Richard KerbySenior Inter-regional Adviser, E-Government and Knowledge Management

E-Government BranchDivision for Public Administration and Development Management

Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United NationsRabat, Morocco – 29 January 2013

Presentation on Open Government and GovernancePresentation on Open Government and Governance

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What is Open Data What is Open Data

No legal barriers

No fees required

Machine readable

No technological barriers

Etc…

In the past Current trends

All data are classified, unless marked non-classified

All data are non-classified unless marked classified

Open means :

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Benefits of Open Data Benefits of Open Data

Promoting transparency and boosting public trust in

government

Encouraging citizens to participate with government

entities in designing policies and services

Enhancing government effectiveness and efficiency

Creating business opportunities and jobs

Promoting innovation and research

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Private Public Partnerships Private Public Partnerships

Case Study: Open Data in Transit – Massachusetts, US

Open Transit Video

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Private Public Partnerships Private Public Partnerships

1. Government should do the least possible and act as a

Facilitator – Build a platform and let others add to it

2. Engage entrepreneurs in developing applications using

government data through workshops and forums

3. Develop Application Programme Interface (API) to support

web developers for your data

4. When more people are working on the data, innovation

happens

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United States Postal ServiceUnited States Postal Service

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Citizen Government Citizen Government Dynamics Dynamics

1. Citizens are becoming data producers as well as data

consumers.

2. Citizens are changing the political landscape by being more

involved in the decision making process

3. Citizens are engaging other citizens to act through social

networking tools

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United States e-Government Strategy

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Open Government PledgesOpen Government PledgesHowever the ten most common pledges are:

Innovative public accountability mechanisms – including a new ‘openness barometer in Slovak Republic, a ‘governance observatory’ in Peru and ‘public scorecard in Dominican Republic.

Open data portals – covering everything from crime statistics and political party funding to local budgets and procurement (proposed by Chile, Estonia, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Peru, Romania, Spain and Tanzania).

New legal and institutional mechanisms – including the creation of new state agencies (including in Peru and Uruguay), changes to access to information laws and systems (Canada and Croatia) and new anti-corruption laws/strategies (Estonia, Jordan and Peru). 

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Open Government PledgesOpen Government Pledges

Improved service delivery – including an interactive local water-point mapping system in Tanzania, digitized medical records in Spain and new/improved portals on service delivery in Italy, Israel, Tanzania and Uruguay.

Natural resource transparency – Ukraine and Colombia have both signed up to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, while Bulgaria, Colombia and Canada are taking steps to increase transparency around natural resources concessions and associated revenues (at both a national and local level).  International aid – Spain and Canada have committed to making their development agencies more transparent and aligned with international donor reporting agreements like the International Aid Transparency Initiative.  Public integrity – introduction of new whistle-blower protection laws in Slovak Republic and Montenegro. 

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Open Government PledgesOpen Government Pledges

Citizens’ budgets – Bulgaria, Croatia and Tanzania are all creating citizens’ budgets at the national and/or local level to ensure public access to information to where public resources are going in plain, accessible language. 

E-petitions – Ukraine, Slovak Republic, Moldova and Montenegro are all introducing online e-petition portals to collect and respond to citizens’ proposals more quickly and effectively. 

Challenges and prizes – Uruguay, Israel, Italy, Jordan and Colombia are introducing government-sponsored prizes and challenges to encourage the private sector and public agencies to better use government data.  

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Open Government Open Government DeclarationDeclaration

Open Government Partnership Video

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Key Open Data Key Open Data ChallengesChallengesLack of overall strategy

The “Top Down” approach / culture

Cultural barriers

Legislation gap

Context gap

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Way ForwardWay Forward•Development of open government/governance strategy

•Formulation of open government/data framework

•Build Capacity on Open Data within the Government

•Working closely with government data “warehouses”

•Building up the open data community

•Develop a more dynamic open data portal

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Thank you for your attention.Thank you for your attention.

Twitter: @richardkerbyTwitter: @richardkerby

Email: kerby@un.orgEmail: kerby@un.org