Tbilisi City Hall Open Data Platform Concept and TOR

The concept of OGD is linked to open data and open government, promoting transparency, accountability, and value creation by making government data available to all. Public bodies produce and commission huge quantities of relevant data, most of which is public data by law. OGD promotes the publicity of what data should be legally and justifiably available to the community at large. The expected outcome of implementing OGD is to create and generate public value. The goal is ubiquitous engagement of citizens in all aspects of developing an e-Society. The approach of openness is seen from different societal perspectives, including Open Commons, Open Access, Open GLAM, and Open Innovation. OGD ensures availability and access, distribution, and universal participation. The concept and practice of OGD were introduced as a means of avoiding secrecy in government by making government data technically and legally available to citizens. OGD is an initiative by governments to make their data available on data web portals to promote transparency and accountability and to increase collaboration with stakeholders. However, OGD should not only be associated with the availability of data on government web portals but also with the provision of data that has reusable capabilities, creating data innovative ecosystems and collaborative platforms. According to the Open Knowledge Foundation, "Open means anyone can freely access, use, modify, and share for any purpose." The benefits of OGD are diverse, far-reaching, and progressive. Various public policy analysis and practical use cases demonstrate the strong evidence of societal development, economic growth, job creation, empowered citizenry, developed public sector, and innovative business models as direct or side results of openness of government/municipal data. For instance, the UK-based company FInLine created an application built upon OGD that can help SMEs to survive their businesses and mitigate the economic crisis hit by COVID-19. Georgia has not fallen behind the development trend of digitalization and open government. Since the beginning of the millennium, Georgia's achievements in public sector modernization have been lauded for their ability to increase transparency, fight corruption, ease the way of doing business, and improve public service delivery to citizens. Information Communication Technology (ICT) played an important role as an enabler of public sector reform. The focus has been on four grand challenges: developing better public service, better integrating the public sector and improving its resilience, effectively managing public resources, and continuing improvements in accountability and transparency. The Open Government Partnership (OGP) initiative is a global platform for governments to commit to transparency, accountability, and citizen participation. Georgia has been a member of the OGP since July 2011 and has launched three action plans to combine the national focus and the OGP focus of improved public services, increasing public integrity, more effective management of public resources, and the creation of safer communities. Georgia shares OGP's motto to make its government accountable and transparent. The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) prepared the draft Concept of Tbilisi City Hall Open Data Portal within the framework of the project "Development of Tbilisi City Hall's Open Data Portal Concept and Terms of Reference (ToR)". The project is financially supported by the USAID Good Governance Initiative (GGI) in Georgia. The Concept aims to develop a comprehensive view on how an information society can be shaped, focusing on the implications of openness to the public sector.