Design, develop and evaluate an open government data platform: a user-centred approach

Pages550-562
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/EL-02-2019-0037
Published date03 June 2019
Date03 June 2019
AuthorRuhua Huang,Chunying Wang,Xiaoyu Zhang,Dan Wu,Qingwen Xie
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet
Design, develop and evaluate an
open government data platform:
a user-centred approach
Ruhua Huang
School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Chunying Wang
The School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China and
Department of Information Science, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA
Xiaoyu Zhang
Department of Information Science,
University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA, and
Dan Wu and Qingwen Xie
School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of designing,developing and evaluating a
prototypeof an open government data (OGD) platformthat provided user-centred experiences.
Design/methodology/approach Based on the OGD lifecycle, an OGD prototype was created, which
involved the system functionality, user interface,standard specication and security mechanism. The main
functionalities of the system included data acquisition, data processing and data management. A usability
test was conductedfollowing the prototype implementation.
Findings The usability testindicated that an OGD platform was desired to help the public to nd, access,
reuse and share government data effectivelyand efciently. Functions, such as visualization, local download
and digitalwatermark should be provided and integrated into the platform.
Originality/value This paper provided a completecase study on the design of an OGD platform and a
referencefor information system developers to design suchsystem in the future.
Keywords Usability, Data management, Open government data, Data platforms, Database design,
OGD lifecycles (Open government data life-cycle), Platform structures
Paper type Technical paper
Introduction
As the concept of greater openness and transparency are trending, open government data
(OGD), which refers to a governmentwith an open system that interacts and cooperates with
its environment, combining the principle of open data has become a central element
nowadays in our informationtechnology-based society (Parycek et al., 2014).
The OGD movement is a worldwide phenomenon. In Europe in 2003, the Public Sector
Information Directive was passed; in the USA in 2009, former President Obama signed the
rst of the Open Data Initiatives into existence and, in 2011, the Open Government
Partnership was launched; and, in 2013, the Group of Eight (G8) signedthe international G8
Open Data Charter (Attard et al., 2015). Such movements created various OGD portals
EL
37,3
550
Received14 February 2019
Revised10 April 2019
9 May2019
Accepted18 May 2019
TheElectronic Library
Vol.37 No. 3, 2019
pp. 550-562
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-02-2019-0037
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT