Evaluation of the Usage of Open Data Portal in Banda Aceh Local Government in Indonesia

Abstract

This paper addresses issues on principle of openness and specifically, the open data as part of public information disclosure, open government, and e-government. As the founding member of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) since 2011, Indonesia is actively encouraging an open government practice and disseminate the idea not only to its surrounding countries, but also its own provincial area. As stated by Open Government Indonesia, there are several cities that currently become the pilot project area of open data implementation, including Banda Aceh, a city that was hardest hit by Tsunami in 2004. Its open data portal (data.bandaacehkota.go.id) provides datasets that were gathered and created by the corresponding units. This paper wants to evaluate the usage of open data portal in Banda Aceh, using literature review and evidence from Alexa web ranking system. The results showed that the website was visited by 2,776 unique visitors daily, but the website is considered as slow-loaded at 2.96 seconds. This issue needs to be addressed accordingly, because open data is the basic necessity needed to enable the smart city system, which the city is thriving to be at the moment. Based on the theories explained, in building the principle of transparency, the government has provided access to information by publishing various media of information that can be accessed directly by the public, the government has given a role to the community to be involved in governance and development. In conclusion, we recommend the government to encourage more people to use the open data portal and helping to trigger innovation for the city.