Open data portals facilitate access to and reuse of public sector information. Many countries try to open the data collected in each country through portals. The Korean government enacted the Public Data Act in 2013 and has been operating the Public Data Portal, starting with large-capacity data that are socially and economically useful. The Portal can be used by anyone.

Let's look at three use cases of public data in Korea.

Educational & Welfare ‘After-school Child Care Demand Prediction Model’

From The Ministry of the Inferior and Safety 'The Together Care Center’ is a place that takes care of elementary school students after school. From 2021, the ‘Together Care Center’ in community facilities in new apartment complexes has become mandatory by law. However, it was not easy to accurately predict the number of elementary school students in need of care in advance and create an appropriate size care facility. Accordingly, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Welfare, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport developed a model that can predict the demand for elementary school care by considering apartment and surrounding information and the current population.

Public Administration ‘Public Reporting App with Enhanced User Experience’

This is a case of improving the complaint reporting service. Existing applications did not help to improve actual work because classification of reported complaints had to be done manually after citizens reported a complaint. The government used the data of 4.6 million complaints over the past six years, CCTV installation point information, population information, and bus stop information to process the reports automatically by the application.

Smart Sports Facility Reservation Platform

The mobile application allows you to check the information of all sports facilities nationwide, and to make facility reservations and lessons. The app uses all facility reminders and course contents registered in Korea Sports Promotion Foundation to help the users enjoy the sport facilities easily.

Public data can be useful not only for the public sectors but also for businesses. If you would like to join the data industry, do not hesitate to contact us.

How is the South Korean Government using public data?