[open-government] Defining Open Government Data?

Jonathan Gray jonathan.gray at okfn.org
Sun Nov 14 23:44:00 UTC 2010


Yes, in my view government data is definitely defined by origin
(produced by public bodies), not by subject matter (what data is
about). I see it as part of government data's big value that it is not
just about government but about lots of different aspects of the world
(environment, society, economy, ...).

Hence, I would suggest leaving the provisional wording as is, along
the lines of "produced or commissioned by government or government
controlled entities". Leaving this open ended might have some
advantages. We could list some examples (a la PSI Directive) to
illustrate what we mean?

On Sun, Nov 14, 2010 at 10:17 PM, Javier de la Cueva
<jdelacueva at derecho-internet.org> wrote:
> El 19/10/10 19:00, Jonathan Gray escribió:
>
> [...]
>
>>
>> I envisage this as having two key components:
>>
>>   (i) legally open (as in opendefinition.org)
>>   (ii) technically open (i.e. machine readable, available to download in bulk)
>>
>
> [...]
>
>>
>> Any input/comments would be very much appreciated! We'd ideally like
>> something ready at or just before Open Government Data Camp in London!
>>
>
> Perhaps I lost something important in this thread but I am concerned
> about another point: the content of the data. Even it is legally open,
> technically open and socially open, its content can be something not
> related at all with government.
>
> I have been looking in detail Spanish Proyecto Aporta and Catalonian new
> website and I can find things like links to search engines (which are to
> be most of the 719 records of Proyecto Aporta) or homeopathy vocabulary
> [1] in Gencat.
>
> I wonder if some precision should be made in the definition about the
> content of the data.
>
> [1] http://dadesobertes.gencat.cat/ca/dades-obertes/dataset_000088.html
>
> --
> Bests,
> Javier de la Cueva
>



-- 
Jonathan Gray

Community Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://blog.okfn.org

http://twitter.com/jwyg
http://identi.ca/jwyg




More information about the open-government mailing list