Open Data Governance in the Time of the Pandemic

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the state of open government data in the Philippines by comparing access to health information during the COVID-19 pandemic with available open data prior to it. It first assesses the availability and demand for government data through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and data posted in government Open Data platforms. It then compares this with the emerging lessons from the creation of the health data hub during the pandemic. It analyzes it by considering data openness across three dimensions content, people, and process. The openness of content subscribes to the accepted definition of data being free to access, and free to manipulate. Openness to people refers to who can actively participate and/or collaborate. Openness of the process pertains to whether the processes involved is transparent and whether the process is open to inputs from participants. It considers lessons from the pandemic as a way forward for more systematic data sharing for the whole of government in the future. © 2021 ACM.