Understanding Decision-Making Needs of Open Government Data Users

Murthy, Svati Sundara

Open Government Data (OGD) promotes transparency, innovation, and value creation that makes information gathered by the government about the city and community open to all. The City of Cincinnati Open Government Data Portal allows citizens to access local data as part of a local OGD initiative. Although these datasets are available and are used by a broad audience, little is known about how users engage with this data and the general usability of the platforms. To learn more about this audience, this study is conducted in two steps 1)- a think-aloud activity and 2)- an online survey. Through these activities, we aim to gather information about how the users are interacting with the available data and for what purpose are they interacting with different sections of the portal. After gathering relevant data from the think-aloud activity, we aim to generate a questionnaire by analyzing all the information collected in the previous event at a larger scale. Using a web-based survey shared with individuals via Qualtrics, we will explore the use of the portal to gain more insight and knowledge on user requirements and their suggestions. The endpoint of this study is to develop insights that will help us understand user expectations and how changes could benefit the portal.

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