Empowering potentials of open data? : a study examining individual open data utilization in Finland
Ruuhilahti, Aleksi (2018)
2018
Informaatiotutkimuksen ja interaktiivisen median tutkinto-ohjelma - Degree Programme in Information Studies and Interactive Media
Viestintätieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Communication Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2018-11-30
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201812072961
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201812072961
Tiivistelmä
In the recent years the amount of open data has proliferated over the internet. The term refers to data which is licensed in such way that everyone can access, reuse and redistribute it and by far the biggest distributors of open data have been governmental and municipal agencies around the world. As administration has started to share their data for the use of citizens and enterprises, this process is expected to produce versatile social and economic value for the society.
In this study I have focused on exploring the social potentials of open data and examined with qualitative approach how utilization of open data can empower the Finnish utilizers from individual and citizen’s perspective. Based on the data that I collected with online-survey and four theme-interviews, it can be argued that open data utilization empowers the utilizers particularly by expanding their individual consciousness and awareness (power from within) and data utilization can be seen to strengthen utilizer’s individual voice as citizen. The findings related to citizen influence or effective participation actualizing with the help of open data utilization however were limited among my results and thus the access to data alone do not seem to foster citizen’s power to act in the society.
In this study I have focused on exploring the social potentials of open data and examined with qualitative approach how utilization of open data can empower the Finnish utilizers from individual and citizen’s perspective. Based on the data that I collected with online-survey and four theme-interviews, it can be argued that open data utilization empowers the utilizers particularly by expanding their individual consciousness and awareness (power from within) and data utilization can be seen to strengthen utilizer’s individual voice as citizen. The findings related to citizen influence or effective participation actualizing with the help of open data utilization however were limited among my results and thus the access to data alone do not seem to foster citizen’s power to act in the society.