I’ve recently been fortunate to be awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant, along with Dr. Pamela Robinson from Ryerson University and Dr. Renee Sieber from McGill University, to Establish the Value of Open Data. This grant runs for two years and aims to:
- establish the existing value of open data as reported by diverse user communities (government, non-profit, community organizations, private sector developers);
- detail the current limitations and opportunities inherent in the open data provision system, from a multiple stakeholder perspective; and
- derive a set of metrics to guide the evaluation of open data strategies at all levels of government, assessing possible constraints to adoption.
This research will make important contributions to current academic discourse on the value derived from government open data and the potential for open data to form a basis for citizen engagement, tracking the changing nature of the relationship between government and citizen. Key users and audiences of this research include both public and private sector organizations. Principally, this research will clarify for governments who accesses their data and how that data is used or exploited. Tracing this system of open data access and usage has implications for how government provides open data and how stakeholders such as private developers, non-profits, and citizens build durable applications and businesses models that rely heavily on open data.