Positive Effects of Visualizing Open Government Data. A Case Study of Public Ghanaian Institutions

Master's Thesis , 2021 , 72 Pages

Computer Science - General

In this paper, I seek to prove that there is an important portion of the corporate population that would benefit from the availability of Visualized Open Data and contribute to the overall corporate growth. A hybrid of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies was used to derive conclusions on the fact that, when data is made available and presented correctly, it fosters all-inclusiveness and promotes openness which in turn has a positive effect on the corporate image. The long-term goal of the research is to unearth the benefits of visualizing OGD and how the average Ghanaian would like to view data including identifying key stakeholders who can help develop user-friendly visualization platforms for the Ghanaian public. My research will also focus on knowing the positive impacts of citizen participation on the government if Ghanaian institutions implement the use of visualization of open government data.

Open Government Data (OGD) is a philosophy that promotes transparency, accountability and value creation by making government data available to all. Data visualization on the other hand is the graphical representation of processed data, by using visual elements like charts, graphs, and maps. It would be wrong to think visualization is a modern-day technique. Visualizations have been used in disciplines where data is generated, such as manufacturing, agriculture, finance and geography. Visualizations simply provide a mechanism to understand and communicate large datasets. Government agencies, irrespective of where they are geographically obtaining and produce a broad array of datasets, from census data, educational performance, employee performance, health data, transportation, and financial reports. The accessibility of such information for others has a variety of advantages and challenges. This comprehensive case study scoped around the Ghanaian public workspace seeks to prove that corporate open data is not readily available to staff, and even if available, a large and very important portion of our workforce even though educated, cannot perform the essential operations needed to process, merge and make sense of raw structured or semi-structured data.

• Author: Stanley Nagetey (Author)
• Publication Year: 2021
• Pages: 72
• Catalog Number: V1161193
• ISBN (PDF): 9783346599711
• Language: English
• Tags: Data Visualization, Open data, Big Data