icegov2012 proceedings

Exploring Process Barriers to Release Public Sector
Information in Local Government
Peter Conradie
Creating 010
Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences,
P.O. Box 3001 HA Rotterdam
The Netherlands
003110 794 4801
p.d.conradie@hr.nl
ABSTRACT
Due to expected benefits such as citizen participation and
innovation, the release of Public Sector Information is getting
increased attention on various levels of government. However,
currently, data release by governments is still novel, with little
experience and knowledge thus far about the benefits and barriers
of release. This is compounded by a lack of understanding about
how internal processes influence data release. Our aim in this
paper is to get a better understanding of these processes and how
they influence data release, i.e, to find determinants for the release
of public sector information. For this purpose, we conducted
workshops, interviews, questionnaires and desk research. We find
that the way data is used by a department, the way data is
obtained, how data is stored, and the suitability of data to become
open, as crucial indicators for open data release. We conclude
with lessons learned based on the research findings. These are that
we should take a nuanced approach towards data release, avoid
releasing data for it’s own sake and take small incremental steps
to explore data release.
Categories and Subject Descriptors
H.3 [Information Systems]: Information Storage and Retrieval;
K.4 [Computers and Society]: Public Policy Issues
General Terms
Design, Experimentation
Keywords
Open Data, PSI, Participatory Action Research
1. INTRODUCTION
The release of Public Sector Information by governmental
organisations is getting increasing attention from government on
several levels, local, national and international. For example, early
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ICEGOV '12, October 22 - 25 2012, Albany, NY, United States, NY, USA
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5
Sunil Choenni
Research and Documentation Centre
Ministry of Security and Justice
P.O. Box 20301 2500 EH, The Hague
The Netherlands
0031648100301
r.choenni@hr.nl
in his presidency, United States President Obama called for
increased release of public sector information [24]. Similarly,
European Commissioner for Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes is a
strong advocate for the release of Public Sector Information in the
European Union, by its member states, but also by the
commission [21]. Her view is supported by the 2003 PSI
Directive the European Parliament and the European Council
[11].
Oft cited motivations for data release are hopes of increased
citizen involvement in government, increased transparency and
improved decision making [2, 21, 24]. Besides the premise of
increased citizen involvement, open data is also seen as fuel for
innovation. To illustrate, the MEPSIR study places the estimated
value of the PSI market at 27 billion within the EU [10].
Furthermore, open data may give also a boost to the field of egovernance.
However, this increased call for data release by governmental
agencies presents data professionals with tasks that are as of yet
unknown, in addition to having side effects that are hard to predict
on a large scale. The cost associated with data release is also not
always known, while the benefits that open data can have need to
be explored. Having said that, the directives from higher levels of
government are putting pressure onto local governments to find
answers to pressing questions in relation to open data, such as
what are the challenges, potentials, barriers and impact of open
data?
In The Netherlands the calls for the re-use of data has not gone
unheard. On various levels of national government in The
Netherlands initiatives have been launched to free data for re-use
in the public domain. These include local city councils, ministries
and provincial governments. To illustrate: recent months has seen
the launch of a national platform of data release [20], but also
platforms on metropolitan level, as the that of the Dutch city
Enschede [19].
While possible barriers and potentials of open data are reported by
several researchers (see Section 2), a deep understanding of the
underlying processes for these barriers is missing. In this paper,
we study the underlying processes that pertain to data release in a
local context, i.e., we search for crucial determinants for the
release of open data. We have studied the processes involved in
releasing data at four organizations of the municipal Rotterdam,
which is the second largest city in the Netherlands, with a
population of 680 000. The municipality currently has 12 000
employees. We have implemented a participatory action research