Open Government Data Systems
Learning from a Public Utility Perspective
Jonathan Crusoe (Linköping University)
A.M.G. Zuiderwijk-van Eijk (TU Delft - Information and Communication Technology)
Ulf Melin (Linköping University)
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Abstract
Previous research on Open Government Data (OGD) struggles with synthesising a holistic perspective of OGD systems. A perspective that has dealt with vast, complex systems is public utility. Public utilities are, for example, water supply networks and electric power grids. This study explores what we can learn from a public utility perspective when perceiving and organising OGD systems. We used a hermeneutic literature review combined with a snowballing approach, resulting in a selection of 39 studies. We compare public utilities and OGD systems to derive five lessons: (1) an OGD system can be perceived from a node-flow view, (2) the foundational data flow of an OGD system starts at data collection and ends at data used by the public in an everyday context, (3) the organisation of OGD systems needs to consider the combinability, interpretability, and boundless reusability of data, (4) OGD systems need governance organisations that cover the whole system, and (5) OGD systems could replace existing data provision systems and be made a public utility if certain characteristic problems are overcome.