This document discusses open data in government. It defines open data and provides examples of open government data sets. Open data can increase transparency, accountability, inclusion and engagement. Many governments have adopted open data programs, though progress varies. Examples are given of open data programs and their impacts in countries like Nigeria, India, Jamaica, the UK and others. Challenges to open data include limitations in available data, policies, capacity, innovation support and financing. Resources are provided to help with open data programs and the need for data-literate societies is discussed.

1. OPEN DATA
IN
GOVERNME
NT
Steps forward and back
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2. THE TREND TOWARDS ‘OPEN’
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3. OPEN DATA
What is open data
Technically open
Legally open
Free for commercial reuse
Example datasets
National statistics
Government budget
Election results
National map
Company register
Transport timetables
Government spending
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4. WHY OPEN DATA
Transparency
Accountability
Inclusion
Engagement
Service delivery
Economic growth and jobs
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5. GOVERNMENT ADOPTION OF OPEN
DATA
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>50 countries > 250 governments

6. DIFFERING LEVELS OF PROGRESS
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7. EXAMPLES OF OPEN DATA
PROGRAMS
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8. STORIES FROM THE FIELD
Nigeria – BudgiT simplifies government budgets for ordinary citizens and provides tools to visualize
and share data
India – IndiaSpend is a data journalism initiative that uses open data and more to foster better
governance, transparency, and accountability in the Indian government
Jamaica – CrimeBot alerts citizens to crimes in their neighborhood and provides different kinds of
analysis of crime data
UK – FixMyStreet lets citizens report local problems directly to relevant government agencies
Macedonia – a UNDP initiative combined SMS, open data, and other data sources to create a service
that helped farmers reduce pesticide use by 30%
Malawi – Malwivote helps voters find their registration centers
Kenya – an NTV journalist produced a series of stories linking grades with sanitation facilities
Philippines – CheckMySchool provides information on services and facilities in schools
USA – BuildingEye provides ‘mashed-up’ information to government agencies and citizens about
building permits, planning applications, business licenses, public events, etc.
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9. STORIES FROM THE BOARD ROOM
USA – Climate Corporation sells highly localized crop insurance
products (the company was recently sold for almost a billion dollars)
Mexico – Medii.co helps consumers compare drug prices in different
pharmacies in Mexico
India – MandiTrades provides commodity price information to
farmers/agribusiness
Indonesia – UrbanIndo connects property buyers and sellers
Chile – Junar is a cloud based open data publishing platform
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10. USE AND REUSE
It is not about the data, it is about the use of data
The government has a critical role to play in the open data
‘ecosystem’
 Supplier
 Leader
 Catalyst
 User
The government however can’t do it alone. Essential partners include
-
 Private sector
 Civil society organizations
 Media
 Academia
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11. CHALLENGES
Data
 Most open data programs are superficial; too much data – especially local, granular, current – is still unavailable
Policy
 Significant policy gaps discourage both the publication and use (especially commercial) of data
Capacity/Literacy
 Few government policy makers are trained to understand the potential of data in governance
 Limited understanding of open data within critical communities like entrepreneurs, investors, journalists, CSOs, and development practitioners
Innovation
 Limited support/infrastructure for innovation and incubation of new data driven ideas and companies
Financing
 Many government open data programs face significant financing challenges
 Access to capital, especially post-seed stage capital, is a significant challenge for open data driven companies
Result measurement
 The current focus is on supply, rather than demand
 Measurements are focused on inputs, rather than outputs
Data puritanism
 Open data purists are unable to see the larger data landscape
 Most open data initiatives focus only on data, ignoring ‘ecosystem’ challenges associated with policy, engagement, capacity, use, financing, and the like
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12. TOOLKITS/RESOURCES
The World Bank provides an open government data toolkit that may
be helpful for government officials considering open data programs
The Open Foundation has created a handy guide to the technical,
legal, and social aspects of open data
The European Journalism Center has produced a useful data
journalism guide
The US government published its open data policy recently
The G8 recently announced an open data charter
The UK government recently published a white paper describing the
potential of open data
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13. FINALLY
Governments need to make significant investment in building a data
literate society
 Technical skills are important but there’s a greater need for people that can ask
data smart questions – what are we trying to solve, what can we instrument, what
can we ask from the data, what can we share, what is it telling us
 The modern policy maker MUST be data savvy
The media is a natural producer, disseminator, aggregator, combiner,
and consumer of data
 Will it (or will the ‘new media’ do it instead)
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14. THANK YOU
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15. REFERENCES
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http://barometer.opendataresearch.org/assets/downloads/Open%20Data%20Baromete
r%20-%20Global%20Report%20-%202nd%20Edition%20-%20PRINT.pdf
http://index.okfn.org/place/

16. THE TREND TOWARDS ‘OPEN’ –THE
FLAVORS
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