Promoting, collecting and presenting successful cases of government data re-use that have had an impact on social and economic well-being is essential to unlocking the full potential of open government data (OGD). As data providers, governments play a key role in raising awareness and promoting greater re-use, both within and outside the public sector. For such purpose, they can enhance capacities and skills inside the public administration, along with organising events, competitions, programmes and partnerships that stimulate the data re-use among external stakeholders. Monitoring social and economic impacts of OGD is also key.
The indicator governments support for data re-use has three sub-indicators: data promotion initiatives and partnerships; data literacy programmes in government; and monitoring impact, each one scoring a maximum of 0.33 points. The OECD average has increased from 0.44 in 2017 to 0.52 in 2019 (out of a minimum of 0.00 and maximum of 1.00 points). Improvements across OECD countries are largely due to investments in open data programs and events that target public servants, as well as increasing efforts to monitor impacts of OGD through research and by displaying re-use examples on central OGD portals.
Korea remains as the leader in this domain, scoring the highest value for all three sub-indicators. Despite overall enhanced support for re-use, some countries perform less well. The score for data promotion decreased in Norway and Finland, from 0.24 in 2017 to 0.08 in 2019 and from 0.29 to 0.03 respectively, because they organised fewer events to involve civil society and businesses than in 2017.
The support for OGD re-use among external stakeholders has generally remained constant between 2017 and 2019; the OECD average for data promotion remains at 0.16 (out of 0.33). However, countries that have kept open government data high on the political agenda in recent years, including Ireland and Latvia, have organised activities and programmes that aim to support re-use among businesses and civil society (e.g. hackathons, open data conferences and co-creation events).
As noted earlier, a majority of countries have devoted resources to building open data skills and capabilities within their respective public administration. The OECD average for the sub-indicator data literacy programmes in governments increased from 0.17 to 0.21. For example, New Zealand has made considerable progress in training its public servants on the benefits and use of open data, thus moving from 0.13 to 0.29.
In line with the advancement of OGD portals across OECD countries, more of them are seeking to collect and display various kinds of examples of re-use to inspire users. This has led to an increase in the OECD average for the sub-indicator monitoring impact from 0.10 in 2017 to 0.14 in 2019. Some countries have undertaken research to assess the social and economic impact of OGD. Denmark and Latvia have, for instance, investigated the economic effects of open geospatial data.
