This document summarizes research into the open data ecosystem surrounding public university governance in South Africa. The ecosystem involves data suppliers like the government department DHET and intermediaries like CHET. While DHET supplies some open data, it is not well integrated and lacks context, so uptake is limited. However, intermediaries provide open datasets with richer information that are used more widely. For the ecosystem to evolve further, the research argues the government needs to improve how it supplies open data to make it more interoperable and provide better documentation and tools to support use.

1. Viscous Open Data
The flow of data in a public
university governance ecosystem

2. Structure » Universities » Management and Information Systems

5. Context
• Part of the Open Data in Developing Countries (ODDC) project
• Research team based at the University of Cape Town, South Africa
• In-progress research

6. Research question
• Project research question:
• What is the level of use and possible impact of open data in the
governance of South African public universities?
• For this paper:
• What is the role and impact of government-supplied open data in
the South African public university governance open data
ecosystem?
• What does the South African public university governance open data ecosystem look
like?  suppliers, consumers, intermediaries, drivers
• Is the open data supplied by government contributing to the evolution of the ecosystem?

7. Method
• Case study:
Centre for Higher Education Transformation (CHET) Open Data initiative
www.chet.org.za/sahe-open-data/
• Two user groups:
• University planners (institutional-level policy)
• HES researchers (national policy)
• Sample
• 7 of 23 public universities
• 10-15 HES researchers
• Data collection: semi-structured interviews
• Interview with the responsible government department: DHET

8. Citizens
Researchers


HEMIS

IDSC
DHET

HEIs
CHET
University
Planners

9. Observations (1)
• Even distribution of private and public data providers BUT unevenness
between open and closed data resources
• Ecosystem is not exclusively open – users draw on both open and closed
datasets
• Primary data source and primary data resource do not both reside within
government
• In this ecosystem data collection is incentivised; not necessarily the case in
other university governance ecosystems
• Intermediary (CHET) as “keystone” (enabling function) but at the same time
there are question marks about the sustainability of its open data provision
• Intermediary (IDSC) provides closed data – financially sustainable and
indicates that the data has value but question around limited access to
public data

10. Observations (2)
• No interconnectivity between HEMIS and other information systems
• Data is supplied to intermediaries (and directly to users) by DHET staff
– manual process
• Government open data has limited uptake – no/few connections to
users in the ecosystem
• Disjuncture between intent (as encapsulated in agreements, policies,
directives) and practice

11. Comments
1. Government data at departmental level is made open due to capacity
constraints and is not driven by government-wide commitments to
transparency or accountability.
2. Result: data is ‘dumped’ on a government website – there are no
definitions, instructions, tools, etc. (‘information context) on what data is
available and how it should be used. As reflected in the ecosystem
diagram, this has led to poor direct uptake of the government open data
resource. Data source (HEMIS) also remains isolated. Government data =
viscous.
3. Two intermediaries have stepped into the vacuum to provide open data
to university planners. One provides open data; the other provides
closed data. Both provide relatively rich information contexts. Ecosystem
diagram reflects that these data resources are used by the target
audience. Data = more liquid.

12. Conclusion
1. The ecosystem has evolved despite poor data provision by
government because of the presence of intermediaries in the
ecosystem.
2. BUT by providing a richer information context and by making the
data interoperable, government could improve the uptake of data
by new users and intermediaries, as well as by the existing
intermediaries. Increasing the fluidity of government open data
could also resolve uncertainties around both the degree of access
provided by intermediaries and the financial sustainability of the
open platforms provided by intermediaries.

13. Thank you
Francois van Schalkwyk
francois@compressdsl.com