Open Data Barometer (ODB) - 3rd Edition

"When made freely available to everyone via the Web, without charge, in formats that are easy to share, combine and cross-reference, open data is more than a tool to hold governments accountable. It is also a driver of innovation that can improve education and healthcare, create new businesses, and stimulate scientific progress."

Produced by the World Wide Web Foundation, the Open Data Barometer (ODB) aims to uncover the prevalence and impact of open data initiatives around the world. It analyses global trends and provides comparative data on countries and regions using an in-depth methodology that combines contextual data, technical assessments, and secondary indicators. The premise of the ODB is that open data, accessed through a free and open Web, can enhance transparency, allowing citizens to participate more fully in the democratic process and hold leaders to account. It can highlight inefficiencies and uncover solutions, allowing governments and development workers to tackle tough challenges more effectively.

This is the third edition of the Barometer, a resource that is accompanied by a website featuring an interactive data explorer and regional reports. After two pilots, this edition marks a step towards becoming a global policymaking tool with a participatory and inclusive process and a regional focus. This edition of the ODB includes an assessment of countries against the International Open Data Charter principles. Covering 92 countries, the Barometer ranks nations on: readiness for open data initiatives, implementation of open data programmes, and impact that open data is having on business, politics, and civil society.

Selected findings: The majority of countries in the survey - 55% - have an open data initiative in place and a national data catalogue providing access to datasets available for re-use. Civil society and the tech community are using government data in 93% of countries surveyed, even in countries where that data is not yet fully open. However, much of the approximately 10% of government data that meets the open definition is of poor quality. Twenty-six of the top 30 countries in the ranking are high-income countries, and half of all open data sets are found in the top 10 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Countries at the bottom are characterised by very weak general readiness, few or no open datasets available, and a lack of demonstrable impact. Sub-Saharan Africa dominates the bottom of the table, clearly indicating that strong leadership and more efforts are needed in the region.

The Barometer is a global and collaborative effort, with input from more than 150 researchers and government representatives. Organisers address more than 14,000 questions and respond to more than 5,000 comments and suggestions. The 3rd edition is based upon 3 kinds of data: (i) a peer-reviewed expert survey carried out between May and September 2015 with a range of questions about open data contexts, policy, implementation, and impacts and a detailed dataset survey completed for 15 kinds of data in each country, which touched upon issues of data availability, format, licensing, timeliness, and discoverability; (ii) a government self-assessment in the form of a simplified survey carried out between May and July 2015 with the same range of questions; and (iii) secondary data selected to complement the expert survey data.

The resource lists 6 recommendations to increase the readiness, implementation, and ultimately impact of open data for development: (i) Get behind the International Open Data Charter. (ii) Expand and deepen open data practice - "To see real impact, governments need to embrace open data as a long-term cultural shift in governance with sufficient resources and staff, ensuring that infrastructure, laws and policies are strong enough for long-term open data implementation and results." (iii) Make sure the government data published is truly open. "For example, if all countries in our survey clearly indicated an explicit open licence for data they have already placed online, the number of fully open datasets would double overnight." (iv) Harmonise open data, privacy, and freedom of information efforts. (v) Consult data users and prioritise the data citizens and data users want. (vi) Provide funding, training and support for developing countries to close the data gap.

According to the ODB team, "the Barometer is already sparking real world change in over 20 nations. It has directly influenced policies for the better around the world, and is giving Open Data advocates robust evidence to help drive change". For example, the Belgian city of Ghent is using an adapted version of the Barometer methodology to monitor the progress of their local open data initiative. In Ecuador, an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) has been engaging with the ODB research team to understand how open data could assist with Ecuadorians' desire for freedom of and access to information, including monitoring, reporting, and advocacy. In Myanmar, transparency activists are using the country's low ranking on the Barometer to urge the government to accelerate progress on open data. The Malaysian government is explicitly using the Barometer study and ranking as a policy target for their open data efforts.

The Barometer received funding and support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) as a collaborative work of the Open Data for Development network (OD4D).