  Open Government Data (OGD) initiatives aim to enhance public participation
and collaboration by making government data accessible to diverse stakeholders,
fostering social, environmental, and economic benefits through public value
generation. However, challenges such as declining popularity, lack of OGD
portal usability, and private interests overshadowing public accessibility
persist. This study proposes an integrated usability framework for evaluating
OGD portals, focusing on inclusivity, user collaboration, and data exploration.
Employing Design Science Research (DSR), the framework is developed and applied
to 33 OGD portals from the European Union (EU) and Gulf Cooperation Council
(GCC) countries. The quantitative analysis is complemented by qualitative
analysis and clustering, enabling assessment of portal performance,
identification of best practices, and common weaknesses. This results in 19
high-level recommendations for improving the open data ecosystem. Key findings
highlight the competitive nature of EU portals and the innovative features of
GCC portals, emphasizing the need for multilingual support, better
communication mechanisms, and improved dataset usability. The study stresses
trends towards exposing data quality indicators and incorporating advanced
functionalities such as AI systems. This framework serves as a baseline for OGD
portal requirements elicitation, offering practical implications for developing
sustainable, collaborative, and robust OGD portals, ultimately contributing to
a more transparent and equitable world.
