From Barriers to Boosters: Optimizing Open Government Data through Publishing Guidelines and Data Protection Strategies

Abstract

Open Government Data (OGD) is a global endeavor, a collaborative effort between governments worldwide to share datasets that encapsulate a wide spectrum of government activities, from environmental issues like pollution and climate to social aspects like education and childcare, and urban concerns like traffic and congestion, and healthcare statistics. As governments, being among the largest producers and collectors of data, are making OGD available online in diverse formats, primarily Word, PDF, or Excel, they are contributing significantly to this global initiative. The OGD initiative holds immense potential to revolutionize the way we access and use government data. Its primary objective is to enhance the discoverability, accessibility, and availability of data in alternative and preferably machine-readable formats. This, in turn, empowers a diverse set of stakeholders to develop innovative data applications under licensing schemes that permit unrestricted reuse. Despite these promising aspects, challenges such as data heterogeneity, data protection, data quality, and data provenance issues persist. This study aims to analyze and categorize these challenges and obstacles that hinder the OGD initiative from realizing its full potential, with a particular emphasis on data protection and security concerns for data providers.