What Is Behind Open Data Country Scores? A Com-parative Study of Five International Benchmarks

Abstract

This paper aims to understand how the current international open data benchmarks are created and whether their methodologies are susceptible to bias. The publication of open data is claimed to be one of the most important indicators of government-citizen collaboration. Nonetheless, there are disparities in the advancement of open data around the world. Although many developed countries receive high scores on it, no consistent leaders emerge throughout global assessments. This article compares the existing benchmarks via the lens of sociology of quantification. A comparative analysis of the official reports is conducted to validate country scores and to provide qualitative insights into the methodologies used to obtain these numbers. As a result, I demonstrate that the current measurement tools continue generating inconsistent results because of their methodological issues. The study’s conclusion offers suggestions for improving the benchmarking of open data development, particularly by assessing how this data impacts local communities.