[od-discuss] follow up todo: "contact the Kenya Open Data Initiative on OD compliance"

Mon Aug 13 10:20:06 UTC 2012

Hi,

When writing the summary of the last call on the open definition and spotted an open TODO:

"contact the Kenya Open Data Initiative on the issue." Here is a draft mail. Please comment/change.

All best
Daniel

-- snip --

Subject: Compliance of the Kenyan Open Data Policy with the Open Definition

Dear all,

my name is Daniel Dietrich, Open Data Evangelist of the Open Knowledge Foundation [1] and Project coordinator of the Open Definition [2]. I am contacting you today, on behalf of the Open Definition Advisory Council, because of the compliance of the Kenyan Open Data Policy with the Open Definition.

The Open Definition Advisory Council reviewed the Kenyan Open Data Policy [3] as used in the Kenyan Government open data portal. Sadly the group agreed that the Kenyan Open Data Policy was non-compliant with the Open Definition because of it's non-commercial restrictions:

<quote>
As such, and subject to any minor restrictions that may be imposed by the law of copyright regarding the use of public information, the Kenya ICT Board and the government agencies whose information is provided on this website impose no restrictions to the non-commercial reproduction, re-publication and re-distribution of any information published on its website.
</quote>

This implies only permission for non-commercial use whereas open definition requires that the data be freely usable for any purpose including commercial ones. We think this is an important issue since this affects the Open Data Ecosystem. International interoperability of datasets is key to build a sustainable open data ecosystem.

The Open Definition sets out principles to define ‘openness’ in relation to content and data and is widely recognized as the international standard to evaluate license compliance.

We would be please if we could discuss this issue and explore possibilities how we could help you make the Kenyan Open Data Policy compliant with the Open Definition. It would be great if we could have a call by phone or skype at any time soon.

Kind regards
Daniel Dietrich
on behalf of the Open Definition Advisory Council

--
Daniel Dietrich
Open Data Evangelist at the OKF
Open Government Data WG Coordinator
Chairman OKF Germany

Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF)
Promoting Open Knowledge in a Digital Age
www.okfn.org | www.opendefinition.org

www.ddie.me
twitter.com/ddie
+49 176 327 685 30