Archives des mots-clés : open data

Open Data, Open Society. A research project about openness of public data in EU local administration

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This report discusses the current and potential role, in a truly open society, of raw Public Sector Information (PSI) that is really open, that is fully accessible and reusable by everybody. The general characteristics of PSI and the conclusions are based on previous studies and on the analysis of
current examples both from the European Union and the rest of the world.

Generation, management and usage of data constituting what is normally called PSI is a very large topic. This report only focuses on some parts of it. First of all, we only look here at really “public” PSI, that is information (from maps to aggregate health data) that is not tied to any single individual and whose publication, therefore, raises no privacy issues.

It is also important to distinguish between actual raw data (basic elements of information like numbers, names, dates, single geographical features like the shape of a lake, addresses…), their results (more or less complex documents, policies, laws…) and the procedures and chains of command followed to generate and use such results, that is to vote or, inside Public Administrations, to take or implement decisions.

So far, discussion and research on Open Data at national level has had relatively more coverage, even if much of the PSI that has the most direct impact on the life of most citizens is the one that is generated, managed and used by local, not central, administrations and end users (citizens, businesses or other organizations). Creation of wealth and jobs can be easier, faster and cheaper to stimulate, especially in times of economic crisis, at the local level. Finally, open access to public data is much more necessary for small businesses that for big corporations, since the latter can afford to pay for access to data anyway (and high prices of data may also protect them from competition from smaller companies).

For all these reasons, the main focus of this report will be on the raw data that constitute “public” PSI as defined above. This is the reason why in this report the terms “raw data” and “PSI” are practically interchangeable. We will also focus on the local dimension of Open PSI, that is raw data
directly produced by, or directly relevant for, local communities (City and Regions), and on their
direct impact on local government and local economy.

Chapters 2 and 3 summarize the importance of data in the modern society and some recent developments on the Open Data front in Europe. Chapter 4 explains why raw PSI should be open, while Chapter 5 shows the potential of such data with a few real world examples from several (mostly EU) countries. Chapter 6 looks at some dangers that should not be ignored when promoting Open Data and Chapter 7 proposes some general practices to follow for getting the most out of them. Some conclusions and the next phases of the project are in Chapter 8.

URL : http://www.dime-eu.org/files/active/0/ODOS_report_1.pdf

Open Data Study – New Technologies Political…

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Open Data Study – New Technologies :

“Political power, information and rights issues have been energised in the US and UK by the pioneering introduction of open data. Making information about services, education and other data has been made publicly available on the web in both countries to help improve services and contribute to future economic growth. But can this approach be replicated to support progress in middle-income and developing countries?

This paper explores the feasibility of applying a similar approach to open data in middle income and developing countries and identifies the factors behind the success in the US and UK and the pivotal strategies adopted in these contexts which helped bring together civil servants and ‘civic hackers’ to release government data.

The report finds that 3 key groups or ‘layers’ were crucial to the successful introduction of open data. An influential and active civil society provided the ‘bottom up’ pressure for change through traditional advocacy and by setting up innovative websites demonstrating how open information could be used. Civil servants and state and federal administrators who saw open data as a way of improving efficiency provided the ‘middle layer’. Finally, high-level political leaders including Heads of States and Ministers provided the third layer.

By analysing the strategies adopted by these three groups in the US and UK, the report asks regional experts to examine whether similar initiatives could work in their respective political settings and cultures. The opinions of these specialists, working on a range of issues from freedom of information to budgetary monitoring, are also revealed.

The report proposes a set of criteria for those considering introducing open government data in middle-income or developing countries. The checklist encourages campaigners to consider certain issues before embarking on an open data campaign. These include: the status of Freedom of Information in the country; current levels of government data availability and issues around freedom of the press who are key potential end-users of open data.”

URL : http://www.transparency-initiative.org/reports/open-data-study-new-technologies

Who Shares Who Doesn’t Factors Associated with Openly…

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Who Shares? Who Doesn’t? Factors Associated with Openly Archiving Raw Research Data :

“Many initiatives encourage investigators to share their raw datasets in hopes of increasing research efficiency and quality. Despite these investments of time and money, we do not have a firm grasp of who openly shares raw research data, who doesn’t, and which initiatives are correlated with high rates of data sharing. In this analysis I use bibliometric methods to identify patterns in the frequency with which investigators openly archive their raw gene expression microarray datasets after study publication.

Automated methods identified 11,603 articles published between 2000 and 2009 that describe the creation of gene expression microarray data. Associated datasets in best-practice repositories were found for 25% of these articles, increasing from less than 5% in 2001 to 30%–35% in 2007–2009. Accounting for sensitivity of the automated methods, approximately 45% of recent gene expression studies made their data publicly available.

First-order factor analysis on 124 diverse bibliometric attributes of the data creation articles revealed 15 factors describing authorship, funding, institution, publication, and domain environments. In multivariate regression, authors were most likely to share data if they had prior experience sharing or reusing data, if their study was published in an open access journal or a journal with a relatively strong data sharing policy, or if the study was funded by a large number of NIH grants. Authors of studies on cancer and human subjects were least likely to make their datasets available.

These results suggest research data sharing levels are still low and increasing only slowly, and data is least available in areas where it could make the biggest impact. Let’s learn from those with high rates of sharing to embrace the full potential of our research output.”

URL : http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0018657

Licensing Open Data A Practical Guide This…

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Licensing Open Data: A Practical Guide :

“This Guide has been developed for organisations who are considering the issues associated with licensing open data and/or want to understand the terms under which they can use
data which has been licensed by third parties. It provides a practical overview of the various legal issues
which might arise in the context of licensing open data, as well as the different types of licences which
are available.”

URL : http://discovery.ac.uk/files/pdf/Licensing_Open_Data_A_Practical_Guide.pdf

Principles on open public sector information The…

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Principles on open public sector information :

“The Principles on open public sector information (the Principles) form part of a core vision for government information management in Australia. They formally recognise that public sector information (PSI) is a national resource that should be published for community access and use. The Principles set out the central values of open PSI: information should be accessible without charge, based on
open standards, easily discoverable, understandable, machine-readable, and freely reusable and transformable. Australian Government agencies are urged to embed the Principles in their policies and practices to become confident and proactive publishers of information.

This report outlines the development of the Principles following their release in draft form in November 2010 for consultation. The report discusses the comments that were received and explains revisions made. The final version of the Principles is available at Appendix A.
The report is divided into two main parts.
• The first part explains key aspects of the Principles such as the principles based approach, the definition of PSI and how the Principles interact with the FOI Act. It also provides an overview of the consultation process and broad themes raised by stakeholders.
• The second part addresses each of the Principles in turn, outlining comments made on specific Principles and briefly explaining the changes and revisions made in response.”

URL : http://www.oaic.gov.au/publications/agency_resources/principles_on_psi_short.pdf

Report on Open Government Data in India …

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Report on Open Government Data in India :

“This report looks at some of the landscape relevant to open government data (OGD) in India, starting from the current environment in government, the state of civil society, the media, the policies that affect it from the Right to Information Act, the standards­related policies, e­governance policies, and the copyright policy. This report also looks at a few case studies from government, civil society organizations, a public­private partner­ ship and profiles some civic hackers. It then examines some of the varied challenges to the uptake of OGD in India, from infrastructural problems of e­governance to issues such as privacy and power imbalances being worsened by transparency. Finally, it lays out our observations and some recommendations. It concludes by noting that OGD in India must be looked at differently from what it has so far been understood as in countries like the UK and the US, and providing some constructive thoughts on how we should think about OGD in In­dia.”

URL : www.cis-india.org/advocacy/openness/ogd-report