Open data systems have paved the way for more accountable governance structures and systems to develop better metrics, risk mitigation techniques, and ways to address root causes of problems rather than symptoms. Through the use, reuse, and distribution of public datasets, governments can also promote citizen-centric innovations and services.
Open government data practices harbingered by the RTI (2005), are also of immense use to the government too, as they ease the process of finding and locating information, standardize information gathering and processing. Further, citizen interaction with the data can help detection of aberrations (obsolete or inaccurate datasets) which might have been unnoticed by governmental agencies.
However, the practice of open government data is not sufficient, divulging information in accessible and usable formats is of paramount importance. As it is only then the citizens, civil society organisations (CSOs), and most importantly marginalized groups can actively engage with these public datasets and localize them to come up with strategies to solve the social issues that scourge their communities.
