-generated data have higher interest for users. These “smarter” open (government) data are also considered to be one of the crucial drivers for the sustainable economy, and might have an impact on information and communication technology (ICT) innovation and become a creativity bridge in developing a new ecosystem in Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0. The paper inspects OGD portals of 60 countries in order to understand the correspondence of their content to the Society 5.0 expectations. The paper provides a report on how much countries provide these data, focusing on some open (government) data success facilitating factors for both the portal in general and data sets of interest in particular. The presence of “smarter” data, their level of accessibility, availability, currency and timeliness, as well as support for users, are analyzed. The list of most competitive countries by data category are provided. This makes it possible to understand which OGD portals react to users’ needs, Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0 request the opening and updating of data for their further potential reuse, which is essential in the digital data-driven world.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Lněnička ◽  
Renata Machova ◽  
Jolana Volejníková ◽  
Veronika Linhartová ◽  
Radka Knezackova ◽  
...  

PurposeThe purpose of this paper was to draw on evidence from computer-mediated transparency and examine the argument that open government data and national data infrastructures represented by open data portals can help in enhancing transparency by providing various relevant features and capabilities for stakeholders' interactions.Design/methodology/approachThe developed methodology consisted of a two-step strategy to investigate research questions. First, a web content analysis was conducted to identify the most common features and capabilities provided by existing national open data portals. The second step involved performing the Delphi process by surveying domain experts to measure the diversity of their opinions on this topic.FindingsIdentified features and capabilities were classified into categories and ranked according to their importance. By formalizing these feature-related transparency mechanisms through which stakeholders work with data sets we provided recommendations on how to incorporate them into designing and developing open data portals.Social implicationsThe creation of appropriate open data portals aims to fulfil the principles of open government and enables stakeholders to effectively engage in the policy and decision-making processes.Originality/valueBy analyzing existing national open data portals and validating the feature-related transparency mechanisms, this paper fills this gap in existing literature on designing and developing open data portals for transparency efforts.


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.


Informatics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Mahboob Khurshid ◽  
Nor Hidayati Zakaria ◽  
Ammar Rashid ◽  
Mohammad Nazir Ahmad ◽  
Muhammad Irfanullah Arfeen ◽  
...  

Open government data (OGD) has huge potential to increase transparency, accountability, and participation while improving efficiency in operations, data-driven and evidence-based policymaking, and trust in government institutions. Despite its potential benefits, OGD has not been widely and successfully adopted in public sector organizations, particularly in developing countries. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the theories/frameworks and potential determinants that influence the OGD adoption in public sector organizations. To ascertain the various determinants of OGD adoption in public sector organizations, this study involved a systematic review of already established theories and determinants addressed in the public sector open data domain. The review revealed that the TOE (technology, organization, environment) framework was dominantly employed over theories in the earlier studies to understand organizational adoption to OGD followed by institutional theory. The results, concerning potential determinants, revealed that some of the most frequently addressed determinants are an organization’s digitization/digitalization capacity, compliance pressure, financial resources, legislation, policy, regulations, organizational culture, political leadership commitment, top-management support, and data quality. The findings will enrich researchers to empirically investigate the exposed determinants and improve the understanding of decision-makers to leverage OGD adoption by taking relevant measures.


Author(s):  
Dhea Junestya Pradipta ◽  
Septi Ariani ◽  
Dana Indra Sensuse ◽  
Sofian Lusa ◽  
Pudy Prima

Open Government Data (OGD) implementation provides benefits for government performance and public services. Based on the Indonesian government's openness action plan 2018-2020, the importance of monitoring and evaluation of OGD implementation for sustainable development is emphasized. This study aims to prioritize criteria and provide recommendations for OGD evaluations at the Jakarta Open Data. Through the mix method approach, expert interviews have been conducted to test the validity of the criteria which then carried out the distribution of questionnaires to eleven expert respondents from five departments. The data is processed using the fuzzy-Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to determine each weight on twenty criteria in four dimensions. The results of this study indicate that in the short term, OGD internal evaluations in the DKI Jakarta provincial government can be done by assessing eight main priority criteria, namely accuracy, completeness, compliance, understandability, timeliness, openness, functionality, and reliability which are then based on overall criteria. These results are the basis for discussion in the Data Forum and the establishment of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to assist and accelerate the process of collecting, processing, verifying and validating data from 51 regional work units. Externally, the Jakarta Open Data team can pay attention to the conditions of citizen engagement in the OGD and the existence of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between relevant ministries or agencies that does not yet have data officers or information and documentation management officers for effective and efficient data processing


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 204-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuti Saxena ◽  
Irfan Muhammad

Purpose Accountability, citizen participation and transparency are the three pillars on which open government data (OGD) is based. As such, OGD implies that the government shall provide data freely via the internet so that the same may be re-used for diverse purposes. It is hoped that by re-using government data, public value shall be co-created and government services might be improved upon with the involvement of different stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to underline the impact of OGD on accountability and transparency in the context of Pakistan where OGD initiative is taking roots for quite some time now. In the present study, the authors seek to investigate the challenges being faced by the professionals in the private sector and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in Pakistan. Besides, the authors also seek inputs from the respondents in the manner in which OGD initiative of Pakistan has impact on ensuring accountability and transparency. Design/methodology/approach For conducting the review of the national OGD portal of Pakistan, the authors invoke documentary analysis wherein the authors investigate the features of the national OGD portal of Pakistan. Furthermore, the authors conducted structured interviews with 49 senior management representatives from private sector and NGOs in order to gauge the challenges encountered by them in tapping OGD from diverse online public sources. Findings Respondents aver that robust statistical analysis is not feasible via the data sets being shared by the online sources. More initiatives are required on the part of the government bodies to release the data sets which have remained confined in silos. Government should institutionalize an OGD policy and promote the re-use of OGD by the professionals from diverse backgrounds. At present, only educational data are being shared by the OGD portal of Pakistan and it is important that more data sets are being released in the public domain. Furthermore, the respondents perceive that in a bid to be more accountable and transparent, the government bodies should release data sets via the online channels which are user-friendly. Research limitations/implications The present study conducted a qualitative research where the number of respondents was relatively less. Further research is required by adopting quantitative approach in order to accommodate more respondents and lend reliability to the study. Nevertheless, the study holds implications for academicians and practitioners in the sense that while it is needed that further research be conducted on the OGD initiative of Pakistan, it is imperative that policy makers get involved in institutionalizing the OGD initiative of Pakistan at national and local levels. Social implications Professionals might be better involved in creating and co-creating products and services by tapping OGD. Originality/value Given that OGD initiative in Pakistan is in a nascent stage and research is wanting in exploring the nature and scope of Pakistan’s OGD, the present study seeks to contribute toward the existing OGD literature.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Dai ◽  
Qiao Li

ABSTRACT Each year, governments around the world spend billions of dollars purchasing a wide variety of goods and services. These governments must spend their money wisely in order to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse of taxpayer dollars. Although government contracting systems are supposed to be transparent, people may still take advantage of these systems to gain benefits, which leads to high-risk contracts and, sometimes, costly government frauds. Recently, governments in some countries have started open data initiatives in order to make government operations more transparent to their citizens. With the open data, a new type of auditor, called an armchair auditor, could play an important role in monitoring government spending. An armchair auditor could be anyone who has an interest in government expenditures and who usually uses technologies to perform analyses on open data. Few studies have discussed how armchair auditors can better use the open data and what data analytics tools could be applied. To that end, this paper proposes a list of audit apps that could assist armchair auditors in analyzing open government procurement data. These apps could help investigate procurement data from different perspectives, such as validating contractor qualification, detecting defective pricing, etc. This paper uses Brazilian federal government procurement contract data to illustrate the functionality of these apps; however, the apps could be applied to open government data in a variety of other nations.


2019 ◽  
pp. 607-623
Author(s):  
Sarah Hartmann ◽  
Agnes Mainka ◽  
Wolfgang G. Stock

The population in many cities all over the world is continuously growing and with this growing number of people infrastructural, health and location-related problems increase. It is assumed that these problems could be addressed by means of open government data which many governments publish on their web portals so that it can be further processed and transformed. Since the citizens themselves know best what they need, governments encourage them to participate in open data innovation competitions and to create value added services for their city. The reuse of open urban government data during hackathons or app competitions is a new trend in knowledge societies of how governments and citizens work together. But have these events still become practice in local governments and are they helpful means to foster government-to-citizen communication and collaboration? The authors analyze innovation competitions in 24 world cities to see how they are applied and whether they have the potential to make the city “smart”.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document