Significance of open government data in the GCC countries

The purpose of this paper is to review the strengths and weaknesses of open government data (OGD) in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states: Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The paper takes a qualitative approach to explore the OGD portals of the GCC countries.

The OGD policies of the GCC countries are at an early stage and there are many challenges that need to be addressed. Specifically, there are privacy concerns regarding the utilization and harnessing of OGD, and users are wary of sharing their vital information via the internet owing to information leaks. Besides, the paper throws light on some of the lessons which may be derived from the OGD policies of developed nations.

Academic research on OGD implementation in the GCC is limited. This study seeks to fill the gap in the extant literature by probing different dimensions associated with OGD implementation in the GCC context.