[open-government] Definitions of Open Government and Open Government Data

[Konrad Reiche]

Hello everyone,

I am writing my thesis in Computer Science in the context of Open
Government Data. Lately, I am dealing a lot with the definitions of
Open Data, Open Government and Open Government Data.

I would say, Open Data is more or less quite well-defined, but I have
my problems with narrowing it down for Open Government and Open
Government Data. Recently I have started to read "Open Government,
Collaboration, Transparency, and Participation in Practice" published
by O'Reilly Media. For Open Government it says:

"What is open government? In the most basic sense, it’s the notion that
the people have the right to access the documents and proceedings of
government."

But what about Open Government Data? I think it would be too harsh to
define it as Open Data provided by the government, because there is so
much government data out there which is not open, but accessible
nonetheless.

So I would rather read it as ((Open Goverment) Data), data provided by
the government, where people have the right to access them.

Does someone know whether these terms are discussed somewhere in more
detail, something that I could reference?

Best,
Konrad