[okfn-za] City of Cape Town's open data policy

Sat Sep 27 12:39:00 UTC 2014

Thanks for that Geoff

I'm disappointed that Code for South Africa's submission was ignored.
Perhaps other submissions were also ignored.

Also, it seems that the meat of what should be included in any open
data policy will only be addressed after approval of the policy. A
common theme across many of the public submissions was concern around
the establishment of the steering committee who will "vet" requests
for data to made public. The response to each of these concerns was a
blanket response:

"The relevant clauses of the policy are intended to mitigate possible
unanticipated risks that may arise with the release of data to the
public."

It seems that this steering committee plans to act as a censorship board.

In summary, only superficial comments were addressed in the approved
policy. As it stands the policy continues to be flawed and, in my
opinion, may actually result in less data being released to the public
due to the requirement for data to be approved by the steering
committee. It would be interesting to track which requests for data
are rejected. I would urge submissions to the committee to be made
public so as to track the criteria which the committee will use to
accept or reject requests for data.

I'm keen to hear opinions from other members of this group.

Regards
Adi

On 27 September 2014 13:16, Geoffrey Kilpin <geoffreykilpin at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Adi,
>
> After a bit of digging through the list of documents for the last Council
> meeting I assume that 'C25/09/14 [ITEM 45] - ANNEXURE TO REPORT - PDF PAGES
> 87-119 (83-115)' is the policy presented to Council. Clearly that isn't
> necessarily the final version, but it is nevertheless interesting as it
> includes responses to public comments.
>
> C25/09/14 [ITEM 45] - DRAFT OPEN DATA POLICY is also there - which looks
> like minutes from a meeting where the policy was considered.
>
> Kind regards,
> Geoff.
>
> On Sat, Sep 27, 2014 at 10:02 AM, Adi Eyal <adi at code4sa.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi All
>>
>> Has any one managed to get a copy of the final open data policy for
>> the City of Cape Town? Apart from the press release that has been
>> mindlessly copied and pasted by a dozen media outlets, it doesn't seem
>> like the final (not the draft) policy has been published anywhere.
>>
>> Regards
>> Adi
>>
>> --
>> Adi Eyal
>> Director
>> Code for South Africa
>> Promoting informed decision-making
>>
>> phone: +27 78 014 2469
>> skype: adieyalcas
>> linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal
>> web: http://www.code4sa.org
>> twitter: @soapsudtycoon
>>
>> For more information on how to participate in the open data community
>> in South Africa, go to: http://www.code4sa.org/#community
>>
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>
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-- 
Adi Eyal
Director
Code for South Africa
Promoting informed decision-making

phone: +27 78 014 2469
skype: adieyalcas
linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal
web: http://www.code4sa.org
twitter: @soapsudtycoon

For more information on how to participate in the open data community
in South Africa, go to: http://www.code4sa.org/#community