By Kang Seung-woo
Korea has retained its position at the top of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) ranking for open government data for the second-straight year.
According to the OECD’s biennial Government at a Glance report for 2017, released July 13, Korea scored 0.94 points out of 1 to beat France and Japan, which had 0.85 and 0.80 points, respectively, in the category of the “Open, Useful and Reusable (OUR) Data Index.”
Britain and Mexico tied for fourth with 0.78 and the United States was 12th with 0.63. The average of OECD member countries was 0.55.
The OUR data assesses governments’ efforts to implement open data in three critical areas -- usefulness, openness and re-usability of government data.
In 2015, Korea notched 0.98 points to also sit atop the ranking.
According to the OECD, a higher score indicates not only the increasing availability of open government data on national portals, but their accessibility – which increases its usefulness for the many – as well as governments’ commitment to support the reuse of these data for the co-creation of public value in collaboration with citizens, businesses, civil society organizations, and public officials.
Edwin Lau, head of the OECD Reform of the Public Sector Division, confirms how Korea’s leading position in the Index shows the sustained and continuous government’s commitment to develop and implement open government data initiatives since the launch of the Korean open government data policy in 2013.
Out of the three fields of the OUR data index, Korea posted the highest scores in data availability and the government support for re-use of data with 0.32 and 0.33, respectively. However, the nation came in third in terms of accessibility at 0.29.
As for availability, Korea earned recognition for establishing its institutional framework such as the Open Data Law and the Open Data Strategy Council and widely opening much-demanded, high-value public data.
In the accessibility area, the open data portal allows citizens to access and use data easily and conveniently. Korea and four other countries -- Canada, France, Britain and the U.S. -- operate government-wide open data portals to improve the level of availability and accessibility to government data.
In particularly, in terms of government support, Korea runs the Open Square-D and holds various events to have citizens make the most of open data. The Open Square-D is a comprehensive support center to help people who have ideas for using open data and exchange their experience and technology to grow a startup into a business.
The OECD praised Korea, France and Britain for creating economic and social value with open data.
Upon the achievement, the Ministry of Interior plans to step up its efforts to improve administrative efficiency through data opening and data analysis centering on the public.
“I am proud that Korea ranked first in the OECD’s OUR data index following its fifth place in the Open Data Barometer (ODB) last year in that the open data area is regarded as a driving force of the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” said Interior Minister Kim Boo-kyum.
ODB is a score-based assessment by the World Wide Web Foundation on each country regarding how transparently they disclose open data to the public in three categories: readiness, implementation and impact.
“The ministry will make greater efforts to offer high-quality, convergent open data and activate data utilization and analysis,” he added.
As the OECD states, the digitalization of society requires mirroring this digitalization within the public sectors in order to capitalize on the digital revolution. In this respect, Korea should ensure the sustainability of its current efforts, and further engage the Korean open data ecosystem in the wide re-use of open data to support the sustainable creation of positive impacts for the Korean society and economy at large in the long term.