Institutionalizing Open Data in Government

Too little attention has been paid by the open data movement to the institutional dynamics of governments and other public agencies; nor has the research community drawn sufficient attention to the institutional dynamics at play in the implementation of open data initiatives in public agencies. It is the institutionally-attuned measurement of emerging open data practice in government that this paper explores in order to develop a deeper understanding of the barriers to change from a default position of closed to a new openness in government as an institution. Using the cases of South Africa and Kenya, the study develops and tests a set of indicators that measure the extent to which open data practice has been embedded. The findings show that open data practice is not embedded within and across the governments examined. The paper concludes that open government data initiatives will continue to hit a wall of inertia unless openness can be reconciled with those institutionalized values and norms that prevail at all levels of government.