Data Monetization Strategies in Government Digital Platforms

A ballot in electronic form was cast amid the mountain of unutilized data somewhere behind the beige walls and bureaucracy of all government agencies today. It is not just a citizen-created spreadsheet here or there, but a whole, useful, system-wide body of citizen-generated data. Already, governments were storing data, including census information, infrastructure information, population health statistics, and procurement information, among others. But for a long time, this information remained in storage, safeguarded, yet underutilized. In the current era of the digital revolution and social pressure to be transparent, states are awakening to the fact that information is not merely a by-product of governance. It's a strategic asset. And, of course, it can be commercialized — not the old-fashioned method of getting some profit, but the new one, which would bring some value to the economy, to people, to the administrative ecosystem itself.

Building Value Without Selling Out

The idea of commercializing data in the government is quite controversial. One only has to think about the images of governments auctioning sensitive information about their population to businesses. However, it is not that type of monetization that is decided upon. Value creation, in turn, should be considered within the framework of additional exploitation of the information that will equip people with data, which should be secured properly, and with strategic partnerships that will allow access to population information in such a way that it can be exploited to introduce innovations and financial improvements.

The government cannot be a data broker, but it should be the custodian of the value of the information it possesses. To be in a position to do so, there must be a solid      foundation. That is, where there is ethical governance. Governments should therefore contribute to ensuring that their data practices are not biased against privacy, are appropriately confidential, and do not cause harm. It implies that privacy protection, transparency, and data governance are ingrained at a high level and across all levels.

Laying the Ethical Groundwork

It is crucial to be able to trust the data and, after that, monetize it. No business will build its operations on any open data set that it cannot reliably confirm, and no citizen will support the taking of any data that they believe is being used to spy on them. This is why components such as ethical design and responsibility are also part of the digital strategy. To be successful in data monetization, the state sector must demonstrate that it does not treat data ethics as a box to be checked merely to reduce the regulatory burden in its efforts to manage digital operations. However, it is instead an organic extension of their online lifestyles.

Ethics has now become a luxury in industries, specifically in the finance sphere, yet it has proven to be a competitive factor. Banks and other organizations are increasingly recognizing that trust is equivalent to money, and mishandling information is more expensive than mishandling money. Even the political platforms of governments are also being entrenched in the same school of thought. Governments can encourage the use of public data by the private sector by instilling trust in the ethical use of data. It may be an application that a growing company creates, based on the number of people visiting the city, or scientists using the information, as per the healthcare logs (de-identified and stored in a secure location), to formulate policy suggestions.

Standards and Structure: Making Data Usable

One cannot make a profit from something that is not under their control. The government requires good quality standards, clear inventories, and interoperability to create economic and social value from its data. It implies that the information should be recorded, classified, and kept on a long-term basis. It must also align with matching contracts, grants, and programs to good data management practices from the outset.

In a bid to accomplish this, the agencies must determine what they possess, analyze it, and invest in infrastructure that will enable them to discover and reuse the data. To the point, they ought to be able to think outside the walls. The most probable scenario is also likely in the monetization context, particularly in cases involving an inter-boundary framework, such as federal, state, local, international, and even inter-sectoral boundaries. It should be win-win, and safely so, in such movement.

Trust Fuels Monetization

Here’s the twist. The very sale does not presuppose the beginning of the commercialization of information in the state sector. It begins with trust. It thrives as long as citizens are led to believe that they are using their information correctly, and businesses are given the freedom to believe that their information is being normalized. Even open-access sites are configured in a way that is both secure and transparent. Since such a style is followed, governments do not have to look far to realize that the logical follow-up to this style is monetization. This does not mean that people are selling their information; rather, it means that these individuals are being left to their own devices to do so.

The reality that the information economy has evolved into a scenario where information transfer is comparable to money itself is a benefit to state agencies. They not only hold the keys to trust, but they also hold the information. Government platforms that are simultaneously thoughtful, ethical, and supported by good infrastructure, which can translate their data into a ubiquitous growth and creativity engine, can achieve the information potential they bring to reality.

\

:::tip This story was distributed as a release by Sanya Kapoor under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program

:::

\