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

Information seekers can use products and services based onopen government data (OGD) to satisfy their information needs. Thesesolutions are provided by data transformers reusing OGD shared by publishers.OGD is believed to lead to several benets, such as transparencyand innovation. However, there is a noted lack of OGD use, and littleseems to be known about the need for OGD. Therefore, we developed atentative conceptual model, from which data transformers and publisherscan understand and consider the information needs of informationseekers. We used design science research to develop the model basedon previous research and empirical material from workshops. We conductedworkshops in Belgium with nine researchers and eleven studentsand presented the model at a Scandinavian e-government workshop. Thendings from the study show that information needs are complex andcan be challenging to capture, but are one possible way to understandhow the benets of OGD could be realized. One practical implication isthat publishers and data transformers should identify information needsin society, study existing solutions, and attempt to go beyond them withOGD. The synthesized theoretical implication is that information needsmight help to guide on the role of OGD in society