Big-Data Applications in the Government Sector

Businesses, governments, and the research community can all derive value from the massive amounts of digital data they collect. Analyzing big-data application projects by governments offers guidance for follower countries for their own future big-data initiatives. Decision making in government usually takes much longer and is conducted through consultation and mutual consent of a large number of diverse actors, including officials, interest groups, and ordinary citizens. Governments deal not only with general issues of big-data integration from multiple sources and in different formats and cost but also with some special challenges. The biggest is collecting data; governments have difficulty, as the data not only comes from multiple channels but from different sources. Most governments operating or planning big-data projects need to take a step-by-step approach for setting the right goals and realistic expectations. Success depends on their ability to integrate and analyze information, develop supporting systems, and support decision making through analytics.