Viscous Open Data The flow of data in a public

university governance ecosystem

Structure » Universities » Management and Information Systems

Context

• Part of the Open Data in Developing Countries (ODDC) project• Research team based at the University of Cape Town, South Africa• In-progress research

Research question

• Project research question: • What is the level of use and possible impact of open data in the

governance of South African public universities?• For this paper:

• What is the role and impact of government-supplied open data in the South African public university governance open data ecosystem?

• What does the South African public university governance open data ecosystem look like? suppliers, consumers, intermediaries, drivers

• Is the open data supplied by government contributing to the evolution of the ecosystem?

Method

• Case study: Centre for Higher Education Transformation (CHET) Open Data initiativewww.chet.org.za/sahe-open-data/

• Two user groups: • University planners (institutional-level policy) • HES researchers (national policy)

• Sample• 7 of 23 public universities• 10-15 HES researchers

• Data collection: semi-structured interviews• Interview with the responsible government department: DHET

DHET

HEIs

HEMIS

CHET

IDSC

Citizens Researchers

UniversityPlanners

Observations (1)

• Even distribution of private and public data providers BUT unevenness between open and closed data resources

• Ecosystem is not exclusively open – users draw on both open and closed datasets

• Primary data source and primary data resource do not both reside within government

• In this ecosystem data collection is incentivised; not necessarily the case in other university governance ecosystems

• Intermediary (CHET) as “keystone” (enabling function) but at the same time there are question marks about the sustainability of its open data provision

• Intermediary (IDSC) provides closed data – financially sustainable and indicates that the data has value but question around limited access to public data

Observations (2)

• No interconnectivity between HEMIS and other information systems• Data is supplied to intermediaries (and directly to users) by DHET staff

– manual process• Government open data has limited uptake – no/few connections to

users in the ecosystem• Disjuncture between intent (as encapsulated in agreements, policies,

directives) and practice

Comments

1. Government data at departmental level is made open due to capacity constraints and is not driven by government-wide commitments to transparency or accountability.

2. Result: data is ‘dumped’ on a government website – there are no definitions, instructions, tools, etc. (‘information context) on what data is available and how it should be used. As reflected in the ecosystem diagram, this has led to poor direct uptake of the government open data resource. Data source (HEMIS) also remains isolated. Government data = viscous.

3. Two intermediaries have stepped into the vacuum to provide open data to university planners. One provides open data; the other provides closed data. Both provide relatively rich information contexts. Ecosystem diagram reflects that these data resources are used by the target audience. Data = more liquid.

Conclusion

1. The ecosystem has evolved despite poor data provision by government because of the presence of intermediaries in the ecosystem.

2. BUT by providing a richer information context and by making the data interoperable, government could improve the uptake of data by new users and intermediaries, as well as by the existing intermediaries. Increasing the fluidity of government open data could also resolve uncertainties around both the degree of access provided by intermediaries and the financial sustainability of the open platforms provided by intermediaries.

Thank youFrancois van Schalkwyk

francois@compressdsl.com