Creating Knowledge for Value Generation in Open Government Data Ecosystems Twenty-fifth Americas Conference on Information Systems, Cancun, 2019 1 Creating Knowledge for Value Creation in Open Government Data Ecosystems Emergent Research Forum (ERF) Urbano C. Matos Jr Université Laval urbano.matos.1@ulaval.ca Jacqueline Corbett Université Laval jacqueline.corbett@fsa.ulaval.ca Abstract Open Government Data (OGD) has grown quickly in the last decade. However, the simple availability of OGD does not mean these data are used well in society. Social actors, both organizations and individuals, must to work collaboratively to create an Open Data Ecosystem (ODE) to manage and deliver OGD. OGD creates value only when the data are analyzed and reused to generate new knowledge. The creation of useful and applicable knowledge is not a simple and permanent thing, as it requires special attention from governments to make the data available and ODE actors to ensure the effective generation of knowledge. Limited research has studied the creation of knowledge in OGD ecosystems and more investigation is required into knowledge work within ODE. This research-in-progress aims to explore and answer the question of how is knowledge constructed in OGD ecosystems. Keywords Open Data, Open Government Data, Value Creation, Ecosystem, Knowledge , Knowledge Management. Introduction In the past decade, the open data (OD) movement has gained popularity, building from the Obama administration’s 2009 Open Government (OG) policy, which is being adopted in many countries at various governmental levels (The Open Data Barometer, 2019). OD initiatives have also been adopted in various areas of society, involving academia (Link, et al., 2017) and private organizations (e.g., Uber, 2019). Open Government Data (OGD) has the potential to expand the delivery of public services to society, increase the transparency of public actions, facilitate decision-making, generate wealth and jobs, and improve communication between governments and society (Styrin, et al., 2017, p. 136). However, the simple availability of OD and OGD does not mean these data are used well in society. Research and experience shows that social actors (organizations and individuals) must to work collaboratively (Chan, 2013) and create an Open Data Ecosystem (ODE) in order to manipulate and use the data. An ODE aims to generate and disseminate information and knowledge of value to society, organizations, or individuals. In other words, the results expected from investments in OGD initiatives do not depend solely on government effort and interest, but also on the formation and interaction within healthy ecosystems (Styrin, et al., 2017). The role of the ODE becomes even more important when one observes practical challenges, such as: the inability of governments to enforce open data repositories, limited use of open data, low quality and relevance of the data available, and the lack of skills and technical resources of consumers to effectively use and manipulate OGD (Corbett, Templier, & Takeda, 2018; Felipe Gonzalez-Zapata & Richard Heeks, 2015). In order for ODEs to function effectively and deliver positive results, data must be made available to be transformed into information to generate new knowledge (Probst, et al., 2002). The generation of new knowledge depends on the use by individuals or social groups, which through their interactions generate new knowledge (Coelho, 2007). Analyzing the efficiency of knowledge creation in these environments and identifying factors that act as levers or inhibitors of knowledge creation is a necessary step in value creation. Understanding these mechanisms may facilitate the direction of public policies of ODG and help ecosystem members to increase their potential for value creation. This research-in-progress aims to develop a novel theoretical model that explains the interactions between knowledge creation and value creations processes within ODEs. It begins with a review of the relevant research on the topic and synthesis of the main concepts