The Window Theory: Factors and Design Principles for Digital Transparency

Transparency is important for scrutinizing government activities by enabling it to look inside the government. Opening-up data has been heralded for its ability to contribute to digital transparency by opening data about the functioning of government. Digital transparency is a way to create transparency using digital means, i.e., collecting, processing, and presenting data to provide insight into the functioning of government. In turn, transparency can improve accountability, participation, innovation, and corruption detection and deliver other benefits.
The many barriers that open government data (OGD) initiatives encounter show that digital transparency is hard to implement. Data disclosure in Open Government Data Portals (OGDP) and the development of applications (apps) based upon such data will not create transparency per se. Digital transparency is more complex than often understood, and many factors influence its creation. The research aim pursued in this thesis is to develop a set of design principles to deliver digital transparency using OGD-based applications. The utilitarian aim is to help software designers create such applications for digital transparency.

This doctoral dissertation consists of four published papers aimed at helping software designers deliver digital transparency. In those papers, we look at various views on digital transparency as a concept distinct from transparency. Transparency is defined, interpreted, and measured in different ways. Most models of transparency do not consider the technical aspects and how data is released, or focus on the technical aspects only. In contrast, organizational and technical aspects are often viewed as significant barriers to creating transparency based on OGD.....