There is an increasing demand for opening data provided by public and private organisations. Various organisations have already started to publish their data and potentially there are many benefits to gain. However, realising the intended positive effects and creating value from using open data on a large scale is easier said than done. Opening and using data encounters numerous impediments which can have both a socio and a technical nature. Yet, no overview of impediments is available from the perspective of the open data user. Socio‑technical impediments for the use of open data were identified based on a literature overview, four workshops and six interviews. An analysis of these 118 impediments shows that open data policies provide scant attention to the user perspective, whereas users are the ones generating value from open data. The impediments that the open data process currently encounters were analysed and categorized in ten categories: 1) availability and access, 2) find ability, 3) usability, 4) understand ability, 5) quality, 6) linking and combining data, 7) comparability and compatibility, 8) metadata, 9) interaction with the data provider, and 10) opening and uploading. The impediments found in literature differ from impediments that were found in empirical research. Our overview of impediments derived from both literature and empirical research is therefore more comprehensive than what was already available. The comprehensive overview of impediments can be used as a basis for improving the open data process, and can be extended in further research. This will result in the solving of some impediments and new impediments might rise over time.

Abstract: Despite the development of Open Data platforms, the wider deployment of Open Data still faces significant barriers. It requires identifying the obstacles that have prevented e‑government bodies either from implementing an Open Data strategy or f rom ensuring its sustainability.This paper presents the results of a study carried out between June and November 2012, in which we analyzed three cases of Open Data development through their platforms, in a medium size city (Rennes, France), a large cit y (Berlin, Germany), and at national level (UK). It aims to draw a clear typology of challenges, risks, limitations, barriers, all terms used by the different stakeholders with diverse meanings and based on different motivations. Indeed the issues and constraints faced by re‑users of public data differ from the ones encountered by the public data providers. Through the analysis of the experiences in opening data, we attempt to identify how barriers were overcome and how risks were managed. Beyond pass ionate debates in favor or against Open Data, we propose to consider the development of an Open Data initiative in terms of risks, contingency actions, and expected opportunities. We therefore present in the next sections the risks to Open Data organized in 7 categories: (1) governance, (2) economic issues, (3) licenses and legal frameworks, (4) data characteristics, (5) metadata, (6) access, and (7) skills.

The design of tools and interfaces for e‑democracy systems takes place in a highly multidisciplinary context. However, the inter‑contextual understanding of democracy is still immature. This article presents a framework suitable for evaluating tools for e‑democracy. The framework has been developed based on earlier theories and frameworks and then further evaluated against two test cases: Twitter and BottenAda. The evaluation model builds on the inclusion of different views of e‑democracy, not seeing them as conflicting per se but rather making it possible for e‑democracy tool users and developers to understand the varying degree of support a tool can display for several aspects of democracy. The model also provides a visualization of complex theories and can thus contribute to a more informed discussion on what types of democratic values are being supported in a particular e‑democracy tool.

Abstract: This paper proposes, in the context of Open Government, a model to assess how public sector entities are taking advantage of the Internet as an information disclosure tool and a means to promote transparency, specifically in what concerns the us e of public resources (input transparency for accountability). The assessment model and resulting Transparency Index gives particular attention to the disclosure of detailed (disaggregated) data according to the principles of Open Government Data, nam ely by valuing data visibility, adequate format for further processing, and the autonomous presentation of individual information items. Subsequently, the paper demonstrates the applicability of the proposed model by carrying out two assessment exercises on two subsets of Portuguese and Italian municipalities. Results show that, all in all, the municipalities analysed do not yet disclose enough information useful for accountability processes and they do not take advantage of the Internet potential to make the data provided more visible and re‑usable by citizens and local stakeholders. Alone, high‑level policy directives, governmental requirements and national legislation guaranteeing access to information are not enough to ensure public entities (municip alities in particular) disclose all the relevant data, and therefore specific guidelines are needed.