[open-government] New Zealand Government releases Declaration on Open and Transparent Government, and new Data and Information Management Principles

Mon Aug 15 21:08:32 UTC 2011

2011/8/16 Javier Ruiz <javier at openrightsgroup.org>:
> Wow, the site expressly says high value data. It seems they will cover
> geodata and other core reference data? Do you know how they plan to finance
> the production costs?

Geodata will be first. The officials who drafted this policy
physically sit within Land Information New Zealand
(http://linz.govt.nz) and LINZ has been very actively supporting open
access to its materials. So has the Ministry for the Environment for
that matter. However, the open data discussion is fairly mature and
several other areas of government are moving in this direction.

I'm not privy to discussions between Chief Executives and Ministers,
but here's my thinking about what is being said about cost:

Departments will be asked to provide access to their data within
current baselines.

For current systems, where data are being used internally for business
as usual practice, they should be offered externally at marginal cost,
e.g. zero. Departments should not burden themselves with needing to
refine or interpret data.

For every new system over the medium term, ICT procurement will need
to look at the directions and priorities outlined at ict.govt.nz. Open
and transparent government is the second item of five. Therefore, if
there is a non-zero cost to make data open with current systems, as
the system is replaced its new one should facilitate data export.

> In UK we are about to witness the demise of Open Data in this sense, with
> the Public Data Corporation consolidating the data merchant model, although
> with enough improvements on the transaction mechanisms to make businesses
> happy, thus leaving digital activists alone in asking for public data to be
> given back to the people.
> Money is the only reason this is happening, so it would be good to hear how
> the Kiwis managed to convince their Treasury.

We convinced our politicians. Our Finance Minister is probably the
strongest advocate of open data.