Opening Up Non-Public Data (KR0067)

How the Commitment Came to be

- Received proposal through public/government contest ( October 11 to November 14, 2022 )
- Selected as a commitment during the Digital Subcommittee meeting ( March 17, 2023 )
- Development of draft by the Digital Subcommittee meeting ( April 19, 2023 )
- Discussed during the Government-Civil Joint meeting ( April 28, 2023 )
- Discussed during Open Government Week ( May 12, 2023 )
- Up for Public Feedback (Innovation 24 OGP Discussion Board) ( June 26 to July 9, 2023 )

Background

Korea enacted the Act on Promotion of the Provision and Use of Public Data in 2013, and as a result, 77,272 pieces of public data were released, ranking first in the world in the Open Useful Reusable (OUR) Data Index (OECD, 2019), and the number of downloads on public data portals exceeded 46.97 million (as of the end of 2022). Example) The National Key Data Open Plan was established by 2022, resulting in opening 168 key pieces of data, and 2,797 services utilizing public data created added value. It also contributes to solving social problems by providing data, such as urea water sales and COVID-19 mask inventory information. However, public data policies to date have been promoted from the perspective of administrative and public organizations as suppliers, and policies from the perspective of citizens and businesses as consumers may have been relatively lacking. The fundamental cause of this is that consumers could not know about all of the data including non-public data held by administrative and public organizations. Therefore, it is necessary to disclose not only public data provided by administrative and public organizations, but also information related to public data that is not disclosed so that the public's right of access and use can be expanded.

Details of the Commitment

Make the full list of public data, including that which is being withheld, available to the public, and allow the public to request the data they need so that any reasons for withholding it can be reconsidered (and improve the legal system if necessary).

1 Public - Provide information such as a list of non-public data. - Provide public data such as names and generating organizations that are being withheld.

2 Private - Request re-consideration of opening ‘closed’ government data. - Promote through relevant public organizations and civil society organization policies*. * Parti Citizen Open Data Lab, Korea Data Journalism Awards, etc.

3 Public-Private cooperation - Review government data based on the Public Data Basic (Implementation) Plan and evaluate the operation status of public data provision so that it can be fully opened. - Discuss ways to open up ‘closed’ government data through various public-private governance mechanisms, such as the Open Data Forum.

Potential for Result

Improve the quality of public data utilization by expanding data provision to meet the diverse needs of the public. Provide an empowering experience for the public by engaging them in the process of opening up public data.

Milestone Activity with a Verifiable Deliverable | Start - End

Establish a government-wide mid- to long-term public data opening plan | June 2023 - Continue every year

Create a specialized working group to open up non-public data | June 2023 - Continue every year

Assess public data provision status | June 2023 - Continue every year

Implement the 4th Public Data Basic Plan | June 2023 - December 2025

Develop and implement the 5th Public Data Basic Plan | January 2026 - May 2027

Action Plan Review

Public Data Policy Division of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Open Data Forum

For a complete description of the commitment, see Commitment 3 in the Republic of Korea’s 2023–2027 action plan: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/republic-of-korea-action-plan-2023-2027-june.

Context and objectives

To deepen the open government impact of Korea's public data, a civil society member of the OGC Digital Subcommittee proposed this commitment to identify and fill data blanks. Korea has made great strides in open data since the Open Data Act came into effect in 2013. As of the end of 2022, the government had opened 77,000 pieces of data (estimated at more than 87,000 pieces of data as of 2023)—a 15-fold increase since 2013. [30] Private use of open government data has increased by more than 3,300 times since 2013, reaching 31.55 million instances (number of download and open API applications) by 2022.

The government releases data according to its Open Government Data Master Plans and National Core Data Release Plans, covering bundles of data that a multistakeholder process deems to be a priority for the public, based on feedback from the Open Data Forum and surveys of citizens and businesses. The national core data topics are then selected by the Open Data Strategy Council, which comprises government, civil society, academia, and business representatives. [31] Since 2015, 168 national core data bundles have been released (33 in 2015–2016, 63 in 2017–2019, and 72 in 2020–2022). These efforts ranked Korea first in public data provision among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development members in 2015–2020. [32]

Potential for results: Substantial

This commitment would disclose a substantial list of data that is held by government but not open to the public. A participatory process will be implemented to determine which data would be useful to the public prior to being disclosed. While the action plan itself does not specify the scope of data to be disclosed, a milestone intends to establish a government-wide mid-to-long-term public data disclosure plan. An April 2023 meeting of the Open Data Strategy Council clarified that the draft of this public data disclosure plan aims to disclose 40.6% (106,930 pieces) of currently closed government data (263,342 pieces) by 2025. [33] The civic participation is expected to improve the utility of data for the public.

Transparency International Korea and Open Net, two civil society OGC members, deem this as one of the action plan’s most promising commitments. [34] During co-creation, OGC Digital Subcommittee members flagged gaps in open data related to women, persons with disabilities, and energy—the latter of which was proposed as necessary for civic participation in climate action. Indeed, there may be many more such gaps of which people are not aware because they do not know that such data is held by the government. As noted by a Digital Subcommittee member, by making open data more relevant and useful to the public, this commitment has the potential to empower citizens to hold government accountable and participate in policymaking in a more informed manner. [35]

The commitment also includes milestones that continue ongoing data opening efforts, with the next two National Core Data Release Plans. The fourth National Core Data Release Plan intends to release 32 core data bundles in 2023–2025, while the fifth plan will set targets for 2026–2028.

Opportunities, challenges, and recommendations during implementation

This commitment is innovative as it goes beyond routine government data disclosure—as set forth in the Open Government Data Master Plans and National Core Data Release Plans—to seek enhanced transparency of closed public data and disclosure of data that the public deems useful. However, the milestones, as currently written, do not capture these innovations. To concretize this commitment, the IRM recommends: