Open Data

This (non-funded) project covers a variety of perspectives of Open (Government) Data and OGD portals aimed at improving them both, as well as promoting better information on the current state and potential improvements of this initiative. It deals with topics such as user-centered OGD portal usability, timeliness of OGD in terms of pandemic, link with Society 5.0 and whether OGD portals and the data published corresponds to these trends, and a country-specific study on Latvian OGD. The broad range of topics and coverage of (inter)national issues has attracted several international colleagues, with whom cooperation was established to improve the world by means of OGD facilitating their value, potential to be reused and many more.

The results of these studies are submitted to the holders of Latvia’s open data portal (Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development) and used to prepare external reports for relevant European institutions. As an example, one report, in which these data and results were used was dedicated to the most priority datasets (high-value datasets) to be opened in Latvia (submitted to Publications Office of the European Union). Although it is only a first step in this direction, I am pleased that many stakeholders have found it useful.

In addition to research activities, this topic has been actively promoted by me in the academic environment. This led to the development and launch of a course for master and doctoral students entitled “Open government data in a data-driven world” and a self-developed workshop / seminar “Open data and data quality” and delivered to bachelor’s students. Both intend to develop awareness of the existence of open (government) data, their role and crucial areas, which require attention and open room for new studies for both computer scientists, sociologists and behaviorists, economists etc. This, in turn, has greatly increased students’ interest in this subject, who decided to devote their thesis to open data-related topics, covering variety areas, including open data quality, UX and HCI issues related to the OGD portals etc.. Some of them are listed here.

However, given that this topic is very multi-dimensional, the further directions to be established and specified … [to be continued…]

One of the recent articles “Towards High-Value Datasets determination for data-driven development: a systematic literature review” (Nikiforova A., Rizun N., Ciesielska M., Alexopoulos C., Miletič A.) just made available on the arXiv was immediately noticed by the Living Library that seeks to provide actionable knowledge on governance innovation, informing and inspiring policymakers, practitioners, technologists, and researchers working at the intersection of governance, innovation, and technology in a timely, digestible and comprehensive manner, identifying the “signal in the noise” by curating research, best practices, points of view, new tools, and developments… Proud to see our joint article there (read more…)

Proud to be part of the EOSC Task Force on FAIR Metrics and Data Quality and present our whitepaper “Community-driven Governance of FAIRness Assessment: An Open Issue, an Open Discussion” (Mark D. Wilkinson; Susanna-Assunta Sansone; Eva Méndez; Romain David; Richard Dennis; David Hecker; Mari Kleemola; Carlo Lacagnina; Anastasija Nikiforova; Leyla Jael Castro) that can be found, of course, in an open access here.

The second edition of the workshop – “Identification of High Value Dataset determinants: is there a silver bullet for efficient sustainability-oriented data-driven development?” (chairs: Anastasija Nikiforova, Charalampos Alexopolous, Maria Elena Lopez Reyes, Nina Rizun, Magdalena Ciesielska) took place as part of International Conference on Open Data (ICOD): Open Data Challenges and Opportunities in Times of Crisis and Growth! in Zagreb, Croatia (October 28) gathering significantly more participants compared to the first edition, as well as received very positive feedback. Many thanks to all participants!

This October (2022) I had a pleasure and honor to spend four absolutely insightful days at ICEGOV2022 conference – 15th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, where I played four roles – participant / attendee, author / presenter, workshop chair and Best Paper Awards nominee for the paper “Barriers to openly sharing government data: towards an open data-adapted innovation resistance theory” (read more…)

Together with my colleagues – Charalampos Alexopoulos, Magdalena Ciesielska, Nina Rizun, we organized the ICEGOV2022 (15th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance – Digital Governance for Social, Economic, and Environmental Prosperity) workshop “Identification of high-value dataset determinants: is there a silver bullet?” (read more…)

September 12 (2022) I had a pleasure to serve as a keynote for the Innovation and Smart Government Conference 2022 (ISGOV2022) opening it with my talk titled “Data as an asset for sustainable development of data-driven smart cities and smart society”…. (read more…)

Recently I was honored to contribute to Babu Banarasi Das University (BBDU, Department of Computer Science and Engineering) Development Program «Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Development» with the talk entitled “Artificial Intelligence for Open Data or Open Data for Artificial Intelligence?”…. (read more…)

As the general co-chair of the First International Conference in Electronic Governance with Emerging Technologies (EGETC-2022), I sincerely invite you to consider your participation in this event. Its aim is to provide a forum for academics, scholars, and practitioners from academia and industry to share and exchange the recent developments in the domain of e-government and governance of digital organizations… (read more…)

The Open Data Institute hosted micro-site on the exploration of the future of data portals and citizen engagement (led by Rachel Wilson, in collaboration with ODI Associate Consultant Tim Davies) publishes a series of very insightful posts reflecting on the most prospective studies to take stock of the state of portals, and explore possible futures, where two of them reflect on my previous studies! (read more#1…) (read more#2…)

AfricanSmartCitiesLab

July 5 I had a pleasure to serve as a keynote for “Integration of open data and artificial intelligence in the development of smart cities in Africa” workshop and deliver the talk about “Open data and crowdsourced data as enablers and drivers for smart African cities“. The workshop is a part of the African Cities Lab Project aimed at creating a digital education platform on urban development in Africa, and act as a forum for the exchange of digital educational resources and the management and governance of African cities to foster sustainable urban development (read more…)

One of the recent articles “Transparency of open data ecosystems in smart cities: Definition and assessment of the maturity of transparency in 22 smart cities” (Lnenicka, Nikiforova, Luterek, Azeroual, Dandison, Valtenbergs, Machova) was noticed by the Living Library that seeks to provide actionable knowledge on governance innovation, informing and inspiring policymakers, practitioners, technologists, and researchers working at the intersection of governance, innovation, and technology in a timely, digestible and comprehensive manner, identifying the “signal in the noise” by curating research, best practices, points of view, new tools, and developments… Proud to see our joint article there (read more…)

This June I was glad and honored to take part in a four-day ONE Conference 2022 (co-organised by EFSA, ECDC, ECHA, EEA, EMA, and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC)) as one of panelists of the “Turning open science into practice: causality as a showcase” thematic session as part of “ONE society” thematic track, where I served as an open data expert with a substantial background in data quality area (read more …)

Happy to share that I have been invited to serve as a keynote for the International Innovation and Smart Government Conference “Challenges for Public Innovation in a post-pandemic government” (ISGOV) to be held in September, 2022. ISGOV focuses on understanding the organizational challenges public administrations face at all levels due to the COVID-19 pandemic and how to face the short and medium-term challenges (read more…)

Guest Lecture: Open data: ecosystem, current and future trends, success stories and barriers

This autumn, and more precisely in October (2021), there were a lot of public activities, including delivering my talk at the ICEGOV2021, my Invited Talk delivered at the Nanotech2021, my participation in the Latvian Open Geospatial Data hackathon as a mentor, my participation in the Europe Biobank Week 2021 and two Guest Lectures on open data (read more …)

One of my conference articles “Timeliness of Open Data in Open Government Data Portals Through Pandemic-Related Data: a long-distance data from the publisher to the user“ was also noticed by the world’s largest and most significant open data portal data.europa.eu, whose strategic objective is to promote access to open data band to increase their global value, who has published news article devoted to it (read more …)

In 2021 I have developed and launched a course for master and doctoral students entitled “Open government data in a data-driven world“. Its aim is to provide basic knowledge of the concept of Open Government Data (OGD), its popularity and potential for the development of technological and economic processes, as well as the latest trends from theoretical basics (methodologies, etc.) to practical applications, by promoting the development and maintenance of sustainable open data ecosystem… (read more…)

The Open Data Daily (PSI Monitor), World Health Organization, Europe PMC and FreeMedArt recommend my article Smarter Open Government Data for Society 5.0: Are Your Open Data Smart Enough? (Sensors 2021, 21(15), 5204), in which I explore OGD portals of 60 countries in order to understand the correspondence of their content to the Society 5.0 expectations. The paper provides a report on how much countries provide these data, focusing on some open (government) data success facilitating factors for both the portal in general and data sets of interest in particular (read more…)

For open government data (OGD) related researches, public activity and other achievements, the LATA (Latvian Open Technologies Association) has recognized her as a person of the year and has awarded her for promotion of open data and open technologies (read more…)

My latest studies on open (government) data and related topics are listed below.

Transparency of open data ecosystems in smart cities: definition and assessment of the maturity of transparency in 22 smart cities (Lnenicka, Nikiforova, Luterek, Azeroual, Ukpabi, Valtenbergs, Machova)
Towards High-Value Datasets determination for data-driven development: a systematic literature review (Nikiforova, Rizun, Ciesielska, Alexopoulos, Miletič)
The Role of Open Government Data and Co-Creation in Crisis Management: Initial Conceptual Propositions from the COVID-19 Pandemic (McBride, Nikiforova and Lnenicka)
Identification of High-Value Dataset determinants: is there a silver bullet for efficient sustainability-oriented data-driven development? (Nikiforova, Alexopoulos, Rizun, Ciesielska)
Barriers to openly sharing government data: towards an open data-adapted innovation resistance theory (Nikiforova & Zuiderwijk) – best paper award nominee
Investigation into the adoption of open government data among students: the behavioural intention-based comparative analysis of three countries (Lněnička, Nikiforova, Saxena & Singh)
Open data hackathon as a tool for increased engagement of Generation Z: to hack or not to hack?
A multi-perspective knowledge-driven approach for analysis of the demand side of the Open Government Data portal (Nikiforova & Lnenicka)
Benchmarking open data efforts through indices and rankings: Assessing development and contexts of use (Lnenicka, Luterek & Nikiforova)
Open Government Data for Society 5.0: Are Your Open Data Smart Enough?
The role of open data in transforming the society to Society 5.0: a resource or a tool for SDG-compliant Smart Living (Nikiforova, Alor, Lytras)
Open government data portal usability: A user-centred usability analysis of 41 open government data portals (Nikiforova & McBride)
Stakeholder-centred Identification of Data Quality Issues: Knowledge that Can Save Your Business (Nikiforova & Kozmina)
Transparency-by-design: What is the role of open data portals? (Lnenicka & Nikiforova)
Timeliness of Open Data in Open Government Data Portals Through Pandemic-related Data: a long data way from the publisher to the user
Assessment of the usability of Latvia’s open data portal or how close are we to gaining benefits from open data
Comparative analysis of national open data portals or whether your portal is ready to bring benefits from open data
Analysis of Open Health Data Quality Using Data Object-Driven Approach to Data Quality Evaluation: Insights from a Latvian Context
Open Data Quality Evaluation: A Comparative Analysis of Open Data in Latvia

I have also delivered some talks on this topic, including:

Another experience was an Invited Talk at the International Conference and Expo on Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials 2021: “Open Data as a driver of Society 5.0: how you and your scientific outputs can contribute to the development of the Super Smart Society and transformation into Smart Living?“ (read more…)

In addition, two Guest Lectures took place this year (October, 2021). One lecture for the University of South-Eastern Norway (USN) on the open data – its ecosystem, barriers, current and future trends in both worldwide and Norway context (see slides here), focusing on data quality, which the audience found to be especially interesting. The second Guest Lecture was delivered at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Latvia on the potential of open data, reflecting the Latvian case and pointing out some examples that we can take over from other countries (see slides here). I was extremely pleased to have such lively discussions on the variety of points that we were able to cover during these lectures, because students have shown both an interest in my talk and what is more – their knowledge and ability to think and elaborate on the given points even without prior knowledge in this area. A very educated and intelligent audience! (read more…)