Abstract
Abstract. With the transition of governments to e-governments, the latest measure of ensuring transparency and accountability is through providing more and more access to government data which was hitherto reserved in “silos”. This is the process entailed in "Open Governments" and the data thus opened freely is called "Open Government Data" (OGD). The transition of traditional governments to e-governments has been amply covered in extant literature. However, Open Government is regarded as the final culmination of e-government in a bid to restore public accountability and promote transparency in government besides forging government-citizen ties. In this paper, the nature and scope of OGD of Oman is being investigated. Also, the facilitating and hindering factors in tapping OGD are being discussed in the paper. The paper concludes with directions for further research and academic-cum-practitioner implications. The originality of the paper lies in the fact that the nature and scope of OGD has not been investigated in detail as far as Oman is concerned-the present study seeks to plug this gap.
Keywords. Open government data, Open data, Oman.
JEL. H10, H50, H55.
References
Attard, J., Orlandi, F., Scerri, S. & Auer, S. (2015). A systematic review of open government data initiatives. Government Information Quarterly, 32(4), 399-418. doi. 10.1016/j.giq.2015.07.006
Bates, J. (2014). The strategic importance of information policy for the contemporary neoliberal state: the case of Open Government Data in the United Kingdom. Government Information Quarterly, 31(3), 388-395. doi. 10.1016/j.giq.2014.02.009
Carrasco, C., & Sobrepere, X. (2015). Open Government Data: An Assessment of the Spanish Municipal Situation. Social Science Computer Review. 33(5), 631-644. doi. 10.1177/0894439314560678
Conradie, P. & Choenni, S. (2014). On the barriers for local government releasing open data. Government Information Quarterly, 31(1), S10-S17. doi. 10.1016/J.GIQ.2014.01.003
Gerunov, A. (2016). Understanding open data policy: evidence from Bulgaria. International Journal of Public Administration, 40(8), 649-657. doi. 10.1080/01900692.2016.1186178
Janssen, M., Charalabidis, Y. & Zuiderwijk, A. (2012). Benefits, adoption barriers and myths of Open Data and Open Government. Information Systems Management, 29(4), 258-268. doi. 10.1080/10580530.2012.716740
Jung, K. & Park, H.W. (2015). A semantic (TRIZ) network analysis of South Korea’s “Open Public Data” policy. Government Information Quarterly, 32(3), 353-358. doi. 10.1016/j.giq.2015.03.006
Martin, C. (2014). Barriers to the open government data agenda: taking a multi-level perspective. Policy & Internet, 6(3), 217-240. doi. 10.1002/1944-2866.POI367
Ohemeng, F.L.K., & Ofosu-Adarkwa, K. (2015). One way traffic: The open data initiative project and the need for an effective demand side initiative in Ghana. Government Information Quarterly. 32(4), 419-428. doi. 10.1016/j.giq.2015.07.005
Piotrowski, S.J., Zhang, Y., Lin, W. & Yu, W. (2009). Key issues for implementation of Chinese open government information regulations. Public Administration Review, 69(1), S129-S135. doi. 10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.02100.x
Safarov. I., Grimmelikhuijsen, S.G., & Meijer, A.J. (2017). Utilization of open government data: A systematic literature review of types, conditions, effects and users. Information Polity, 22(1), 25-39. doi. 10.3233/IP-160014
Saxena, S. (2016). Integrating Open and Big Data via 'e-Oman': Prospects and issues. Contemporary Arab Affairs, 9(4), 607-621. doi. 10.1080/17550912.2016.1218189
Saxena, S. (2017). Open public data (OPD) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): Challenges and prospects. Contemporary Arab Affairs, 10(2), 228-240. doi. 10.1080/17550912.2017.1297565
Sivarajah, U., Weerakkody, V., Waller, P., Lee, H., Irani, Z., Choi, Y., Morgan, R. & Glikman, Y. (2016). The role of e-participation and open data in evidence-based policy decision making in local government. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 26(1/2), 64-79. doi. 10.1080/10919392.2015.1125171
Torchiano, M., Vetro’, A., & Francesca, I. (2017). Preserving the benefits of Open Government Data by measuring and improving their quality: an empirical study. In: IEEE Computer Society Signature Conference on Computers, Software and Applications (COMPSAC 2017), Torino, July 4-8, 2017. pp. 1-10.