Open Government Data from the Perspective of Information Needs: A Tentative Conceptual Model

Information seekers can use products and services based on open government data (OGD) to satisfy their information needs. These solutions are provided by data transformers reusing OGD shared by publishers. OGD is believed to lead to several benefits, such as transparency and innovation. However, there is a noted lack of OGD use, and little seems to be known about the need for OGD. Therefore, we developed a tentative conceptual model, from which data transformers and publishers can understand and consider the information needs of information seekers. We used design science research to develop the model based on previous research and empirical material from workshops. We conducted workshops in Belgium with nine researchers and eleven students and presented the model at a Scandinavian e-government workshop. The findings from the study show that information needs are complex and can be challenging to capture, but are one possible way to understand how the benefits of OGD could be realized. One practical implication is that publishers and data transformers should identify information needs in society, study existing solutions, and attempt to go beyond them with OGD. The synthesized theoretical implication is that information needs might help to guide on the role of OGD in society.