Open Data in the European Context: A Comparative Analysis of Policy Implementation

European Commission’s Digital Agenda cites open data in two roles: open data are crucial for the provision of public services to citizens and companies, as well as to develop start-ups, to achieve more efficiency in terms of time and costs, and ultimately to help promoting the collaboration among institutions at the national and supra-national levels. At the same time, open data and more widely open government promise is to enhance the relationship between citizens and institutions, by shifting from a secretive bureaucracy to transparency and accountability, thus consolidating the quality of democracy.

Nevertheless, few research address the critical evaluation of those processes and official statistics fail to understand the deeper dynamics below the mere adoption of European laws in member States. Our study is based upon mixed methods, combining quantitative data and in-depth analysis, and focusing on a combination of variables rooted in literature: (1) accessibility, re-usability and accuracy of datasets covering a minimum set of relevant issues; (2) systemic transparency, as a complex assessment of data transparency and government transparency; (3) e-government maturity, recalling the historical development of the open data policy and the broader political and cultural contexts; (4) public participation and collaboration in re-using data, explaining the role of citizens, journalists, non-governmental organization and companies. We aim at identifying different models of open data implementation according to specific barriers (technical and/or cultural) and drivers (bottom-up and/or top-down).