Research Methodology

In order to identify the social, economic and environmental benefits of shared data from public organizations, an analysis of both primary and secondary research comprised mostly of quantitative information was conducted. The original intent of this research was to conduct a cost-benefit analysis, but after further assessment, the need to determine the return on investment for governments became a moot point since most organizations are mandated to share Public Sector Information (PSI). Identifying costs of publishing OD will not help identify benefits. The focus of the analysis will be to determine and categorize the various benefits that OD can provide. Similar to qualitative evaluation methods used to analyse human services programs, this research methodology will attempt to identify social benefits of public service programs.

Open and accessible data can sometimes include OD published by private organizations. For the purpose of this paper, references to OD or primary data will include data accessible from public organizations while secondary data originates from external parties. In addition, references to internal stakeholders consist of individuals from a public organization while external stakeholders refer to individuals representing academic, private, for-profit or not-for-profit organizations or associations.

Primary Research
A survey targeted to individuals involved or working with OD was conducted to help establish economic and social benefits. Individual interviews with representatives from public organizations were conducted to identify challenges with publishing OD while interviews with external experts involved or working with OD were also conducted to help identify challenges and benefits of using OD. Furthermore, a focus group session was also conducted with external experts involved or working with OD.

Literature Review and Secondary Research
An initial review of academic literature was carried out, focusing on research knowledge of public organizations, shared data information practices, technology trends and changes related to public sector information. A review of secondary research was also conducted on government transparency and public sector information including open data, open access, open source, open government and trends to open and accessible information.

Design
Information gathered for this research is comprised mostly of qualitative information. This required a research method that was qualitative in nature and capable of understanding the phenomenon and the behaviors towards the OD movement. This paper uses a scenario analysis to determine the likelihood of specific events occurring. In addition, this methodology can only demonstrate the benefits linked to the data being accessible and not the quality or value of the data itself.
There are limitations to the design employed in the current study because a scenario analysis attempts to determine plausible outcomes. Furthermore, sample restrictions from a limited scale of the population and few longitudinal measurements from different levels of governments can also affect the outcome. Despite its limitations, a scenario analysis was used because it analyses future events by considering possible alternatives, which determines the impact and benefits of OD.

Structure
The three methods used for collecting primary data included: a survey of potential individuals involved with Open Data, a focus group session with external participants and interviews with both internal and external informants. The survey and interviews included quantitative questions that focused on dollar figures and performance indicators and qualitative questions focused on opinions, viewpoints and trends. Participants completed the survey within 20 minutes; the focus group session and most interviews lasted one hour.

Information was first collected and analysed with the survey. The outcomes of these analyses were then validated with the focus group session and interviews. The survey was presented in an online format using the “SurveyMonkey” platform; it included 22 questions, which are listed in Appendix 1. The survey was distributed to 42 specific groups or organizations working with OD, and invitations to participate in the survey were sent to all individuals involved with these groups. The survey was open for a period of seven weeks and 123 participants responded. The results were collected and analysed in order to inform further research.

The interviews included predefined, open-ended questions that allowed for improvised responses which generated additional questions. A list of the predefined questions can be found in Appendix 2 and Appendix 4. This unstructured format was ideal for qualitative questions and allowed further discovery of individual viewpoints. Interviews were conducted face-to-face or by phone; each participant signed a consent form and hand written notes were taken. Five interviews where completed with internal stakeholders while five additional interviews were conducted with external stakeholders.

The objective of the focus group session was to generate a conversation and a diverse set of options derived from specific challenges with OD. The session was conducted face-to-face and included three participants. The process consisted of exploring ideas in a divergent manner consistent with the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) model for generating novel ideas to address specific challenges. Two challenges were presented to the group in the form of a question; these questions can be found in Appendix 3. The informal setting and the divergent conversations allowed participants to share stories and engage in further discussions on the topic of OD.

Samples
The topic of open and accessible government information is a profound issue for several advocacy groups, which included a wide range of external stakeholders. Using qualitative research methodology, these non-random samples of the population were not randomly selected, and in turn provided useful insight into the phenomenon of OD.

Specific groups of participants were targeted for each method of collecting primary data. Participants for the survey consisted of individuals involved or working with OD from any country and sector including academic, public, private, for-profit or not-for-profit organizations. Participants of the focus group also included individuals involved or working with OD but only from academic, private, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Interviews were conducted with two types of participants. The first included specific individuals from public organizations who were responsible for publishing OD. The second were individuals utilizing OD from private, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations has showed in the following diagram.

Data Analysis
In order to determine plausible outcomes derived from OD, a scenario analysis was conducted. A scenario analysis identifies the likelihood of a specific event occurring, and in turn determines its impact on the benefits of OD. This provided a deeper examination of obvious issues and patterns related to OD – increasing the importance of social issues.

The analytic tools used to analyse the data collected from the survey included the online tool available from “SurveyMonkey” and Microsoft Excel. Data was transferred from the survey to Excel spreadsheets allowing for further analysis by aggregating data results from several sources.