Participation and Data Quality in Open Data use: Open Data Infrastructures Evaluated

Infrastructures may improve the use of Open Government Data (OGD) by providing insight in how individuals can participate in data reuse and in the quality of open data. Yet, most OGD infrastructures do not support such activities. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the importance and usability of participation mechanisms and data quality indicators for open data infrastructures through quasi-experiments. A quasiexperiment is an experimental evaluation method in which researchers have control over the (non-random) assignment of participants to treatment and control conditions, the selection of control conditions and the organisation of the treatment, and over the measures. Moreover, quasi-experiments usually include a pre-test (i.e. a test before the treatment or control condition) and a post-test (i.e. a test after the treatment or control condition). The results of our quasi-experiments showed that the prototype of our OGD infrastructure improved OGD participation and data quality analysis by providing functionalities including discussion messages, social media sharing, linking items related to a dataset, Wiki descriptions and discussions, and data quality ratings and reviews. Participant observations showed that participants in the treatment group found it easier to conduct tasks with the prototype related to giving feedback on and discussing open data and rating and reviewing data quality than the participants in the control group. Our study suggested that participation mechanisms and quality indicators add value and improve the use of OGD. It recommends the implementation of such mechanisms and indicators in existing OGD infrastructures. To support the creation of transparency, citizen participation and innovation with OGD, our findings suggest that participation mechanisms and data quality indicators are a condition. Yet, these mechanisms and indicators are not sufficient for ensuring the generation of the OGD benefits, since there are still many factors which hinder the generation of these benefits. We discuss a number of these factors including factors related to OGD infrastructures and factors beyond OGD infrastructures.