Closing Conference

Thursday June 16th program

Open Government Data for Citizen Participation

In recent years, the Open Government Data (OGD) movement has gained traction globally (Andraško & Mesarčík, 2018; Moon, 2019). Among other objectives, OGD is expected to strengthen transparency and democratic processes through increased citizen participation (Gil-Garcia et al., 2020). However, ‘opening up’ data does not automatically lead to informed citizens, who feel empowered by information and are able to hold policy makers accountable based on this information (Meijer et al., 2012). It seems probable that the way in which information is shared will have an impact on the level and quality of citizen participation.

On Thursday June 16th, the conference will host several panels discussing interactively working papers submitted by participants on a range of topics related to open government and citizen participation. Papers submitted for the conference may include, but are not limited to:

• State-of-the-art academic thinking about the relation between open government data, transparency, and the different levels of citizen participation;
• Case studies of the drivers and barriers that public sector organizations face in ‘opening up’ data in a citizen friendly way;
• Theoretical and practical explorations on citizen-friendly data communication and data visualization;
• Historical accounts of the relation between open government data, transparency and citizen participation/empowerment;
• Analyses of legal frameworks involving open government data and data re-use from the perspective of citizen participation;
• Mechanisms and measures for assessing open government data impacts on citizen participation;
• Theoretical and empirical analyses of approaches to open government data that enhance citizen understanding

Friday June 17th Program

The WOO (Dutch Open Government Act) game changer for public administration and citizens

On Friday June 17th, there will be contributions from both academics and practitioners, in Dutch and English. The morning program will include a keynote by Jonathan Gray, and a reflection on the Open Government Act. After lunch there will be two blocks of three parallel workshops organized in several thematic tracks. This will be followed by a round table and an end of conference drinks reception. More information about the Dutch spoken program here.