Open data outcomes : U.S. cities between product and process innovation

Abstract

U.S. cities, among the vanguards of open data globally, are investing in renewed efforts to support Open Government with the creation of open data portals that are used to provide machine-readable administratively collected data sets. Transparency of the public sector is still widely seen as the main outcome of these efforts. Such a simplistic view, however, misses the rich variety of innovations resulting from open data use. We conceptualize these innovation outcomes across two dimensions: internal/external and product/process. Interviews with 15 city managers in the U.S. who are responsible for the implementation of open data policies were conducted to compare policy intentions, perceived innovation outcomes as well as actual ones. The findings show that product-centric outcomes are predominant and relate mainly to external innovation, including applications, websites and new services. Process-centric outcomes constitute rather internal innovation, such as procedural changes and the revival of innovation culture in government. We close with a set of recommendations for open data efforts in government that include structural, procedural, as well as cultural changes for successful open data initiatives.