Avaliação comparada de portais de dados abertos de entes federados brasileiros

Abstract

Open government data portals have legislation, principles and instruments that guide their quality assessment, and this topic has repercussions in various fields. Understanding the functional elements of architecture, representation and information retrieval of these portals, as well as methodologies that evaluate their use, in the light of Information Science, is essential to enable data access, interpretation and reuse at scale. In this sense, the questions guiding this study are: How can open data portals be compared? How can information be retrieved from these portals? What are the similarities and differences in information retrieval from portals of federal entities? Thus, the research aims to conduct a comparative evaluation of open data portals of Brazilian federal entities within the executive branch, at the state and municipal levels, in light of the resources and functionalities of Information Science (architecture, representation and information retrieval). To this end, this applied, descriptive and exploratory research, with a quantitative and, predominantly, qualitative approach, used bibliographical research techniques and procedures, as well as direct observation, to collect and analyze the results. The research was structured in four stages, one for each specific objective. The first stage identified academic literature on the evaluation of open data portals, structured according to a protocol, using content analysis to categorize, analyze and discuss the final sample. 64 papers were selected from different sources, across continents and fields of knowledge, grouping and categorizing different portal evaluation methodologies and gaps. In the second stage, the results of the literature review were combined with gray literature assessment tools to support the selection of portals to be evaluated, generating an initial set of evaluation criteria, from which a pilot study was conducted on eight international portals ranked in the Global Data Barometer. In the third stage, the criteria were adjusted to a total of 20 and organized according to functional groups (navigation, search, graphical resources, interaction and feedback and retrieval) and defined for sample selection, consisting of 20 portals. In the fourth stage, a comparison was performed, identifying limitations in information retrieval mechanisms, semantic technologies and user guidance tools, which reflect findings from the works retrieved in the review, as well as in the mapping of portals within the international context, in aspects such as sitemap, related data, graphical resources and machine-readable metadata. The portals that stood out in the presented functional repertoire were: Recife, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro (Capital) and Minas Gerais, particularly in the presentation of structured and machinereadable metadata, essential for retrieval and reuse mechanisms. Vitória, Amapá and João Pessoa had fewer criteria. The comparison also allowed for a detailed analysis by functional groups, resulting in ten recommendations and best practices. The research contributes to the formulation of standards involving the organization and interoperability of portals and brings application possibilities that can directly contribute to the definition of the requirements and evolutions of existing portals, promoting social impact.