Page 51 - Enhancing innovation and participation in smart sustainable cities

United for Smart Sustainable Cities
Enhancing Innovation and Participation

Figure 9 – Types of data visualizations available on the Seoul Open Data Plaza

2.2 Implementation

The Seoul Open Data Plaza would not have come to fruition without the dedicated involvement of various key
actors, players and policies that have ensured its successful implementation.
After his election, Mayor Won-soon Park pledged to develop an open government for the city. He instructed the
Information System Planning Bureau under Seoul’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) to commence open data
initiatives and oversee an open government plan, which included planning budgets, conducting feasibility studies,
and implementing projects related to open government, one of which is the Seoul Open Data Plaza. Mayor Won-
soon Park, the Seoul CIO, the Director of the Information System Division, Open Data Divisions from the city’s 25
districts, the Korea Information Research and Development Institute, and the NGO C.O.D.E were the main
stakeholders involved in the initial development of the Seoul Open Data Plaza. Currently, it is managed and
improved by the Data & Statistics Division of SMG, while its maintenance and upgrade are outsourced to IT
companies.
SMG planned the development of the Seoul Open Data Plaza and inaugurated the website even before the laws
on open data were enacted by the Korean Government. SMG established the “Act on Public Data Provision and
Use of Data” and the “Ordinance for Provision and Use of Data in Seoul Metropolitan Government” to support the
setting up of the Seoul Open Data Plaza. The Korean Government’s "Government 3.0" and the “Seoul Open
Government Policy”, both aimed at encouraging innovation, cooperation and communication, also promoted the
utilization of the portal. Following the launch of the Seoul Open Data Plaza, the Ministry of the Interior of Korea
established and started operating its Korea Public Data Portal (data.go.kr) that manages data requests and asks
cities including Seoul to provide their data to the portal. In view of the advancements in this domain across the
country, it is evident that Seoul has pioneered the development of open data initiatives in Korea.
SMG and all its related agencies and district governments have a specific division responsible for open data
policies, with the Information System Planning Bureau taking the reins on monitoring the progress of various open
data policy initiatives. SMG regularly organizes hackathons, information sessions, and expositions related to data,
to encourage citizen participation and promote the use of public data. The Seoul Open Data Plaza is also regulated
and kept up-to-date to ensure its stability, relevance and resilience.
It cost USD 733 000 to develop the Seoul Open Data Plaza in 2011, and since then SMG has spent around USD 1
million annually to maintain and upgrade the system and develop the data. The cost for maintenance is expected
to decrease once the system is converted to an open-source-based system in 2017.

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