Design and Verification of a Model to Evaluate the State of Open Government Data in Iran

Purpose: Open data is non-confidential data that is made available without any restrictions on use or distribution. Open government data is a tool for empowering citizens and giving them access and permission to use data produced by the public sector, so that they can use, store, redistribute and integrate the data with other data sources. Providing information in the form of open data leads to reducing corruption, gaining public trust and creating a democratic society. Also, open data provides more possibilities for monitoring governance activities. Unfortunately, despite the importance of the issue and the existence of legal requirements, no reliable model has been presented to evaluate the open data situation of the country's government institutions. This research was conducted with the aim of designing and verifying a model to evaluate the state of open data of the country's government institutions, with respect to the general principles to advance the goals related to the transparency of government institutions and organizations.

Methodology: The current research was applied research and included mixed types of data (qualitative/quantitative). Three sources were used to identify the items of the open data indicators. At first, the theoretical bases and researches conducted in this field were examined and the items suggested by the experts were extracted. In the following, using the purposeful and snowball sampling methods, elites and informants of the field were selected and semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with them until reaching theoretical saturation about the issues. The third source of information was Resolution number one of the 16th session of the Executive Council of Information Technology of the country, which was proposed with the aim of promoting transparency and free access of citizens to the open data of executive bodies, and according to which all executive bodies are required to publish their data in 12 categories.

After identifying and combining similar items and weighting them, the initial model was obtained. In order to analyze the validity of the initial model items, the content validity index (CVI) was used. Finally, structural equation modeling and related statistical tests were used to validate the initial model and the finalization of the model was done.

Findings: The review and evaluation of the three mentioned sources that were used to identify open government data evaluation indicators led to the identification of 33 indicators in four different dimensions: basic information, financial information, participation, and the legal and functional system. In addition, after checking the validity, reliability, and the verification of the initial model, 29 indicators in four dimensions were confirmed for the evaluation of open government data. The results of the best-worst method, which was used to prioritize the dimensions in terms of importance showed that the dimensions of financial information with a weight of 51.08%, legal and functional system with a weight of 23.57%, participation with a weight of 18.42% and basic information with a weight of 6.94%, are high-important to low-important in the evaluation of open government data.

Conclusion: The findings of the current research have the necessary potential to facilitate the evaluation process of open government data by paying attention to related indicators and dimensions. Findings can help officials, researchers, and people to make a proper evaluation of government organizations or institutions by considering the mentioned evaluation indicators, in this way, there will be a high possiblity to experience the positive consequences of open government data in society.