Open data at federal universities: inner envelopment and disclosure to society

Abstract

The present article discusses the implementation and management of the Open Data Policy – published through decree n. 8.777/2016 – and points how it has been developed within Brazilian federal universities. This decree forces Brazilian public administration to provide open format data, in order to improve the culture of public transparency. A study was conducted in twelve universities to analyze the engagement of the academic community in the construction of the Open Data Plan, moreover to monitor the compliance of the project and the disclosure of the Open Data Policy to society, in order to verify if citizens are being informed about this subject. In this research, techniques of document analysis of open data plans and structured interviews within the sectors responsible for the management of these data were used in the investigation. According to the results, it was possible to verify that these institutions have difficulty fulfilling the policy. In some of them, the data publication schedule has not been put into practice and, in other cases, there is no open format data avaliable, which compromises the work done on this subject within these organizations. This paper highlights the importance of further studies on mapping the data policy situation in all Brazilian federal universities.