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This book offers a cross-national comparison of open data policies in Estonia and Kazakhstan. By analyzing a broad range of open data-driven projects and startups in both countries, it reveals the potential that open data phenomena hold with regard to promoting public sector innovations. The book addresses various political and socioeconomic contexts in these two transitional societies, and reviews the strategies and tactics adopted by policymakers and stakeholders to identify drivers of and obstacles to the implementation of open data innovations. Given its scope, the book will appeal to scholars, policymakers, e-government practitioners and open data entrepreneurs interested in implementing and evaluating open data-driven public sector projects.

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Open Data Politics: Building a Research Framework.- Methodology of Research and Key Sources of Empirical Data.- Open Data Politics in Estonia: Advancing Open Government in the Context of Ubiquitous Digital State.- Open Data Politics in Kazakhstan: Understanding a Tentative Advance of Civic Engagement in Transitional Society.- Political and Socioeconomic Implications of Open Data Politics.

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Maxat Kassen is a Professor of Political Science at the Eurasian Humanities Institute (Astana, Kazakhstan), former head of the Foreign Information Service at the Kazakh National Information Agency - Kazinform (2003-2004), former Fulbright Visiting Scholar to the University of Illinois at Chicago (2011-2012), and fellow of the Annenberg-Oxford Summer Institute at University of Oxford (2011). His research chiefly focuses on government technologies, globalization of open government phenomena, digital politics and digital diplomacy. He has published more than 40 academic articles in various prominent journals and is the author of two books, published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers and Routledge.

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