[OpenSpending] XBRL for Local Government Financial Reporting

Thu Sep 5 16:31:53 UTC 2013

What is the problem that XBRL solves, and how does it do so in way that
can't be done with CSV or JSON or other data formats that are easily
accessible?

On Thursday, September 5, 2013, Friedrich Lindenberg wrote:

> Hey Marc,
>
> this is very interesting to see XBRL being picked up, but I have to say
> that I'm critical of its use for non balance-sheet data [1]. XBRL is
> basically a massive framework in which any type of data could be expressed
> (it seems very committee-run), but the benefits really aren't clear to me.
>
> You can have well-documented CSV or JSON, too - and for those formats
> there is tooling which is useable by journalists and other end-users who do
> not have the means to start a 3 year XBRL implementation effort. In the
> end, releasing government data as XBRL could mean that only solutions from
> large companies like IBM or SAP would be able to invest the effort
> necessary to interpret the data.
>
> Of course it would be nice to have a standard, but this one is so large
> and ambiguous, I can't see it being useful in a technical sense.
>
> Cheers,
>
> - Friedrich
>
>
> [1] http://openspending.org/resources/gift/chapter4-2.html
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 8:38 PM, Marc Joffe <marc at publicsectorcredit.org<javascript:_e({}, 'cvml', 'marc at publicsectorcredit.org');>
> > wrote:
>
>> Concha****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Thanks for these questions. ****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Like PDFs, XBRL files can either be published or kept confidential.  The
>> use of XBRL by itself is not a guarantee of transparency.  However, a
>> publicly available machine readable file is better than a publicly
>> available PDF, since it is easier to process.  In the world of machine
>> readable files, I see XBRL as better than CSV because XBRL tags allow for
>> more complete self-documentation of the data, especially if it the data is
>> complex.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> I don’t know how many Spanish cities actually file in XBRL format.  I
>> thought the fact that they had a fairly well developed site (at
>> http://www.e-local.es/index.html ) indicated a substantial investment
>> and perhaps substantial compliance.  On the other hand, I am not seeing
>> recent updates.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> I see some Spanish local government statistics here:
>> http://www.minhap.gob.es/EN-GB/ESTADISTICA%20E%20INFORMES/Paginas/estadisticaseinformes.aspx.
>> Have you see this before?****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Regards,****
>>
>> Marc****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> *From:* openspending-bounces at lists.okfn.org [mailto:
>> openspending-bounces at lists.okfn.org] *On Behalf Of *Conchita Catalan
>> *Sent:* Wednesday, September 04, 2013 3:38 PM
>> *To:* openspending at lists.okfn.org
>>
>> *Subject:* [OpenSpending] XBRL for Local Government Financial Reporting**
>> **
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Hello Marc, ****
>>
>> Thank you for sending the article. It says ****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> "In Spain, the *local government ministry encourages*<http://www.e-local.es/index.html> more
>> than **<http://hitachidatainteractive.com/2011/02/09/xbrl-developments-in-spain-2011/>
>> Unsubscribe: http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/openspending
>>
>>
>

-- 
*Paul Walsh*
0543551144
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