Government Big Data Ecosystem: Definitions, Types of Data, Actors, and Roles and the Impact in Public Administrations

Abstract

The public sector, private firms, business community, and civil society are generating data that are high in volume, veracity, and velocity and come from a diversity of sources. This type of data is today known as big data. Public administrations pursue big data as “new oil” and implement data-centric policies to collect, generate, process, share, exploit, and protect data for promoting good governance, transparency, innovative digital services, and citizens’ engagement in public policy. All of the above constitute the Government Big Data Ecosystem (GBDE). Despite the great interest in this ecosystem, there is a lack of clear definitions, the various important types of government data remain vague, the different actors and their roles are not well defined, while the impact in key public administration sectors is not yet deeply understood and assessed. Such research and literature gaps impose a crucial obstacle for a better understanding of the prospects and nascent issues in exploiting GBDE. With this study, we aim to start filling the above-mentioned gaps by organizing our findings from an extended Systematic Literature Review into a framework to organise and address the above-mentioned challenges. Our goal is to contribute in this fast-evolving area by bringing some clarity and establishing common understanding around key elements of the emerging GBDE.