[euopendata] Speaking at EC PSI Group session next week

Mon Jun 14 11:30:11 UTC 2010

 Hi all,

I am speaking at the EC's PSI Group meeting in Luxembourg next week to
provide a community perspective on the state of open PSI / Data in the EU.

I plan to touch upon the points listed below, but welcome any feedback or
additions you may have to improve on my contribution next week. As I am
asked to provide my material beforehand, I would enjoy any feedback you may
be able to give Thursday June 17th at the latest.

These are the list of things I will be mentioning:

Patterns I see in the open data discussion, talking to all kinds of
different stakeholders:

- From outside what happens in a specific country may look as great
progress, within the country most people usually think it's not all that
great. Also the perceived gap between what people outside gov want to be
done and what is done seems to remain stable.

- In all countries I've seen the progress on open data / open psi is a very
mixed bag. With some gov branches moving forward, others resisting. This is
a source of confusion and uncertainty for the larger community of probable
psi reusers. (Confusion when it comes to privacy, legal rights, licensing,
costs etc.)

- There's a widely shared sense of urgency in the community outside gov to
open PSI/Data up

- There are 2 schools, one that prefers speed in releasing psi/data, one
that prefers doing it 'right'. However:
- What 'doing it right' means differs from stakeholder group to stakeholder
group
- This gives us the opportunity to do it fast, and adding on doing it right
in successive steps
- While at the same time help gov designing 'doing it right' into their
normal working processes (as releasing PSI/data is mostly still an add-on
step afterwards)

-Gov tries to decide too much what it releases, second guessing its use to
others, in place of simply releasing as is, and let the 'outside' choose
what to use. So Gov is still filtering in that sense.

- It's easy to loose sight of different stakeholder groups, as well as
different areas where open data could be useful. It would be wrong to focus
on particular perspective or group, but there's a tendency to do that.
Trying to keep 'everyone' in scope will also help keeping things simple and
not trying to 'organize' things in a way that may suit a particular group,
but also makes it harder for other groups.

- Gov in general knows very little about what the current rules actually
state when it comes to open psi / data and its reuse. There is a worryingly
low awareness of what is in fact already law. This means individual reusers
find themselves explaining that they are within their rights all too often
when requesting info or data.

- the wider community is worried about whether gov actually has the
knowledge to do things right. All too often I get complaints they're not
talking to the right people and make curious decisions when it comes to open
data. Chris Taggart recently said open data is the disruption of gov in the
way digital music disrupted the music industry. It shows.

- making artificial distinctions between levels of gov when opening up psi
/data adds to the general confusion. this is not just a 'state level' thing,
but also something for all other levels of gov.

I will also base some advice on the above items, but the core one is to
promote and help sustain a community of people outside gov, as within the
context of that a lot of the community concerns can actually be addressed.

Looking forward to whatever feedback you can give.

best,

Ton
-------------------------------------------
Interdependent Thoughts
Ton Zijlstra

ton at tonzijlstra.eu
+31-6-34489360

http://zylstra.org/blog
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