Open Data as Enabler of Public Service Co-creation: Exploring the Drivers and Barriers

Abstract

Open data is being increasingly looked at as a major driver of public service innovation. Open access to datasets and advanced analytical tools are believed to generate valuable new knowledge that can be turned into data-driven services. At the same time, open data is also believed to spur open governance and enable the engagement of various stakeholders in the co-creation of services. Despite this appealing vision of open data-driven co-creation of public services, we are far from understanding how it can be realized in practice. We turned to 63 experts and practitioners in a survey covering six European countries and found a multitude of barriers that need to be overcome first. Luckily we also found some drivers. This paper provides some first insights into these drivers and barriers and proposes policy recommendations to foster a data-driven transformation of public service creation.

Citizen-oriented digital transformation in the public sector

“…An increasing area of interest for e-Government scholars and government practitioners is Open Government Data (OGD). OGD is data that has been collected by a governmental agency and has subsequently been released to the public in such a way that it is accessible, machine readable, human understandable, and redistributable by any party [16,17]. Numerous government agencies and public service providers have begun to release and maintain their own OGD programs and portals, but what is often found is that benefits that they expect are not so easily realized [16,18].…”

How to manage ICTs mediated co-production: a Public Value Perspective

“…From a policy making and legal point of view, ICTs mediated co-production needs specific regulations and dedicated policies that can indicate to public organizations how external actors should be engaged [36,37]. In the Open Data case, governments had to classify from a regulatory perspective what data public organizations can open and which are the privacy restrictions [1,4]. From a technical perspective, ICTs mediated co-production requires specific infrastructures and technologies that can sustain the involvement of several external actors [37,38].…”

“…From a technical perspective, ICTs mediated co-production requires specific infrastructures and technologies that can sustain the involvement of several external actors [37,38]. Open Data requires a dedicated infrastructure usually based on an APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) platform and a format of the data that enables third parties to access the data [13].From an organizational perspective, coproduction requires the adoption of new production processes that go beyond the boundaries of the organization [1,37]. For example, specific procedures and support have to be designed in order to manage the ecosystem of applications and services that are based on Open Data [8].…”

“…The numerous Open Data initiatives are examples of co-production mediated by ICTs used by public organizations to increase transparency and enable third parties to develop public services such as the information service about public transportation [1]. Coproduction happens also through crowdsourcing that is used to involve external actors to accomplish specific tasks such as taking pictures of damaged streets to help local councils to map streets that need maintenance [2,3].…”

Co-creating an Open Government Data Driven Public Service: The Case of Chicago’s Food Inspection Forecasting Model

“…Increasing evidence is appearing on OGD's benefits and potential [2] as well as the barriers preventing its usage [3], [4]. The second topic, cocreation, emerges from the concept of Coproduction, brought into the spotlight by Elinor Ostrom in 1972 [5].…”