Living labs for open government data research. A scenario-based design approach

Open government data has the potential to create public values (Zhang, Puron-Cid, & Gil-Garcia, 2015). Data are expected to strengthen democratic and governance processes, to provide better services and to facilitate... [ view full abstract ]

Open government data has the potential to create public values (Zhang, Puron-Cid, & Gil-Garcia, 2015). Data are expected to strengthen democratic and governance processes, to provide better services and to facilitate collaboration between government and citizens (Napoli & Karaganis, 2010; Janssen K. , 2011; Zhang, Puron-Cid, & Gil-Garcia, 2015). However, recent empirical work shows that, currently, open government data promises more that it can deliver (Attard, Orlandi, Scerri, & Auer, 2015; Worthy, The Impact of Open Data in the UK: Complex, Unpredictable and Political, 2015). Significant challenges remain for making government data suitable for usage that generates public value (Dawes & Helbig, 2010).

While some studies attribute the challenges for open data usage to the provision of open data such as lack of data quality, provenance information, or lack of use, the analysis of the interactions,  context and complexity of usage over time is often neglected. In this study we therefore propose to use a living lab that takes into account the complexity of the open data ecosystem (Dawes, Vidiasova, & Parkhimovich, 2016). Current research into open government data has used various research methods such as case study research (Dawes, Vidiasova, & Parkhimovich, 2016), website analysis (Lourenço, 2015), survey research (Worthy, 2015), focus groups (Janssen, Charalabidis, & Zuijderwijk, 2012), document analysis (Ohemeng, & Ofosu-Adarkwa, 2015) and design research (Zeleti, Ojo, & Curry, 2016). A weakness of these methods is that they do not result in a systematic analysis of the effects of controlled interventions over time and this is why a living lab can be an important research approach for open data research. (Bergvall-Kareborn & Stahlbrost, 2009) stress that a living lab is both an innovation milieu and an innovation approach these two can enrich each other to enhance our understanding of how open data can create public value.

In this study, we will show the value of livings labs for open data research by demonstrating how we have used this approach to study the interactions between data users, available data, government objectives and new technologies in two cases: a province and a city in the Netherlands.  In one case a bottom-up grassroots approach and in the other a top-down approach was used to develop real life scenarios. Our reflection stresses that a living lab may not always help to actually produce public value but this research method does produce a new understanding of the interrelations between various barriers to and drivers for successful open government data practices.