Publication of Literature Review: Rethinking the impact of open data
The recent publication by data.europa.eu, Rethinking the impact of
open data
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/report/Rethinking%20impact%20of%20open%20data.pdf],
is the first step in the process of defining the methodology for a
pan-European study on the impact of open data. The report, first in a
series of four, provides an overview of the existing literature on the
impact of open data, focusing on the use of open data portals,
intermediaries and automated tools. 

Given the extent of open data availability, impact assessments often
have a narrowly defined scope or explore the impact of existing open
data frameworks, such as the Open Data Maturity
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/landscaping_insight_report_n8_2022.pdf]
(ODM) and Open Data Barometer
[https://opendatabarometer.org/?_year=2017&indicator=ODB] (ODB). Apart
from these exceptions, measuring the impact of open data is
challenging as it is difficult to determine the specific areas that
require assessment. Consequently, the objective is to evaluate all the
related impact that is created with open data.

The report defines two main challenges in assessing the impact of open
data. First is the disconnect between the ways in which open data
impact is defined and how the European Commission conducts impact
analysis. The second is that the impact indicators of open data
portals and proposed indicators for open data intermediaries largely
rely on proxies for impact measurement, such as a use case repository
or user statistics. They provide an indication of the impact, but the
precise way in which impact is generated remains unclear. Therefore,
the main challenge ahead is to provide one way of defining open data
impact in Europe and find ways to obtain genuine insights about open
data by connecting data to actual impact domains.

To tackle this challenge, future reports in this series will further
explore how to better align existing frameworks, such as the ODM, with
these critically important guidelines.

Data.europa.eu [https://data.europa.eu/en] is committed to open data
research. To learn more about open data (impact), it regularly offers
a series of services, such as a course on ‘open data impact
[https://data.europa.eu/en/academy/measuring-impact-open-data]’ and
reports such as ‘The Economic Impact of Open Data
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/the-economic-impact-of-open-data.pdf]
to improve data literacy’. Furthermore, there is the Use Case
Observatory
[https://data.europa.eu/en/academy/stories-use-case-observatory] to
learn more about open data impact.

Looking to stay tuned for more news and events? Follow us on Twitter
[https://twitter.com/EU_opendata], Facebook
[https://www.facebook.com/data.europa.eu] and LinkedIn
[https://www.linkedin.com/company/publications-office-of-the-european-union/],
or subscribe to our newsletter
[https://data.europa.eu/en/newsletter].

Publication Date/Time
2023-02-03T10:00:00+00:00
Addressing the gaps in open data impact assessment literature and
methodologies