[open-government] open government data in Belgium - something is finally happening?

[Daniel Dietrich]

Dear Katleen, all

It's good to see the Belgian initiative. I had a short look at the site and
it looks great. Only the licensing of the data seams to be messed:

1. you can find data sets specified as "free" or "free for personal use" if
you then klick on "free" it brings you to a list with datasets with license
"free". But there is no information about what free means. Same for "free
for personal use". In quite some cases it just says: "see website dataset
provider". That's really not re-user friendly.

Also: could you please tell us more about the pricing of some datasets (as
you mentioned reasonable charge)? I was not able to quickly  find examples
of these. Thanks a lot.

Regards
Daniel



On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 5:37 AM, Katleen Janssen <
Katleen.Janssen at law.kuleuven.be> wrote:

>
> Dear all,
>
> The Belgians are finally coming on board the open data train! The Belgian
> federal government has officially launched data.gov.be, a portal enabling
> all government bodies to make available their data to citizens and
> companies. The portal starts off with around 60 datasets, but is supposed to
> grow in the near future. Most of the data is available for free, but in some
> cases 'a reasonable charge' is made - so not yet fully open data?
>
> At the same time, the Flemish government has also launched a conceptual
> document stating that open government data should be the default position
> for the Flemish public services, and that the data should be available for
> any use, either free of charge or against reasonable charges. Open standards
> and open APIs, and authentic sources should be used as much as possible.  A
> good point in the document is that the need for an integral approach
> involving all public authorities, including the local authorities, is
> emphasized, and also the need for awareness raising among public bodies and
> users.
>
> The question remains how the federal and the Flemish initiative will
> relate. While the idea is that there will be coordination between the two
> initiatives, leading to joint formats and licensing models and possibly even
> a joint portal, the concrete result of this coordination remains to be seen.
> By May next year, there should be a concrete result from the conceptual
> document.
>
> For more information, see
> http://www.bestuurszaken.be/vlaamse-overheid-kiest-voor-open-data;
> http://data.gov.be/.
>
> Best regards,
> Katleen
>
>
> --
> ******************************************
> dr. Katleen Janssen
> Legal researcher
> K.U.Leuven - Interdisciplinary Centre for Law and ICT
> Sint-Michielsstraat 6
> B-3000 LEUVEN - BELGIUM
> [t]  +32 16 328 707   [f] : + 32 16 325 438
> [e]  katleen.janssen at law.kuleuven.be
> [w]  www.law.kuleuven.ac.be/icri/   -   www.ibbt.be
> _______________________________________________
> open-government mailing list
> open-government at lists.okfn.org
> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-government
>



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Daniel Dietrich

The Open Knowledge Foundation
Promoting Open Knowledge in a Digital Age
www.okfn.org - www.opendefinition.org

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