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Governance: Open data policy

The following indicator is under consideration for this pilot edition of the Barometer: To what extent is there a strong legal or policy framework open data in the country?

Feedback on draft Global Data Barometer Indicators

You are looking at a draft indicator to be included in the expert survey of the Global Data Barometer. Between now and May 10th we are inviting your feedback on this indicator and the elements it contains. You can provide your feedback by (a) completing the feedback form below; or (b) adding in-line annotations.

Feedback form

You can share your feedback on the Governance: Open Data Policy indicator here, or make use of Hypothes.is annotations

Show/hide supporting questions

Existence

  • What is the nature of the framework?
    • No framework exists
      Supporting questions: In the absence of a strong legal framework, are there alternative norms or customs that play this role in the country? If so, please explain how. If there are draft laws or regulations not yet in force, but that would provide a more robust framework in future, please provide brief details here.
    • A framework exists but lacks full force of law
      Supporting questions: In the absence of a strong legal framework, are there alternative norms or customs that play this role in the country? If so, please explain how. If there are draft laws or regulations not yet in force, but that would provide a more robust framework in future, please provide brief details here.
    • A framework exists and has the force of law
      Supporting questions: Please identify the framework(s) you have assessed (e.g. name of law(s) or regulations)

Elements

Part 1:

  • Senior politicians or government officials have made statements supporting open data (No, Partially, Yes) Only answer 'Yes' if statements were made within the study period. Answer 'Partially' for statements made outside the study period by an administration still in power, or statements that only express weak support.

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL to the most significant recent statement.

  • Government has issued guidance to support open data publication (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Yes' if guidance remains current. Answer 'Partially' if guidance exists, but has not been updated or there are concerns about how far it is being implemented.

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL to public guidance if available.

  • There is a national open data law, policy or strategy (No, Partially, Yes) Answer 'Yes' if the law, policy or strategy is current and being implemented. Answer 'Partially' if it is outdated but still influencing practice in some form. Answer 'No' if it is outdated and appears to have no current influence.

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially or Yes: Please provide a URL to the law, policy or strategy.

    If Partially or Yes: In which year was the law, policy or strategy last updated?

  • There is a government team, organisation or institution supporting implementation of the framework (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially or Yes: Please provide brief details.

  • Government regularly monitors and reports on implementation of open data law, policy, strategy or commitments (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially or Yes: Please briefly give details, and provide a URL to example reports if available.

Part 2:

  • The framework establishes a common definition of open data (No, Partially, Yes) If there is a definition, but it appears to omit key aspects of open data (such as permissions for re-use, or machine readability), you may answer 'Partially'.

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially: Briefly details the main limitations of the definition?

  • The framework clearly encourages publication of raw machine readable data (No, Partially, Yes)

  • The framework promotes open licensing without any restrictions beyond attribution and share-alike (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially or Yes: If the framework requires a specific license, please provide the URL or name of the license here

    If Partially: Briefly describe the main limitations of the approach to data re-use

  • The framework encourages use of data standards (No, Partially, Yes)

    Supporting questions (conditional)

    If Partially or Yes: Please briefly give details.

  • The framework provides for training and capacity building of government officials (No, Partially, Yes)

Extent

  • How widely do these laws, regulations, policies or guidance apply?
    • The laws, policies and guidance assessed cover a limited number of localities or government agencies
    • The relevant laws, policies and guidance assessed cover, or are representative of those covering, many localities or government agencies
    • The relevant laws, policies and guidance assessed cover the majority of localities and government agencies

Definitions and Identification

A framework for open (government) data may take the form of a law, policy, guidance or commitments. It will commit government to make non-sensitive government held data available for re-use both legally (e.g. through licenses and terms of use) and technically (e.g. through providing data in machine-readable formats).

For more about open data, consult the Open Data Handbook.

Check the currency of any frameworks to confirm they remain active and are being implemented. Open data frameworks may exist as part of broader data strategies or policies.

Starting points

  • Sources:

    • The qualitative data from past editions of the Open Data Barometer may provide details of policies and strategies identified prior to 2017, and in 2019 in Latin America
    • The EU Data Maturity Report provides data on the state of open data strategies and policies in European Countries
    • The OECD OUR Data Index provides country fact sheets covering open data policies
    • The OGP Explorer contains details of commitments to open data made through the Open Government Partnership

  • Search:

    • General search for: 'Open data policy', 'Data strategy', 'Open Data Strategy'
    • Search academic search engines (e.g. Google Scholar) for recent papers on "open data" + [Country]

  • Consult:

    • Open data advocates and experts

What to look for?

Look for evidence that can be used to assess each of the sub-questions below.

National and sub-national considerations

You should focus your assessment on national policies, or policies set at the federal level in federal systems. In cases where no national frameworks exist, but strong frameworks have been developed sub-nationally, or in a particular significant agency, you may carry out the assessment for this, and record this limitation in the extent question.

Promoting re-use of public data is central to realising the potential of data for the public good. Open data laws, policies or strategies provide the framework within which government data can be made available as a resource for third parties to work with.

The Open Data Barometer leaders edition included an indicator (ODB.2015.C.POLI) which asked the question "To what extent is there a well-defined open data policy and/or strategy?". This indicator is designed to provide comparable data to the ODB indicator. It takes the guidance from the ODB's 0 - 10 scoring system, and converts them to element checklist items that should yield similar scoring for similar situations. It reflects the GDB's presumption that governance frameworks based in law are preferable to frameworks based in policy alone.