Towards an evaluation model for open government: A preliminary proposal

Abstract

Open government implementation connects to several actions: public policy design, software implementation, website development, policy informatics, and the development of new regulations. Despite this important progress, very little has been done to measure the impact of open government and provide feedback in terms of the next steps for implementation. Furthermore, very few models intend to explain the functions, characteristics, or the future of this new trend toward openness. Our research from 2006 to 2012 uses a multi-component model to measure open government websites in the 32 Mexican state governments. However, the website model could become obsolete as a result of technology advancements. This paper analyzes some knowledge gaps and potential problems with this type of model and proposes a new approach to open government portals based on four conceptual pillars: wikinomics, open data, new institutionalism, and the fifth state (Network State). © 2014 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.