Open Government Data (OGD) in Iran, Lebanon and Jordan: a comparative approach

Published date12 February 2018
Date12 February 2018
Pages47-61
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/VJIKMS-04-2017-0018
AuthorStuti Saxena
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Knowledge management,Knowledge management systems
Open Government Data (OGD) in
Iran, Lebanon and Jordan:
a comparative approach
Stuti Saxena
Department of Political Science, Central University of Haryana,
Mahendragarh, India
Abstract
Purpose The main aim of this studyis to do a comparison of Open Government Data (OGD) frameworks
in Iran, Lebanon and Jordan and underscorethe prospects and challenges in OGD implementation.
Design/methodology/approach Basing itself on two OGD models offered by Kalampokis and his
colleagues (Kalampokiset al., 2011) and Sieber and Johnson (2015) and the typology of goodand baddata
based on factors such as usability,ndabilityand understandability, the study uses a documentary
analysis for generating evidences by scanning the websites linked with OGD across the three countries.
Following a qualitative methodology,countries shall be classied in terms of these models and the typology
dependingupon their OGD nature and scope.
Findings OGD adoption in Iran, Lebanon and Jordanis at a nascent stage, and the OGD nature is of the
badtype. These countries have merelyaggregated dataover their Web interfaces which are incomplete,
outdatedand do not permit analytics. Besides, there are a number of challengeswhich need to be overcome for
proper OGD adherence. Nevertheless, there are a lot of prospects for harnessing OGD for improved citizen
governmentinteraction by creating a culture of transparency, collaborationand accountability.
Practical implications The study holds immensesignicance for government bodies to appreciate the
potentialof OGD which would go a long way to add social and economic value to propel the countrys growth.
Originality/value No study has been conducted so far which compares Iran, Lebanon and Jordan in
terms of their OGD policies; thisis the main contribution of the study.Also, conceding the signicance of the
three countries in terms of their socio-economic indices, academic research is warrantedin relation to these
countries.
Keywords Qualitative methods, IT governance
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Open Government Data (OGD) is a major means of furthering transparency, participation
and accountability in administration besides spurring economic growth and innovation
(Janssen et al.,2012;Zuiderwijk and Janssen, 2013). However, the emergence and growth of
OGD implementation is asymmetric across the globe. While some countries such as USA,
UK, Denmark or Spain have been quite advanced in OGD implementation, there areothers
who have limited or lack of OGD frameworks. In this regard, the study follows a
comparative approach adopted in OGD studies (Nugroho et al.,2015;Rothenberg, 2012;
Saxena, 2017) where apart from sketchingthe differences between the OGD implementation
across the three countries, the study attempts at tting the countries in the conceptual
models proposed by Kalampokis and his colleagues (Kalampokis et al., 2011) and the one
advanced by Sieber and Johnson (2015). While the study by Nugroho and her colleagues
provided a comparative perspective across ve countries in which three of them were
developed and only two were developing countries, they did not attempt at tting the
Open
Government
Data
47
Received5 April 2017
Revised30 May 2017
Accepted15 June 2017
VINEJournal of Information and
KnowledgeManagement Systems
Vol.48 No. 1, 2018
pp. 47-61
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2059-5891
DOI 10.1108/VJIKMS-04-2017-0018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2059-5891.htm

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