OECD praises Korea's openness for government data

By Kim Yoo-chul

Edwin Lau, head of the division for reform of the public sector, directorate for public governance and territorial development at OECD, answers questions during an interview, Sunday. / Courtesy of OECD

Korea is well positioned for economic growth with leading initiatives in Open Government Data (OGD), according to a senior official at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

“Korea’s ranking in the Open, Useful, Reusable Government Data Index (OUR Data Index) seems to reflect its emphasis on the full set of dimensions and enabling conditions that are prerequisites for public value creation,” Edwin Lau, head of division for reform of the public sector, directorate for public governance and territorial development at the OECD, said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.

“I think that the nation’s achievement reveals not only a commitment to OGD as an end unto itself, but shows also the government's strategic use of OGD as a contribution to both economic growth and to reinforcing citizen happiness and trust in government.”

Korea was ranked as the leader among the OECD countries in strengthening advantages in OGD by the organization.

Lau said the main purpose of the OUR Data Index is to assess governments’ efforts to make their data more open in three ways _ data availability on the national portal, data accessibility on the national portal and governments' active support for the reuse of data.

“Data accessibility and availability are necessary, but insufficient conditions to ensure that open data benefits citizens,” he said.

“Reuse of data by the public sector, by civil society organizations, by the private sector and by a host of other players is a ‘sine qua non’ condition for multiplying the impact of open data. In this sense, the OUR Data Index should help reinforce governments' focus on impacts and to remember that the overall objective should not be simply on increasing data availability, but on actively fostering stakeholders' engagement in data reuse.”

The OUR data index is based on the OECD methodology for measuring OGD and on the G8 International Open Data Charter, encapsulating the first set of internationally agreed upon set of principles on open data, the OECD said.

“From this perspective, the OUR Data Index can help governments monitor their progress in implementing their international OGD commitments,” Lau said.

Opening up public data and fostering its reuse by citizens and businesses as well as inside the public administration is a key strategic priority of the “Government 3.0” initiative launched by the Korean government in 2013.

Lau said the OECD’s current measurement work focuses on moving from estimates to a real appraisal of value creation.

“Being able to determine OGD benefits implies knowing the costs of opening up government data for instance,” he said.

“But what we see is that most governments are currently not in the position of determining such costs; neither are they broadly using business case methodologies to clarify and explain expected benefits of OGD and communicate the results of investments.”

OGD ecosystem

Lau said the organization hopes to help governments strengthen their focus on impact and increasingly to move from a supply-driven to a demand-driven approach to OGD.

“User-driven OGD is pivotal for truly enabling data-driven societies, economies and public sectors,” he said.

“This means, for example, that governments should focus more on releasing the data that citizens and businesses want to see and use, and not just the datasets that are available on hand. But this means also establishing and nurturing an ecosystem of players from within and outside the public administration that can actively engage to identify high-value datasets for release as open data and to increase their reuse.”

The OECD said it expects Korea to play a key role in creating a mature OGD ecosystem, highlighting its commitment to actively reuse the government data.

“In more general terms, the index should help promote sound OGD strategies capable of unlocking the full potential of open government data to boost innovation in the public and private sectors, leading to new economic opportunities, to innovative approaches in public service design and delivery, and to more active social participation and engagement,” Lau said.

He remains confident that the OUR Data Index will take a key role to reinforce awareness of the relevance of opening up government data to increase public sector transparency and accountability.

“For this to happen, countries need to take ownership of their OGD agenda and draw on the key lessons this index is able to provide,” he said.

In a question about key considerations or directions of the OUR Data Index, Lau answered that governments will see three majors shifts in terms of the demand for open data.

“A call for a more proactive release of data, growing demand to ensure data quality and a move toward a more demand-driven approach to data release are cited as the main considerations,” he said.

“At the same time, their tools to respond to this demand are also evolving _ national open data portals are being upgraded into platforms that enable the collaboration of different players to reuse data to co-create new services. This, in turn, should increase the engagement of the public in uploading data and in co-creating data.”

In a move to correspond with such initiatives by the OECD, the Korean government has opened up data for use in building projects and approval for administrative practices for local governments and other finance data in the first half of this year.

It will release more government data on the real estate industry.

The government will release data for use in health and education, which it believes has huge growth potential, by the end of 2017 according to its internal schedule.

“Countries need to take ownership of their OGD agenda and draw on the key lessons this index is able to provide,” Lau said.