[open-government] Defining Open Government Data?

Thu Oct 21 19:35:09 UTC 2010

On 2010-10-20 13:25, Nicolas Kayser-Bril wrote:
> Having a definition would be great, but going
> into too many specific details will scare off any enthusistic civil servant.
> 
> Considering the discussion I have with those, who usually want to do
> something but have no idea how to proceed, I think the most important
> points you guys addressed are license (as close to public domain as
> possible should do it) and format.

The issue of charging for commercial usage is very complex.  While I
would, of course, prefer allowing for commercial usage, most people I've
spoken to in the Indian government seem dead set against the idea.
Insisting on free-for-commercial-usage kind of licence *might* possibly
be a showstopper for some of them.  Furthermore, self-sustainability of
e-gov efforts is something that is being promoted.  The question will
become: "When we charge for other government services, why shouldn't we
for a set that you choose to label OGD?"

Charging for commercial usage does not exclude them from using data.  A
lot will depend on cost, ease of access, ease of payment, etc.

Are these things that can be gone into in a definition?  I'm not very sure.

> Very few public servants or decision-makers know which formats are
> machine-readable and which are not. Now, if we - requestors - have
> access to the list of formats the administration has, we can help them
> organize it in a way that's machine readable. 

I am personally getting around to thinking that concentrating on
*formats* is a bad idea.  A poorly marked up XML file can be less useful
than a well laid-out PDF.  And requiring machine-readability (as opposed
to human readability?) makes technologists a necessary middleman, which
is not be desirable.  Human readability and machine readability are
equally needed.  Giving machine readability a special status is
understandable (because it is less common) but is not justifiable.

-- 
Pranesh Prakash
Programme Manager
Centre for Internet and Society
W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283

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