Open data and its intermediaries: a cross-country perspective on participatory movement among independent developers

The open government movement as a socioeconomic phenomenon is experiencing a fundamental shift in its development due to the recent diffusion of various independent open data-driven startups all over the world. The promotion of the projects through various professional developers' networks is the most promising way to advance the concept, first of all, as a participatory movement, yet it is the least studied in related academic and professional literature. The growing collaborative trends among local enthusiasts, coders, computer experts and even technically savvy citizens around open data phenomena, whose obscure yet, as it turned out, really important proxy support plays a crucial role in launching such data-driven initiatives, is one of the areas of study that is ripe for investigation. In this respect, the invisible mechanism of collaboration and networking among independent developers, which is presumably conducive for the development of related projects, is of special interest in this research.