opendata.swiss: recommendations based on the survey results

on behalf of the OGD Office at the Federal Statistical Office

On behalf of and in cooperation with the OGD Office at the Federal Statistical Office, Opendata.ch conducted a survey among users and providers of Open Government Data (OGD). It also included questions on the use of the opendata.swiss portal and its potential for improvement. Below, those survey results are summarised and, on their basis, recommendations are made for the further development of the portal.

Method

From 22 June to 31 July 2022, a total of 437 people took part in the survey, of whom 291 were administrative employees (Confederation, cantons, communes and state-affiliated enterprises) and 146 were external (= not administrative employees). The results are not weighted and have been grouped into suitable categories. Further information on the methodology and the respondents can be found in the survey report.

Survey results

The survey results relating to opendata.swiss (questions 13 to 16) are summarised below. The results relevant to the recommendations are highlighted.

Unsurprisingly, respondents most often start their search for OGD on Google and other search engines (60%), closely followed by the website of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) (57%) and the opendata.swiss portal (53%). Almost 60% of respondents from outside the administration used opendata.swiss at least once in the last 12 months.

Respondents start their search on opendata.swiss mainly because it is the national OGD portal (15%), because they know it (14%) and because they assume they will find the data they are looking for there (12%). People outside the administration cite the latter reason considerably more often (19%) than administrative employees (8%). Respondents who do not start their search on opendata.swiss mainly give as reasons that they do not know the OGD portal (45%), that they use other sites (17%) or that they assume they will not find the data they are looking for there (14%).

Above all, respondents call for opendata.swiss to improve its search function (35%), its preview function (27%), the description of the data/metadata (27%) and its filter function (24%).Of the respondents who answered “other” (12%), many called for access via APIs and a visualisation option.

The following survey results do not relate directly to the opendata.swiss portal, but to the publication of OGD in general and the exchange between data users and data publishers (questions 9, 11, 17, 20 to 22). They are nevertheless relevant to the portal:

It is encouraging that, in the respondents’ view, open government data used in the last 12 months are often easy to find and up to date, and that a contact person or contact point is indicated. Less encouraging is that, in the respondents’ view, OGD are never or rarely available in one click, as Linked Open Data, as raw or disaggregated data and as a bulk download.

To promote the publication and use of OGD, respondents would like, among other things, tools and guidelines for the creation, use, dissemination and exchange of data. 

Respondents rate the existing opportunities to give the administration feedback on currently available datasets as “middling”. Respondents from outside the administration consider these opportunities to be less available than administrative employees do. As a feedback channel, respondents would above all like email and direct forms to the publishing body. A comment function is also considered useful.

Respondents rate the existing opportunities to propose datasets for publication to the administration as between “middling” and rather insufficient. People outside the administration consider this opportunity to be less available than administrative employees do.

Recommendations

• Communication measures to raise awareness of opendata.swiss (incl. in distinction from other OGD portals)
• Evaluation and, where necessary, improvement of the search function and indexing. Context: the search functions were improved as part of a further development carried out in autumn 2022 (after the survey was conducted). The search is based on the metadata of the datasets. The better a dataset is described with important metadata and keywords, the more likely it is to appear in the list of results. Maintaining the metadata is the responsibility of the data-publishing organisations. Opendata.swiss can make recommendations here and check/show the quality of the metadata.
• Further development of the preview and visualisation function (charts, maps, tables etc.) (cf. explore.data.gouv.fr)
• Metadata Quality Dashboard to visualise the completeness and correctness of the description of the data/metadata and compliance with the OGD guidelines (cf. data.europa.eu/mqa)
• Evaluation and, where necessary, extension of the filter function with additional filters (e.g. geographical, temporal)
• Adding guidelines for the creation, use, dissemination and exchange of data to the opendata.swiss handbook. 
• Expansion of the feedback option for existing datasets: public comment and, where appropriate, rating function (cf. data.overheid.nl)
• Creation of an option to propose datasets for publication, e.g. via a form (cf. data.overheid.nl)