[open-government] Open Data license in the Kenya Open Data Portal

Tue Feb 5 22:41:17 UTC 2013

Wow, I am really impressed with this working group!  I would like to thank 
here all of you who replied to my inquiry. All responses were very 
valuable. Many thanks!

 Thank you. 

Best regards,

Michelle

Ms. Michelle Alves de Lima
UNPAN Management Unit
Division for Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM)
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)
Phone: +1 (212) 963-3224 / Fax: +1 (212) 963-9681
E-mail: alvesdelima at un.org
Web: www.unpan.org

From:   Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org>
To:     Michelle Alves de Lima <alvesdelima at un.org>
Cc:     "open-government at lists.okfn.org" <open-government at lists.okfn.org>, 
Mike Linksvayer <ml at gondwanaland.com>
Date:   05/02/2013 10:33 AM
Subject:        Re: [open-government] Open Data license in the Kenya Open 
Data Portal

Hi Michelle,

The openness of the Kenyan Open Data portal has been extensively discussed 
both by this working group and more specifically by the  Open Definition 
Advisory Council (the issue originally being raised by Ory Okolloh)

It was concluded based on those discussions that the license is not open 
(not open definition conformant) due to possible restrictions on 
commercial use. Specifically, non-conformance was discussed and agreed at 
the March 2012 meeting of the Open Definition Advisory Council following 
previous discussion on list (see e.g. [1])

[1]: http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/od-discuss/2011-November/000070.html

Notice was sent in August but no response has been received (we have 
emailed twice since) (see forwarded email sent 
http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/od-discuss/2012-December/000223.html).

This information was discussed at the join Open Definition / Open 
Government Data Working group call on the 6th September 2012, see the 
minutes posted here:

http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/open-government/2012-September/002314.html

All this being said it seems reasonably clear (see other contributions to 
this thread) that the intent is for the data to be fully open. The issue 
being that the previous license language does not make this clear.

What is interesting is that they now seem to have 2 sets of terms of 
service:

1. https://opendata.go.ke/page/terms-of-service (cited by Tariq and what 
was originally available)

This still has the old language:

"no restrictions to the non-commercial reproduction, re-publication and 
re-distribution of any information published on its website" 

2. https://opendata.go.ke/terms-of-service (cited by Ton)

Which modifies the original language to include commercial (perhaps 
suggesting an update in response to the feedback we sent):

"no restrictions to the commercial and non-commercial reproduction, 
re-publication and re-distribution of any information published on its 
website"

What this highlights is potentially the need for archiving and tracking 
terms of use over time on Open Data portal sites - something which the 
Open Definition group has already been discussion. Thoughts on the value 
of this would be very welcome.

Regards,

Rufus Pollock

On 4 February 2013 20:10, Michelle Alves de Lima <alvesdelima at un.org> 
wrote:
Dear All, 

We are trying to find out if the Kenya Open Data Portal (
https://opendata.go.ke/) has open data license. How can we get more 
information about this?

Thank you, 

Michelle 

Ms. Michelle Alves de Lima 
UNPAN Management Unit
Division for Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM)
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)
Phone: +1 (212) 963-3224 / Fax: +1 (212) 963-9681 
E-mail: alvesdelima at un.org 
Web: www.unpan.org 

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