Browsing by Author "van Schalkwyk, Francois"

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    Open Access
    Case study: Open Data in the governance of South African higher education
    (2014-04-01) van Schalkwyk, Francois; Willmers, Michelle; Czerniewicz, Laura
    The availability and accessibility of open data has the potential to increase transparency and accountability and, in turn, the potential to improve the governance of universities as public institutions. In addition, it is suggested that open data is likely to increase the quality, efficacy and efficiency of research and analysis of the national higher education system by providing a shared empirical base for critical interrogation and reinterpretation. The Centre for Higher Education Transformation (CHET) has developed an online, open data platform providing institutional-level data on South African higher education. However, other than anecdotal feedback, little is known about how the data is being used. Using CHET as a case study, this project studied the use of the CHET open data initiative by university planners as well as by higher education studies researchers. It did so by considering the supply of and demand for open data as well as the roles of intermediaries in the South African higher education governance ecosystem. The study found that (i) CHET’s open data is being used by university planners and higher education studies researchers, albeit infrequently; (ii) the government’s higher education database is a closed and isolated data source in the data ecosystem; (iii) there are concerns at both government and university levels about how data will be used and (mis)interpreted; (iv) open data intermediaries increase the accessibility and utility of data; (v) open data intermediaries provide both supply-side as well as demand- side value; (vi) intermediaries may assume the role of a ‘keystone species’ in a data ecosystem; (vii) intermediaries have the potential to democratise the impacts and use of open data – intermediaries play an important role in curtailing the ‘de-ameliorating’ effects of data-driven disciplinary surveillance.. The report concludes as follows: (i) despite poor data provision by government, the public university governance open data ecosystem has evolved because of the presence of intermediaries in the ecosystem; (ii) by providing a richer information context and/or by making the data interoperable, government could improve the uptake of data by new users and intermediaries, as well as by the existing intermediaries; and (iii) increasing the fluidity of government open data could remove uncertainties around both the degree of access provided by intermediaries and the financial sustainability of the open platforms provided by intermediaries.
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    Open Access
    Embedding open data practice: Developing indicators on the institutionalisation of open data practice in two African governments
    (2015-06) van Schalkwyk, Francois; Willmers, Michelle; Schonwetter, Tobias
    Final research report of the “Embedding open data practice: Developing indicators on the institutionalisation of open data practice in two African governments” project, which formed part of the World Wide Web Foundation’s "Emerging Impacts of Open Data in Developing Countries" Phase 2 initiative. In order to address the principle question of whether open data practice is being embedded, the project undertook a comparison of government open data in South Africa and Kenya, with a particular focus on open licensing as a key indicator of openness.
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    Licensing Open Data in developing countries: the case of the Kenyan and City of Cape Town Open Data initiatives
    (The African Journal of Information and Communication, 2015-12-01) Willmers, Michele; van Schalkwyk, Francois; Schonwetter, Tobias
    Open data practice is gaining momentum in the public sector and civil society as an important mechanism for sharing information, aiding transparency, and promoting socio-economic development. Within this context, licensing is a key legal mechanism that enables re-use without sanction. However, there is evidence of a “licensing deficit” and this raises questions regarding best practice and sustainability in emerging African open data initiatives, particularly in the context of intermediaries being encouraged to exploit shared data for economic and social benefit. This article asks two main questions: (1) What is the current state of open licensing in two African open data initiatives; and (2) to what degree is it appropriate to focus on licensing as a key indicator of openness? Utilising a case study approach, the research explored licensing dynamics in the Kenya Open Data and the City of Cape Town Open Data initiatives, examining the contexts in which these initiatives were established and their resulting licensing frameworks. The cases reveal evidence of strategic engagement with content licensing, driven largely by the need for legal protection, adherence to international best practice and attraction of the user base required in order to ensure sustainability. The application of licensing systems in both contexts does, however, suggest an emerging system in which data providers are “learning by doing” and evolving their licensing practice as portals and their associated policy frameworks mature. The paper discusses the value of open data licensing as an indicator of organisational change and concomitant importance of taking into consideration the institutional dynamics when evaluating the organisational licensing frameworks of city, national and other governments.