Barriers to open data release: A view from the top

The pressure for governments to release much of the vast reservoirs of data that they hold continues to grow. This pressure is grounded not just in principles such as the right of the public to know or freedom of information, but in beliefs, what have even been called myths, about the economic, social, administrative and political benefits that will flow from the wide availability of such data. However it is also acknowledged that there is a considerable gap between this ideal and reality, one component of which is the many barriers to open data release. This paper examines these barriers from the perspective of senior managers in Irish central and local government. A taxonomy of these barriers is proposed and compared with other classifications of barriers in the literature. The paper concludes with some reflections on the implications for the opening up of government data.