Open National Priority Data (KR0046)

Disclosure of the Nation’s Priority Data with High Utility, Demand and Value in the Public Arena
Commitment Start and End Date
September 1, 2018 ~ August 31, 2020
Lead Implementing Agency/Actor
Public Data Policy Division, Ministry of the Interior and Safety
Commitment Description
What is the public problem that the commitment will address?
The disclosure and usage of public data could make a big impact such as enhancing government transparency, delivering effective and efficient services to the public and contributing to the nation’s economic growth. The Korean government, with the importance of public data in mind, has made active efforts in this regard such as enacting and enforcing the Act on Promotion of the Provision and Use of Public Data in 2013. As the third NAP shows, 526 types of public data in 33 areas highly valued by the public (i. e. information on buildings, local governments’ licensing, national disaster management, national space, real-estate transaction, national tax, social security, etc.) were disclosed. As a result, the level of understanding and interest of the public and businesses on public data has significantly increased. Also, the demand for the disclosure of public data with limited access and the potential to resolve social problems including the data on transportation, safety and jobs has increased. In addition, the government needs to respond to the public’s increasing demand for data in relation to the fourth industrial revolution such as AI, IoT, and self-driving vehicles.
What is the commitment?
The purpose of this commitment is to dramatically expand the subject of public data disclosure to include areas closely related to people’s lives such as environment, safety and healthcare and sectors in relation to new technologies such as AI, IoT and self-driving vehicles. 38 sets of important data determined through a public survey on public data, interviews on relevant associations and companies, a study on utilization of public data will be disclosed by 2019. The data sets include the following: information on buildings based on their age and use, earthquake emergency shelters, buildings with seismic design, safety management of public facilities, statistics of food and drug, sales of meat and processed meat, jobs, automobiles, national energy, public health alert, public health nutrition, air pollutant emission and intelligent traffic accident analysis.
How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem?
The following will be conducted to implement the commitment: 1) conducting a demand survey on the public and businesses to determine the national importance of the data, usage of the data, conditions regarding the disclosure and usage and the potential value of the data in order to select the data to be disclosed; 2) establishing disclosure strategies, developing a system for the disclosure and managing the quality in relation to the selected data.
Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values?
Citizen Participation / Transparency
Exchange and Peer Learning
The following activities will be carried out: technology exchanges and cooperative initiatives in partnership with intranational organizations such as an invitational training workshop provided for other countries’ high- and working-level public servants in charge of e-government and IDB
Additional Information
Other policies and strategies: the 2nd Public Data Basic Plan (2017 – 2019), public data innovation strategies (the Public Data Strategy council, Feb, 2018), the way to standardize public data and encourage the usage (a steering session on pending policy issues, April, 2018), the comprehensive plan for government innovation (March, 2018)
Milestone Activity with a Verifiable Deliverable
Conducting the second round of disclosure of the nation’s core data primarily on intelligent and new industries
Conducting a public demand survey
Determining the nation’s potential core data based on the review of private-sector experts (the expert committee)
Name of Responsible Person from Implementing Agency
Heera Song
Title, Division
Deputy Director, Public Data Policy Division
Email and Phone
lapaella@korea.kr, +82-2-2100-3453
Other Actors Involved,
NA

10. Disclosure of the nation's Priority Data with High Utility, Demand and Value in the Public Arena

Commitment Text:

"Disclosure of the nation's Priority Data with High Utility, Demand and Value in the Public Arena"

The purpose of this commitment is to dramatically expand the subject of public data disclosure to include areas closely related to people's lives such as environment, safety and healthcare and sectors in relation to new technologies such as AI, IoT and self-driving vehicles. 38 sets of important data determined through a public survey on public data, interviews on relevant associations and companies, a study on utilization of public data will be disclosed by 2019. The data sets include the following: information on buildings based on their age and use, earthquake emergency shelters, buildings with seismic design, safety management of public facilities, statistics of food and drug, sales of meat and processed meat, jobs, automobiles, national energy, public health alert, public health nutrition, air pollutant emission and intelligent traffic accident analysis.

The following will be conducted to implement the commitment:

1) conducting a demand survey on the public and businesses to determine the national importance of the data, usage of the data, conditions regarding the disclosure and usage and the potential value of the data in order to select the data to be disclosed;

2) establishing disclosure strategies, developing a system for the disclosure and managing the quality in relation to the selected data.

Milestones:

10.1 Conducting the second round of disclosure of the nation's core data primarily on intelligent and new industries

10.2 Conducting a public demand survey

10.3 Determining the nation's potential core data based on the review of private-sector experts (the expert committee)

Start Date: 1 September 2018 End Date: 31 August 2020

Editorial Note: For the full text of the commitment, please see Korea's 4th National Action Plan 2018-2020 at https://bit.ly/2JvQr98.

Context and Objectives

The purpose of this commitment is to expand ongoing efforts in public data disclosure to include areas such as the environment, health and safety, and new technologies (artificial intelligence, Internet-of-Things, and autonomous vehicles). The commitment will conduct a survey to determine public demand, select priority areas for data disclosure, manage data quality, and establish disclosure strategies. This commitment builds on similar data disclosure commitments from South Korea's third national action plan. Through those commitments, the government disclosed over 22,000 datasets on topics ranging from regional financial data to food waste data through its Open Data Portal and completed quality control and evaluation of 21 public datasets. [44]

This commitment is specific enough to be verifiable as it identifies measurable milestones such as the disclosure of sector-specific, core data and conducting a public demand survey. According to the action plan, 38 important sets of data in predetermined areas will also be disclosed through this commitment. Although the commitment does not specify disclosure strategies or where this data, and the data from the new areas, will be published, the government noted that high priority data has previously been disclosed on the government's data portal. [45]

This commitment is relevant to the OGP value of access to information as it aims to increase public access to government-held data in a number of priority areas. It is also relevant to the value of civic participation as a public demand survey will empower citizens to identify and share priority areas for data disclosure and thereby influence related decision-making. The publication of data on an online platform also makes this commitment relevant to the value of technology and innovation for transparency.

The disclosure and effective use of public data stand to enhance government transparency, deliver effective and efficient services, and contribute to economic growth. Prior to the introduction of this commitment, South Korea had taken important steps toward improving public data disclosure. For instance, in 2013, the country enacted the Act on Promotion of the Provision and Use of Public Data and has since been actively expanding the number and areas of datasets accessible to the public. This includes efforts to increase and improve data disclosure through commitments in previous OGP action plans. The public data portal also has a feature that regularly solicits data requests from citizens and thus allows the government to respond to citizens. [46]

This commitment stands to have moderate potential impact on existing efforts around public data disclosure. Although the commitment builds on previous efforts, the identification and introduction of new priority areas for disclosure represents a significant step in the right direction. The disclosure of such data is particularly meaningful as it is based on public demand identified through a citizen demand survey. ^[47] The scope of this commitment may be further enhanced if the prioritized data will be further reviewed and vetted by the expert committee. While the commitment does not outline such protocol, existing guidelines on the management of projects to support the use of public data [48] provide for the committee—mainly comprising of private sector experts—to perform this function.

Despite the importance of data disclosure, vetting, and quality management, the eventual reach and value of such data is reliant on effective outreach to raise public awareness on the availability of the data and building capacity on how to leverage data to inform decision-making. This commitment does not include activities along these lines.

Next steps

Expanding ongoing efforts in public data disclosure stand to reinforce South Korea as a regional and global leader in public open data initiatives. Given the notable progress that South Korea has made in public data disclosure since 2013, the IRM recommends that future action plans continue efforts to expand disclosure to high value datasets. In doing so, the IRM recommends the following:

• Use online and offline communication to promote the public datasets' availability; and
• Provide training and clear guidelines on how public data can be leveraged and used by citizens to influence decision-making.

10. Disclosure of the Nation’s Priority Data with High Utility, Demand, and Value in the Public Arena

Complete:

Data on 63 areas of artificial intelligence and new industries were disclosed. The government met with an expert committee and surveyed citizens to establish disclosure priorities. IRM requested more detailed information about citizens’ feedback and priority areas identified for disclosure but did not receive a response from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, who is responsible for this commitment.