The open data concept is based on the EU directive from 2003 with the goal to highlight the need for member states to increase and digitalize their public data and thus achieving transparency and stimulating economic growth based on new innovations. In Sweden, the development has fallen behind expectations and are currently the worst performing nordic country in open data development. In relation, research on open data is limited, especially when it come to barriers and challenges for adopting strategies to handle open data for local public organizations. This research is therefore aimed towards understanding and identifying barriers for adopting open data in local public organizations in Sweden. To answer this, we have conducted a case study based on the municipality of Örnsköldsviks. Our findings suggest that existing research on open data is somewhat lacking in the areas of ethical issues,  the private sector and the challenge of  moving towards openness; these are important aspects to consider when it comes to open data development. Furthermore, our results indicate that collaboration on both national and regional levels is advantageous and combined with PSI Directive improvements, is something that can bridge the gap between open data barriers and ambitions.

Municipalities and government agencies are producers of information that may be of interest to the public concerning areas such as population statistics, weather data and policy decisions. In the Digital Agenda, the Swedish Government emphasizes the importance for data to be spread and promotes the development and innovation of new e-services created by other parties than government agencies. Various development initiatives of platforms have been taken around the world but there are no specific standards regarding how data should be made public. Softronic currently offer their customers a proprietary platform for the publication of open data. In order to improve or alternatively replace this, Softronic wanted an evaluation of a number of already existing platforms. This report contains an evaluation of the Softronic platform along with three other candidates: CKAN, Socrata and OpenDataSoft. The included aspects in the evaluation were selected based on requests from Softronic, covering among other things the installation process, performance and upgrades. To assess the API function of the platforms and demonstrate how an application using open data can be implemented, a graphical client was developed. Socrata received the highest score in the evaluation, followed by in turn OpenDataSoft, CKAN and Softronic. Socrata is recommended as a platform for publishing open government data mainly because it offered extensive functionality, required few technical skills and provided plenty of support services. / Kommuner och myndigheter är producenter av information som kan vara av intresse för allmänheten gällande exempelvis befolkningsstatistik, väderdata och politiska beslut. I den digitala agendan verkar Sveriges regering för att data ska spridas och främja utveckling och innovation av nya e-tjänster skapade av andra aktörer än myndigheter. Diverse utvecklingsinitiativ har tagits kring plattformar runtom i världen men det finns inga tydliga standarder kring hur data ska göras publikt. Softronic erbjuder idag sina kunder en egenutvecklad plattform för publiceringen av öppna data. För att kunna förbättra eller alternativt ersätta denna, ville Softronic ha en utvärdering av ett antal redan existerande plattformar. Denna rapport innehåller en utvärdering av Softronics plattform tillsammans med tre andra kandidater: CKAN, Socrata och OpenDataSoft. De aspekter som utvärderingen innefattar valdes utifrån önskemål från Softronic och täcker bland annat installationsförfarande, prestanda och uppgraderingar. För att undersöka API-funktionen hos plattformarna och demonstrera hur en applikation som använder sig av öppna data kan implementeras, utvecklades även en grafisk klient. Socrata fick högst poäng i utvärderingen, följt av i tur och ordning OpenDataSoft, CKAN och Softronic. Socrata rekommenderas som en plattform för publicering av öppna myndighetsdata främst eftersom den erbjöd omfattande funktionalitet, krävde få tekniska färdigheter och tillhandahöll många supporttjänster.