Data Ships: An Empirical Examination of Open (Closed) Government Data

As part of endorsing the open government data movement in many parts of the world, governments have worked to increase openness in actions where information technologies play a major role. Releasing public data was perceived by many governments and officials as a fundamental element to achieve transparency and accountability. Many studies have criticized this approach and illustrated that open government data does not necessarily lead to open government. Our study examines for the first time in a systematic, quantitative way the status of open government data in the US, by focusing on the disclosure of data by US federal agencies. Our findings suggest that most US federal agencies largely do not follow the open government policies of 2009 and 2013. The paper discusses the type of public data that is released, and analyzes the (non)strategy of its release.