Benchmarking open data

Nayana RenuKumar

CENTRE FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE, INDIA

Next Stage In Open Government Data:

Using Data For Transparency, Accountability and

Collaboration

Web

2.0

Image source: Flat Classroom Project

Open Government and Citizen Engagement

Open Government Data are data sets released by the government on public interest. Usage is unconstrained with the right to re-share and re-purpose without further notice (Source: Linked Open Data).

Political paradigm is based on the principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration

Open government is about how government can work with society and individuals to co--‐create public value OECD (2010)

Core values of open government data can be summarized as: Transparency: Governments should provide citizens

information on what they are doing, to receive feedback on government decisions and be held accountable

Participation: Governments should actively solicit expertise and consult with all sectors of society so that it makes policies with the best information

Collaboration: Government officials should work together and with citizens and the private sector as part of their job of solving local and national problems

Need for Open Data

More information might lead to more informed and better decisions

Higher degree of effectiveness & efficiency Strengthen trust in establishment Leverage benefits of peer production New business models “Peoples right to know”

Execution of controlling rights by the citizens Self-Determination Communication on equal information level Better Services – better Governance – better Regulation

Open Government Data Definition: The 8 Principles of Open Government Data

Government data shall be considered open if the data are made public in a way that complies with the principles below:

Data Must Be Complete: All public data are made available. Data are electronically stored information or recordings, including but not limited to documents, databases, transcripts, and audio/visual recordings. Public data are data that are not subject to valid privacy, security or privilege limitations, as governed by other statutes.

Data Must Be Primary: Data are published as collected at the source, with the finest possible level of granularity, not in aggregate or modified forms.

Data Must Be Timely: Data are made available as quickly as necessary to preserve the value of the data.

Data Must Be Accessible: Data are available to the widest range of users for the widest range of purposes.

Data Must Be Machine processable: Data are reasonably structured to allow automated processing of it.

Open Government Data Definition: The 8 Principles of Open Government Data

Access Must Be Non-Discriminatory: Data are available to anyone, with no requirement of registration.

Data Formats Must Be Non-Proprietary: Data are available in a format over which no entity has exclusive control

Data Must Be License-free: Data are not subject to any copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret regulation. Reasonable privacy, security and privilege restrictions may be allowed as governed by other statutes.

Finally, compliance must be reviewable.

A contact person must be designated to respond to people trying to use the data.

A contact person must be designated to respond to complaints about violations of principles.

An administrative or judicial court must have the jurisdiction to review whether the agency has applied these principles appropriately.

Opengovdata

Key open data initiatives

US Recovery.gov and

USA spending.gov to track

government spending and improve

transparency of public policies

data.gov

datasf.org

data.edmonton.ca/

data.gov.uk

data.london.gov.uk

digitaliser.dk

geodata.gov.gr

data.suomi.fi

data.worldbank.org/

data-catalog

www.undataapi.

org/wiki/datasets

gov.opendata.at

data.reegle.info

OpenBelgium.be

opengovdata.ru

State/Federal Private

Benchmarking Open Data Initiatives

Wide range of indicators now used to evaluate government performance, especially in eGovernment

One of the challenges for the future government - design and implement new metrics for benchmarking governments’ performance to ensure that citizen engagement and open government data initiatives can be monitored and improved

Necessary to allow benchmarking of “transformation readiness” of governments as well as improvements in “public value” from the point of view of citizens

qunb open data benchmark France vs UK vs US Socrata, Inc., a leading advocate and technology enabler of Open

Data launched the inaugural Open Government Data Benchmark Study on July 21, 2010

Study offered insights into the state of Open Government Data from three perspectives: data producers and publishers in federal, state and local

governments; civically-engaged data consuming citizens; and programmers who aim to build civic applications based on open,

public data.

Why Open Data Benchmarking?

It’s important to find out how far we’ve come in this evolution towards government data transparency and civically-engaged citizens

Answers some key questions How aware is the public about Open Data initiatives? How do they feel about it? What percentage of people believe Open Data is important enough to

fund with taxpayer money? Would the public be more likely to support elected officials who

champion data transparency? How would people expect to consume and interact with public data? For that matter, what would be examples of high-value datasets in

their view?

Source: Socrata

OPEN GOVERNMENT AND OPEN DATA IN INDIAN CONTEXT

Open data in India

India provides one of the most fascinating examples of the use of open government data in a developing country context. It has one of the best right to information laws in the world and the government’s approach to open data builds on this legacy of making open data relevant to Indian citizens.

Right to Information Act 2005 Sec 4 1(b) : Proactive disclosure of information

National eGovernance Plan National Knowledge Commission Public Information Infrastructure National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy-2012 Open Government Platform created through India- Us collaboration

to Promote Transparency and Citizen Engagement

by making more government data, documents, tools and processes publicly available

Government portal data.gov.in National Spatial Data Infrastructure National Knowledge Network

Prime Minister’s Advisor on Public Information Infrastructure & Innovations

Operationalising the National Knowledge Network to interconnect all educational and research institutions

Overseeing broadband connectivity to local governments and enabling citizen interface to improve delivery of public services and citizen empowerment

Promoting greater use of Information Communications Technology in Public Transport Systems

Promoting greater use of Information Communications Technology in the Justice System

Developing an Action Plan for a Decade of Innovation Undertaking other activities that impact the creation of a knowledge society

 INDIAN GOVT HOLDS FIRST TWITTER SESSION

Sam Pitroda, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations, held the Indian government’s first ever Twitter session to interact with citizens on 25th September, to discuss public access to information.

The virtual conference, entitled ‘Democratisation of Information’ which Pitroda defined as “information access for everyone”, invited questions regarding the release of information by government departments, public information infrastructure, government initiatives in this field, and problems that participants could observe and foresee

PIII

National Knowledge Network

State-of-the-art multi-gigabit pan-India network for providing a unified high speed network backbone for all knowledge related institutions in the country

Comprises of an ultra-high speed CORE (multiples of 10 Gbps), complimented with a distribution layer at appropriate speeds

Participating institutions at the Edge will connect to the National Knowledge Network seamlessly at speeds of 1 Gbps or higher

Network is designed to support Overlay Networks, Dedicated Networks, and Virtual Networks

Advanced applications in areas such as Health, Education, Science & Technology, Grid Computing, Bio informatics, Agriculture, and Governance will be an integral part of NKN

The entire network will seamlessly integrate with the global scientific community at multiple gigabits per second speed NKN

Benchmarking Efforts

India eReadiness Assessment reports since 2003

Jointly prepared by NCAER and DIT

Key challenges for India’s open data efforts

Absence of adequate eGovernance infrastructure to place identified government data online in an machine readable, reusable, and easily interpretable format

Issues of privacy Language barriers Semantic and system interoperability issues Most data provided in ‘raw data’ not amenable to

sophisticated analysis Need for evolving and propagating open standards Elite capture of access

Final comments : Benchmarking Open Data

A very effective open method coordination for eGovernment, where most common policies and objectives are set on a voluntary basis, and implementation is ensured not by regulation but by peer pressure

Resulting rankings expose both the achievers and the laggards

Depending on the acceptance and exposure they receive, these rankings can have a significant impact on policy development

Benefits: simplicity, accountability and capacity to influence policy

Need to be mindful about drawbacks

Over-simplification and excessive focus on indicators and rankings, rather than on actual needs and benefits

Thank You