open data as enabler of public service co-creation:exploring the drivers and barriers

Click to edit Master title styleOpen Data as Enabler of Public Service Co-creation:Exploring the Drivers and Barriers

Maarja Toots, Keegan McBride, Tarmo Kalvet, Robert Krimmer

CeDem’17, Krems17 May 2017

The promise of open data

Open (government) data:

New data-driven services

Open government:

• open data, open processes

• public scrutiny & transparency

• public involvement & participation

Co-creation/co-production:

• user perspective

• co-creation of value

CeDEM'17, Krems, 17 May 2017

A vision for public services

„Such an open government model builds on open data, open services and open decisions. The provision of public services results in the creation of public value. Empowering individually and collectively all actors that play a role in the constitution of society and sharing resources between all stakeholders will contribute to the creation of public value.“

European Commission, DG CONNECT 2013


The gap

• From vision to practice

• From what to how

• What factors affect our ability to useopen data for the co-creation of publicservices?

• Focus on drivers (enablers) and barriers(challenges)

• Joining two concepts: open data + co-creation


Research methodology

• Study within the OpenGovIntelligence project (Horizon2020)

• Literature review:

open data, open government data, data-driven services, service co-production/ co-creation, public sector innovation

academic literature + policy reports

• Survey of experts and practitioners:

May-June 2016

63 respondents from 6 countries(Belgium, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, UK)


Survey respondents

• 63 responses

34 public administration representatives

29 business, civil society & research actors


Nat gov

35%

Reg gov

6%Loc gov

11%

NGO

11%

Business

24%

Research

13%Nat gov

Reg gov

Loc gov

NGO

Business

Research

Survey questions

• 11 questions (mostly open) about:

Experience using open data

Experience with co-creation of publicservices using open data

Drivers and barriers to the use of opendata for service co-creation

Organisational capacities & needs relatedto open data-driven co-creation

Examples of successful & unsuccessfulpolicies and initiatives promoting opendata innovation

Suggestions for new policies/initiatives


Survey results

• Four broad categories of drivers and barriers:

1) data and technology;

2) stakeholders;

3) organizations;

4) regulations and policies

• Drivers often opposite of barriers

• Many drivers & barriers cited in literature reiterated

• Open data + co-creation = furthercomplication of the barriers related toboth


Barriers DriversData and technology

B.DT1 - Lack of availability of open data D.DT1 - Availability of open data

B.DT2 - Lack of data quality, fragmentation of datasets

D.DT2 - Provision of high-quality easy-to-use datasets, provision of datasets of key importance

B.DT3 - Messy data formats and lack of metadata D.DT3 - Harmonization of data and metadata

B.DT4 - Missing infrastructure to support open data D.DT4 - Open Data Portals

Stakeholders (perceptions, attitudes, culture)

B.S1 - Political environment, political will D.S1 - Citizen demand and visionary policy-makers

B.S2 - Lack of awareness of open data and benefits D.S2 - Awareness of open data and benefits

B.S3 - Technological skillset missing D.S3 - Training and skills development

B.S4 - Requires trust and participation D.S4 - Participation

Organizations

B.O1 - Existing business models, resourceconstraints

D.O1 - Development of new business models

B.O2 - Missing innovation orientation in public sector

D.O2 - Presence of innovative orientation in public sector

B.O3 - Incompatible organizational processes D.O3 - New organizational processes required

Legislation and policies

B.LP1 - Legislation on data sharing and licenses D.LP1 - Legislation on data sharing and licenses

B.LP2 - Limited legal obligation to publish open government data

D.LP2 - Strengthening legal obligations to publish government data as open data by default

B.LP3 - Privacy and security concerns D.LP3 - Increases transparency and accountability

Key barriers

• Availability of relevant, good quality, usableopen data

• Low awareness of the value and potentialuses of open data

• Low perceived benefits of open data

• Lack of resources

• Low political priority

• Low awareness of the benefits of co-creation

• Cultural impediments to co-creation

• Existing governance processes and businessmodels that are incompatible with opengovernment & co-creation


Policies as drivers

• Several good examples of policy drivers, both national (UK, Greece) & cross-border (EU, OGP)

• Characteristics of successful policies:

Ambitious but practical

Comprehensive, systemic approach(combining legal obligation with soft supportmeasures and financial incentives; makingopen data part of open government strategy)

Focus on creating incentives, reducingtransaction costs

Backed by strong political will

Needs-driven, user-centric

Cross-border comparison (OGP)


Recommendations

• Turning the vicious circle into a virtuouscircle:

• Two starting points:

1) provide open data

2) share examples of co-creation


Awareness

Perceivedvalue

WillProvisionof open

data

Co-creationof services

Policy recommendations 1

• Make open data a political priority

• Take a comprehensive, systematic policyapproach to open data and open government

• Publish key datasets as open data

• Introduce a legal obligation for government institutions to make public sector data open by default

• Review data licensing and copyright regulations for compatibility with open data goals, public interest and new business models



• Increase public officials’ awareness of personal data protection regulations and ways to publish data without compromising privacy and security

• Remodel existing processes for public service production to integrate co-creation

• Engage in cross-border collaboration for the harmonization of data standards to add value to open datasets



• Provide and disseminate concrete applications to display open data solutions

• Initiate capacity-building and training programs for public sector officials:

specialized training programs on open data and digital skills

open data handbooks

provision of guidelines

sharing best practices


What can other stakeholders do?

• Take an active role, lead by example

• Demonstrate the value of open data(initiate new services; prototype & disseminate applications for data analysis and visualization; share success stories & best practices)

• Make active use of existing open data to build small applications and services

• Demand open data from government

• Initiate capacity-building and training programs for citizens, private and non-profit sector


Conclusions

• Open data-driven public service co-creation – a complication of complicatedthings

• Country context seems to matter lessthan expected

• Solution: starting the revolution top-down and bottom-up at once:

Comprehensive policy approach (legalobligation + soft coordination + supportmeasures)

Demand from citizens and grassroots groups

Sharing and communication

Willingness to collaborate to explore theunknown


Next steps

• Ongoing research

• Testing the initial assumptions on sixreal-life pilots (BE, GR, EE, IE, LT, UK):

More thorough understanding of thedrivers and barriers in different domainsand country contexts

What challenges are common for all sixpilots?

How can barriers be addressed and drivers taken advantage of?

• Redefinition of the whole concept of „public service“?


Thank you!

open data as enabler of public service co-creation:exploring the drivers and barriers

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