Exploring Government Officials’ Data Collection Process in Open Data Initiatives

The implementation of open government data (OGD) initiatives has become a worldwide phenomenon over the last decade. While there have been many studies exploring this phenomenon, few have focused on data collection phase in data opening process, during which government officials seek government-owned datasets for OGD purposes. To establish a model for the process of data collection phase, this study conducted semi-structured interviews with fifteen participants recruited through purposive and snowball sampling methods from eleven central and local Taiwanese government agencies. This paper discusses the research findings regarding (1) why government officials undertake tasks of data preparation, (2) how potential datasets are discovered, selected, and obtained from multiple government agencies, and (3) how information is sought to facilitate tasks of data preparation. These findings bridged the research gap in the study of data opening process and verified previous information seeking models. Suggestions for future practitioners and topics worthy of further exploration are enumerated in the conclusion section