4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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As Open Data is a whole-of-government effort (WOG), a governance structure led by the central agencies (MOF, IDA & SLA) was set in place to coordinate various efforts for Open Data, and to obtain buy-in from agencies to share data in effective manners, and to promote demand generation.
Organisation to Support Open Data
The Government Data Steering Committee (GDSC) was established in 2010 to oversee WOG data management initiatives including data.gov.sg and OneMap. This committee is chaired by the Permanent Secretary of MOF, with members from agencies which are owners of ‘high-value’ data.
The GDSC meets quarterly to discuss and decide on WOG data-sharing policies and issues. At this platform, key data sharing initiatives are discussed and populated to the various agencies.
The eGov and Data Advisory Panel (eGAP) was formed in Jan 2014 to provide thought-leadership and insights into global trends and innovations in e-Government and “Open Data” strategies. The Panel comprises international Open Data thought leaders who would provide guidance on how new technologies in both ICT and “Open Data” can be better used to enhance the performance of Government.
eGAP also advises on engagement strategies with the various user communities in Singapore, so as to encourage more co-creation and to enable more user-centric service delivery.
A Chief Data Officer (CDO) is a director-level representative appointed by every agency to act as key points of contact and play the role of an ambassador and advocate for the government’s data sharing efforts. CDOs meet quarterlyand work to drive the agency’s data-sharing and data analytics efforts while ensuring compliance to policies and standards. The CDOs act as gate-openers to more data sharing..
Legal Framework to Support Open Data
In 2011, a central Terms-of-Use (TOU) was drafted specially for adoption by datasets on Data.gov.sg and OneMap. The TOU allows public to use the data, whilst indemnifying the Singapore Government from any liabilities. Thus, as agencies are protected, the TOU has served to assure agencies of their concerns and promotes greater data sharing. The TOU also states the permissible uses of the data and requires users to indicate if data had been modified.
To enhance our data-sharing efforts, a set of data-sharing principles were developed in 2013 to guide agencies in deciding what data should be shared and in what formats. Agencies are required to comply with the data-sharing principles as well as conduct a self-assessment. The data-sharing principles ensure that the public will be able to gain access to data that is of an optimal quality and in the most optimal format for use.
Notwithstanding the above, we are concurrently pushing mindset changes across agencies and driving more external data sharing. In particular, we are gradually shifting our approach in the external sharing of datasets towards one that is focussed on “high-value/ commonly-used” datasets rather than just increasing the quantity of datasets on data.gov.sg and OneMap.
Communication
From 2010 onwards, within the government, roadshows and bilateral meetings were conducted with key agencies to sell the benefits of Open Data and to get them to share their data on data.gov.sg and OneMap and participate in demand generation efforts where they could put up problem statements for the public to solve.
With the public, demand-generation activities like competitions and also roadshows at universities. were conducted to increase awareness of data.gov.sg and OneMap in order to generate public interest to use the data. These included As a result of government-led demand generation efforts, there is widespread interest in the industry on co-creation and the use of government data. Several non-government organisations have partnered data.gov.sg to carry out community efforts with Open Data. For example, Google’s PlugFest Developer Competition partnered data.gov.sg to get their developers to use Open Data in their app submissions.
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5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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Open Data is led by the Ministry of Finance in partnership with IDA and SLA. IDA manages the data.gov.sg Portal and drives the adoption of its data while SLA manages OneMap and drives the adoption of geospatial data.
In his keynote address at the eGov Global Exchange 2013, Mr Tharman Shamugaratnam, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister had emphasised government’s support for Open Data. He said, “...we [the Government] will proactively share more data. This will encourage more feedback, as well as research and analysis on issues of public concern”.
All agencies are stakeholders of Open Data. While, MOF, IDA and SLA play key roles in driving the adoption of sharing data on data.gov.sg and OneMap, agencies’ participation is imperative for the project’s success. To-date, more than 60 agencies are sharing their data on data.gov.sg. For OneMap’s implementation, an initial consortium of 16 public agencies led by SLA was responsible for developing OneMap to ensure its successful roll-out and subsequently, over 30 agencies became contributors and adopters of OneMap.
SLA also worked with Non-Government Organisations like Cat Welfare Society and Restroom Association Singapore to ensure the successful adoption of OneMap for business and community needs.
The developer community also played a key role in implementation. To kick-start the adoption of Open Data, the Mobile Alliance carried out the AppVenture Challenge to precede the launch of the data.gov.sg Portal, and showcase its potential. Using existing datasets, the Challenge generated 18 apps that used Open Data. These apps served as showcases of the value of Open Data once data.gov.sg was launched in 2011.
The public’s feedback was also incorporated throughout the implementation in areas such as portal usability as well as on high-value data that the government should provide.
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6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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OneMap and data.gov.sg are funded by the Ministry of Finance (MOF). The resources for the initiative included:
• High level expertise in many domains for the system development of OneMap. The key knowledge areas are GIS, Web and mobile development with a keen emphasis on usability and system performance. There was ample participation from the data maintenance team, cartographer and line managers in contributing to their respective areas.
• Project team for data.gov.sg and OneMap to ensure the successful roll-out and maintenance of the datasets shared on the Portal. This project manager also liaised with various agencies to ensure that their data was accessible on the Portal, and updated when required.
• Programme manager was enlisted to engage the public to carry out demand-generation efforts, and to engage the people and private sector use the datasets
• Policy developer was also involved in creating the new terms-of-use for datasets, and in creating the best practices and guidelines for data sharing.
• CDOs played the role as advocators of Open Data, and led their agencies to release more datasets.
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7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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he successes of the initiatives were evident in the amount of information shared, adopters, and services developed using government data. These help achieve the overall objective of improving public service delivery and innovative services co-created with the people and private sectors.
1a. The number of datasets on data.gov.sg has grown from 5,000 to 8,000, and has achieved 100% machine-readability in end 2013. OneMap’s thematic information has grown from 24 in April 2010 to 91 layers presently, while location-based services in collaboration with fellow public agencies, non-government organisations and private firms have increased to 43 from 7 in when it was first launched.
2b. data.gov.sg has had more than 800,000 visits and more than 100,000 data downloads while OneMap has had a combined total of over 100 million page views and services used, illustrating the growing interest of the public in using the data.
3c. More than 300 prototypes and apps using Open Data have been created by the Public through demand-generation initiatives, of which 60 apps are available on the data.gov.sg AppShowcase for the public to use. In total, more than 100 apps have been created using Open Data from data.gov.sg or OneMap. These apps cover various aspects of life in Singapore including transport, public safety and education.
4d. More than 20 different demand-generation initiatives were carried out by various agencies to co-create solutions to problems with the public. These initiatives have resulted in more than 70 new high-value datasets released.
5e. New revenue streams have been created by companies that use Open Data.
- StreetSine’s SRX Valuation Engine which uses a mixture of private and public data provides a service which allows consumers, real estate agents, valuers, and banks with a rigorous, real-time valuation of properties.
- Quantum Inventions’ real-time navigation, vehicle tracking, routing and traffic information services for consumer, enterprise and government systems. The solution had used the Land Transport Authority’s data. Quantum Inventions had received co-funding from IDA to develop this solution, and have since partnered car GPS device manufacturer to market the system.
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8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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The monitoring of progress of these two initiatives comes in two folds, the governance component through institutional arrangements and data sharing policies as well as systems to keep track on the usage level of portals and data.
The governance structure as mentioned in question 4 monitors the progress of Open Data in Singapore. The GDSC also serves as a coordination platform to ensure the alignment and effectiveness of the various efforts.
OneMap’s key performance indicators, in terms of page views and services used, utilises online monitoring feature such as Google analytics to track usage of the portal. Registration of OneMap APIs is also made compulsory to keep track of its use. On the administrative side, appointment of agency administrators as liaison points were in place to manage feedback about the source data and monitor the number of information and services put out.
Similarly, data.gov.sg monitors the page views, data downloads and portal visits. The number of apps created is also tracked as this is a key measurement to evaluate the adoption levels of the portal. Since its launch, the number of page views on data.gov.sg has grown from 500,000 in 2011 to close to 1.5million in 2013.
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9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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Data.gov.sg and OneMap encountered obstacles which are similar in nature, namely (a) changing the mindset of agencies that were reluctant to contribute data due to concerns over its sensitivity and purpose of use, (b) availing high-value datasets and (c) developing a co-creation ecosystem.
(a) Changing Agencies’ Mindset - many road shows and meetings with the agencies at both the senior levels and working levels were arranged. Workshops and trainings to equip the working level personnel from other agencies with the mindset, knowledge and skills to create and manage data for sharing that conforms to recognised data standards. These communication platforms also served to help agencies understand the value of Open Data and co-creation.
When new OneMap services were developed, these were used as successful showcases to encourage to other agencies to also develop service that would benefit the public. Thus, the number of services and data layers shared increased many folds in the first 8 months of OneMap’s operations.
(b) Availing High-Value Datasets - To help agencies share high-value datasets, policies and guidelines were set in place to promote data sharing. These included a mandate for all unclassified data to be shared on data.gov.sg or OneMap, as well as the Data Sharing Principles which aided agencies to share data in the most optimal means. An API Funding programme was also established to co-fund the development of APIs for high-value datasets. In addition, IDA regularly facilitated the sharing of high-value datasets as identified through demand-generation initiatives.
(c) Developing a pro ’co-creation mindset’ – Initially, many agencies were not convinced on the benefits of co-co-creation and were not open to putting up problem statements for the public to solve. Over time, upon seeing the successes of other agencies’ co-creation efforts, more and more agencies started carrying out their own efforts to crowdsource solutions using Open Data.
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