Transparency dimensions of big and open linked data: Transparency as being synonymous with accountability and openness

Abstract

Although one of the main reasons to open data by governments is to create a transparent government, many initiatives fail to deliver transparency. Making data available does not automatically yield up transparency. Furthermore transparency is an ill-defined concept and understood in different ways. Added on this puzzle, Big Data Analytics are becoming reality in governments and on society due the quantity of open data available and the evolution of techniques and instruments used to analyze data. This paper develops a Big and Open Linked Data (BOLD) Framework identifying categories, dimensions and sub-dimensions that influence transparency. Our framework conceptualizes transparency as a process of data disclosure and usage. Transparency is based on the two major synonymous concept used on literature, namely accountability and openness. Accountability means revealing important details for transparency to control governments financially and operationally, whereas openness reveals details of what, how and why politics took the decision, without revealing important parts of the political game inside government such in military and nuclear area.