Information strategies for open government in Europe: EU regions opening up the data on structural funds

This empirical study explores the information-based strategies that EU Regions and Member States are implementing when publishing public data on the web. Cohesion Policy and its Structural Funds, which involve all EU Regions and Member States, are the ideal context to verify the presence of different approaches to the publication of government data. Therefore, 434 datasets on beneficiaries of EU Structural Funds are analysed with multivariate statistical techniques and classified into three clusters according to their characteristics. Two pro-active information strategies are identified, which are consistent with the theoretical framework based on the complementary principles of "stewardship" and "usefulness". The analysis of current practice also reveals that there is still much to be done in order to find the right balance between these two principles. © 2011 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.