Capability: Open data initiative

The following indicator is under consideration for this pilot edition of the Barometer: To what extent is there a well-resourced open government data initiative in the country?

Definitions

Definitions and Identification

An open government data initiative is a programme by the government to release government data online to the public. It has four main features:

1. The government discloses data or information without request from citizens. This may be according to a release schedule or ad hoc.
2. The Internet is the primary means of disclosure (including mobile phone applications);
3. Data is free to access and reuse, e.g. open licenses;
4. Data is in a machine-readable format to enable computer-based reuse, e.g. spreadsheet formats, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), etc.

Resources for an open government data initiative include a sufficient budget, personnel and facilities to carry out the mandate of the open data initiative, including technical personnel with appropriate qualifications for dealing with open data issues.

Note that this question is only concerned with initiatives led by the national or sub-national governments. ****Open data initiatives covering the country, but organised by a third party, such as the African Development Bank or another regional organisation should not be counted, although these can be mentioned in the ‘Sources and justification’.

Active initiatives

Many countries have launched open data initiatives over the last decade. This indicator is concerned with whether these remained active during the study period.

Signs of activity may include (but are not limited to):

• Commitments from senior leaders to continued or new open data publication;
• Updates to policies and guidance, or monitoring of policy/guidance implementation;
• Dedicated staff and financial resources supporting open data activities;
• Active participation in international fora such as the Open Data Charter;
• Regular updates to a national open data portal.

Research Guidance

Start by identifying the national open data portal. There you will be able to check for latest updates, as well as other information regarding the team behind the initiative. You may also look for social media accounts related to the initiative, where you night find recent activities on guidance or senior leadership. Consulting individual or organisations working on open data will help you to identify other sources regarding budgets and other evidence.

Starting points

• Sources:

  • The qualitative data from past editions of the Open Data Barometer may provide details of initiatives identified prior to 2017, and in 2019 in Latin America, which can be checked for recent activity
  • The list of Government Adopters of the Open Data Charter, and Open Government Partnership Action Plans can indicate the parts of government taking responsibility for open data activities, and provide leads to current identify open data initiatives.
  • Answers to the current Barometer question on Open Data Policies may provide evidence of an initiative

• Search:

  • For details of how central government data portals are updated, and look for evidence of a team maintaining the portal or providing guidance.
  • Parliamentary or government records for recent mentions of "open data" that might provide evidence of active leadership or monitoring of open data initiatives.
  • General search for: 'Open data policy', 'Data strategy', 'Open Data Strategy'
  • Search academic search engines (e.g. Google Scholar) for recent papers on "open data" + [Country]

• Consult:

  • Individuals or organisations working on open data in government or civil society

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can answer the following questions:

• How recently updated were guidance, data portals, or other open data initiative resources?
• Does the open data portal enable a quick search and use of datasets from a wide range of topics and sources?
• Is there a government team working to support open data activities?
• Do open data activities appear to have allocated funding and budgets?

National and sub-national considerations

Look first for a national open data initiative. If there are no national initiatives, but you locate a strong sub-national initiative, you may carry out your assessment against this and report this using the question on the geographical and institutional scope of the initiative.

Question sub-components

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

• Has there been any form of government-led open government data initiative during the study period?
  • There is no evidence of any government-led open government data initiative in the country.
  • There has been a government-led open government data initiative, but there is limited evidence of recent activity.

    Supporting questions: When was the open government data initiative first launched?When was the initiative last active? (Please provide year, and if appropriate, a brief explanation. E.g. '2016: before the last election').

  • There is evidence of an active government-led open government data initiative.

    Supporting questions: When was the open government data initiative first launched?

Elements

• Specific features:

• There is a government team in place supporting open data activities. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide evidence of the existence of this team, and briefly explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please provide evidence of the existence of this team.

• There is an allocated budget for open data activities. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide evidence of this allocated budget, and briefly explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please provide evidence of this allocated budget.

• There is a well-maintained open data portal. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide the URL and briefly explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please provide the URL.

• There is guidance and support for government publication of open data. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide evidence of this guidance, and briefly explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please provide evidence of this guidance.

• Senior political leaders back the open data initiative. (No, Partially, Yes)

  Supporting questions (conditional)

  If Partially: Please provide evidence of this leadership, and briefly explain your 'Partially' response.

  If Yes: Please provide evidence of this leadership.

Extent

• How widely does this, or similar, open data initiatives apply?
  • The open data initiative covers only a limited part of the national government, or only covers one or more sub-national governments.

    Supporting questions: Please briefly describe the scope of this initiative and indicate sources for this affirmation.

  • The open data initiative covers only a limited part of the national government, but there are similar initiatives for many other parts of government.

    Supporting questions: Please briefly describe the scope of this initiative and indicate sources for this affirmation.

  • The open data initiative covers much of the national government, and there are similar initiatives in many sub-national areas.

    Supporting questions: Please briefly describe the scope of this initiative and indicate sources for this affirmation.

  • The open data initiatives covers much of both national and sub-national government.

    Supporting questions: Please briefly describe the scope of this initiative and indicate sources for this affirmation.

Indicator Justification

Promoting re-use of public data is central to realising the potential of data for the public good. Embedding open data practices involves changes to the way that public institutions work, and can benefit from ongoing open data initiatives that provide leadership, resourcing, guidance, support and infrastructure for government open data activities. The Open Data Charter calls for countries making a commitment to open data to have delivery mechanisms that translate these commitments into improved supply of open data.

The Open Data Barometer included an indicator (ODB.2013.C.INIT) which asked: "To what extent is there an active and well-resourced open government data initiative in the country?". This indicator is designed to provide comparable data to the ODB indicator. It takes the guidance from the ODB's 0 - 10 scoring system, and converts this to an element checklist items that should yield similar scoring for similar situations.