Resumo

Studies have been demonstrated that the main interesting subjects in Open Government Data (OGD) are professionals and citizens, focusing respectively on the development of innovation based on OGD and its transparency and accountability. However, the use of OGD by the public sector is not explicit in the literature. OGD is open to both the public and the private sectors. Consequently, it makes sense that public organizations also use OGD (from other OGD public providers) in decision-making and innovation, as well as that the literature covers this topic.

The use of OGD by government needs more attention than just the data disclosure because the government has an essential response to create public value. Governments can use OGD to improve public services, decision-making, and define and monitor public policies implementation. Public organizations need to pay special attention to improve cooperation between government organizations and stakeholders involved in producing useful OGD. this paper aims to discuss the twofold role of government in the open government data ecosystem (provider or user).

OGD usefulness can generate social and economic benefits for the entire society. For governments, OGD has the potential to help them to identify failures and inconsistencies in public services. OGD is essential to public policies and for improving public services. OGD contributes to democracy provided it contributes to more transparency, active citizenship, social control, and public administration improvements. This might redefine the role of government in society because it provides a new stage for social participation.

The literature about the use of OGD by governments is incipient. Governments are responsible for several public services, and OGD helps the improvement of these services. Specific abilities are required to transform open data applicable information, and it is possible that governments may be very little prepared for this development. A new inquiry, therefore, emerges in regard to future studies: Are motivation and training critical to the use of OGD by the government? To contribute to this discussion, preliminary data of the case study is presented in the next section.

This research demonstrates the role of government in the literature about the open government data ecosystem as a provider, and rarely has the literature analyzed government as a user of OGD. It is not clear why the investigations contemplate less the government as a user of OGD. The explanation from the literature is not complete, because the literature does not converge. The literature recognizes the possibility of government as a user of OGD, but nevertheless, most empirical investigations do not study the role of government as a user of OGD.

Charalabidis, Y., Alexopoulos, C., & Loukis, E. (2016). A taxonomy of open government data research areas and topics. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 26(1–2), 41–63. Janssen, K. (2011). The role of public sector information in the European market for online content: A never-ending story or a new beginning? Info, 13(6), 20–29. Klein, R. H., Klein, D. C. B., & Luciano, E. M. (2018). Identificação De Mecanismos Para a Ampliação Da Transparência Em Portais De Dados Abertos: Uma Análise No Contexto Brasileiro. FGV EBAPE, (November).