Open Government Data

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Open government data is the Anglo-Saxon synonym for open administrative data, i.e. those databases of the public sector that are made freely accessible without any restrictions in the interest of the general public in the sense of open government .

Idea of ​​open administrative data

Open administrative data are those databases of the public sector that are made available by the state and administration in the interest of the general public for free use, dissemination and free reuse.

This designation refers explicitly to the public sector. At the same time, this excludes all those databases of the public sector whose publications are not in the interest of public interests, which should be kept secret or which contain personal data as well as trade and business secrets, so that a release may not be allowed without consulting the parties concerned.

If these selected databases are proactively provided in a structured and machine-readable manner by the responsible authorities, they can be viewed, searched, filtered, prepared, monitored and further processed. Specifically, it is about statistics, geodata, maps, plans, environmental and weather data, materials from parliaments, ministries and authorities, budget data, laws, ordinances, statutes, judicial decisions and other publications.

Open administrative data can be networked with one another via the World Wide Web : Linked Open Government Data .

Open Government Data

If the state and administration deal with open data and linked open data , it must be criticized that the previous working definitions did not take enough account of the specifics of the public sector. In order to sharpen the terminology, a common understanding of open administrative data must therefore be found. The 10 principles on open government information published by the Sunlight Foundation provide a significant impetus (Sunlight Foundation 2010). The compilation is the result of a revision of the Sebastopol List (Open Data Working Group 2007), on which 30 US Open Government advocates worked under the direction of Carl Malamud and Tim O'Reilly. Each of the ten principles describes a certain form of openness for the public sector (Opendata Network eV 2010):

  • completeness
  • Primary sources
  • Temporal proximity
  • Easy access
  • Machine readability
  • Non-discrimination
  • Use of open standards
  • Licensing
  • durability
  • Usage costs

In the interests of common knowledge shared by everyone, authorities and administrative units should not only open their raw data, but also the information and works based on them for everyone. Further use of this data, information and works would even be desirable within the meaning of EU Directive 2003/98 / EC on the further use of information from the public sector.

Challenge for Germany: Fundamental paradigm shift

For a successful implementation in Germany it is not enough to take over concepts for the modernization of the state and administration from abroad unchanged. The German administration is shaped by different ideas, traditions and cultures in dealing with the public and transparency than those Anglo-Saxon states (USA, Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand) in which open data has been on the political agenda since 2009. Such an opinion-forming process is necessary for politics and administration, because it is not just about a pragmatic handling of existing data. In the age of open government, government and administration are facing a fundamental paradigm shift. Freely available data can be used as instruments to open up content, structures, procedures and decision-making processes and to influence them sustainably. To successfully cope with these challenges, a threefold paradigm shift in the state and administration towards a new public and open political and administrative culture is required in Germany:

  • The first paradigm concerns the concept of public and confidentiality regarding data:
    • Old paradigm: Everything is secret that is not explicitly marked as public.
    • New paradigm: Everything is public that is not expressly marked as secret.
  • The second paradigm concerns the extent, nature and timing of data publication:
    • Old paradigm: the extent and time of publication are determined by the individual authorities. Files are often only inspected after a request, for example on the basis of the Federal Freedom of Information Act.
    • New paradigm: All data that is not subject to any legitimate data protection or security restrictions is published proactively, in full and in a timely manner.
  • The third paradigm concerns the rights to use the published data:
    • Old paradigm: Published data are released for viewing for private use. All other rights of use are reserved and can be granted on a case-by-case basis.
    • New paradigm: Published data can basically be used by anyone for any purpose, including commercial ones, without any restrictions. This expressly includes the right to further processing and disseminating the data.

Such a paradigm shift initiated by the Open Data movement actually means a fundamental cultural change for the state and administration. Instead of the previously applicable principles of confidentiality, openness and transparency would be lived and the citizens' democratic control rights would be strengthened. If data, information and knowledge are made available to everyone, this will accelerate the social transition to a knowledge society. With the provision of freely available data in a "data commons" (Reinermann 1986, p. 9) and the explicit right not only to use this data, but also to process and disseminate it, the public administration can open and accelerate its own innovation process even more sustainably . Software developers have the opportunity to use this data to develop or improve their own offers, interfaces and applications.

Information Further Usage Act (IWG) in Austria

Open administrative data (OGD) are - according to the Austrian interpretation - non-personal information that has been collected, created or paid for by public bodies and made available to the general public voluntarily and free of charge .

Public sector information (IWG) is - in contrast to this - documents from public bodies that are provided in accordance with PSI Directive 2003/98 EC or the associated amendment 2013/37 EU. Public bodies can allow re-use without any conditions or, if necessary under a license , set conditions for re-use. You must submit an application to the body that has the requested data. The provision can be made free of charge, but in justified cases also for a fee ( costs incurred for reproduction , provision and dissemination). The PSI guideline was implemented in Austria by the federal law on the further use of information from public bodies ( Informationsweiterverwendungsgesetz - IWG ).

In the interests of national visibility and transparency, a web portal is operated based on a metadata structure developed for this purpose called OGD Metadata Austria. As a central “Austria” catalog, it records the metadata of the decentralized data catalogs of the administration in Austria and keeps them accessible. The data sets provided therein contain both OGD and IWG. The portal is the single point of contact to the European data portal .

Open government data strategy in Switzerland

The Swiss Federal Council has set itself the following goals in an open government data strategy:

  • Approval of the official data suitable for OGD
  • Coordinated publication and delivery
  • Establishing an open data culture

In Switzerland, the federal government, cantons, municipalities and other organizations with a government mandate - as one of the measures from the Federal Council's OGD strategy - publish their open data in their own web portal . This combines a wide variety of data and geodata sets such as the municipal boundaries of Switzerland, population statistics, current weather data, historical documents or a directory of Swiss literature. The Swiss Federal Archives operate the portal.

What the data sets published via the portal have in common is that they can all be downloaded and used free of charge. They are also available under uniform terms of use.

Compact analysis

Lucke and Geiger provide the following compact analysis of Open Government Data based on a SWOT analysis:

Use

  • Strengthening society by carefully opening up the state and administration
  • Reuse and recycling
  • Transparency, participation, collaboration
  • Innovation impulses from outside
  • Involvement of the collective intelligence

Strengthen

  • More intensive use and refinement of the authorities' databases
  • Opening up and networking of data
  • Diversity of opinion and interests
  • Confidence-building measures
  • Contribution to economic development

weaknesses

  • Challenge of cultural change for public administration
  • Threat to established business models
  • Uncertainties in dealing with copyrights and liability obligations
  • Lengthy standardization processes
  • Existing digital divide

opportunities

  • Strengthening active citizen participation
  • A paradigm shift requires a cultural change in the state and administration
  • Modernization of administration in an increasingly opening world
  • Increasing political legitimacy
  • Innovations for citizens and administration

Risks

  • Attack surfaces through an opening
  • Loss of authority to interpret
  • Misinterpretations and misinterpretations
  • Populist mobilization of the masses
  • Willingness to open up more
  • Ignorance of criticism and open platforms

Examples

Apps, mashups and services based on open administrative data can be found, for example, in the web-based portals of the US federal government Data.gov and the DataSF App Showcase of the city of San Francisco. European examples are Open Data Portal of the EU, Open Government Data Austria, Open Government Data Vienna, Government UK and GovData (data portal for Germany of the Federal Ministry of the Interior for federal, state and local authorities)

source

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c https://www.zu.de/info-de/institute/togi/assets/pdf/TICC-101203-OpenGovernmentData-V1.pdf from Lucke / Geiger 2010, p. 6
  2. ↑ https://www.zu.de/info-de/institute/togi/assets/pdf/TICC-101203-OpenGovernmentData-V1.pdf from Lucke / Geiger 2010, pp. 4–6
  3. ↑ https://www.zu.de/info-de/institute/togi/assets/pdf/TICC-101203-OpenGovernmentData-V1.pdf from Lucke / Geiger 2010, p. 7
  4. ↑ a b c Open statecraft ( Memento from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Internet & Gesellschaft Collaboratory 2010, p. 54 f.
  5. ↑ https://www.zu.de/info-de/institute/togi/assets/pdf/TICC-101203-OpenGovernmentData-V1.pdf from Lucke / Geiger 2010, pp. 7-8
  6. ↑ Objective data.gv.at | data.gv.at. Retrieved October 24, 2018 .
  7. ↑ a b Open data Austria | data.gv.at. Retrieved October 24, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Cooperation OGD Austria | data.gv.at. Retrieved October 24, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Open Government Data Strategy Switzerland 2014-2018
  10. ↑ Via the portal - opendata.swiss. Accessed October 8, 2018 (Swiss Standard German).
  11. ↑ https://www.zu.de/info-de/institute/togi/assets/pdf/TICC-101203-OpenGovernmentData-V1.pdf from Lucke / Geiger 2010, p. 16
  12. ^ The home of the US Government's open data , accessed October 1, 2018
  13. ↑ Showcase , accessed October 1, 2018
  14. ↑ Open data portal of the EU data , accessed on October 1, 2018
  15. ↑ Data appearance - City of Vienna , accessed on October 1, 2018
  16. ↑ Welcome to GOV.UK , accessed on October 1, 2018
  17. ↑ GovData , accessed October 1, 2018