Evaluating Public Organizations using Open data: An Assessment Tool and Ecosystems Approach

International Journal of Electronic Government Research. 2017. Vol. 13. No. 4. P. 1–14.

Styrin E. M., Dmitrieva N.

Information openness and stakeholders’ involvement through ICT become the driving factors of public organization change. In this paper an “ecosystem” approach is embraced to study social sphere organizations (SSO), such as hospitals, schools, and libraries. SSO report on their activities by publishing information on the Web which can be used to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of these organizations by the public. The opening of data transforms the relationship between SSO and other stakeholders. In this paper the institutionalization of SSO evaluation system in Russia is studied. The critical role of open data is demonstrated and the inclusion of stakeholders’ was found to be a key factor to make the evaluation system truly effective. Our study reveals that an ecosystem approach to ensures that stakeholder demands are included in the SSO evaluation and assessment process. Finally, by summarizing Russian experiences we conclude with problem-oriented recommendations for open government tools application to institutionalize government practices targeted for open government principles implementation. 

Keywords: организации социальной сферы, Открытое правительство, open government, open data, независимая оценка, открытые данные, ecosystem, экосистема, social sphere organizations, independent assessment