Comparison of Austria and German in Terms of Open Data

Status of Open Data in Europe

Open Data

Open data refers to the idea of having certain data freely available for people to republish and use as they wish (Open Government Data, n.d). There are no restrictions like patents, mechanism control, or copyright placed on the person using the data. Open data is mainly aimed at allowing governments to share their information with the public. This brings about Open Government Data that refers to any data commissioned or produced by a government that can be freely used, redistributed, and reused by anyone. For data to be considered open, it should be readily available and the person requiring the data should not have to make a request (Bedini et al.). The advancement of the internet and World Wide Web has pushed for open government data. The advancements made on the internet have allowed people from across the world to access data without having to visit any government office physically. Open data allows citizens to download, fill out forms, and submit the forms online (Sheridan & Tennison, 2010). This reduces the amount of time-wasted visiting a government office. The premise of open data is that a person should get the data when they want or need it without having to visit a government office and make a request. There is increased transparency and accountability when government data is made available.

When open data is usable, useful, and used, it becomes open knowledge. Some of the key features that indicate openness of data are reuse and redistribution, universal participation, and availability and access. Austria launched its open government data in 2011, while Germany launched theirs in 2013. Austria discovered earlier on that the only way to ensure that its data was freely accessible was to implement a creative commons license, which only required the person redistributing the data to attribute the government (Park, 2011). This way anyone could use the data provided they acknowledged the source of the data. Germany, on the other hand, has been faced with problems, as its data is not as open as expected. There are some data that people have to request or pay for before they can gain access. This goes against the spirit of open data.

The type of data found in the open data repositories

According to the open knowledge foundation, there are different kinds of data that a government could make available for use and redistribution. With a restriction on any data that would violate a person's privacy. Any personal data should not be included in open data. Any data considered to be of a sensitive nature should not be readily available under open data. This would guard against the misuse of such data. The data recommended and suggested to be included in open government data is cultural, finance, statistics, environment, weather, science, and transport data. Cultural data will contain all the data regarding the cultural works and artifacts within a country. It will also include galleries, museums, and archive locations. Financial data includes revenue and expenditure accounts for the government. Financial market data could also be included under financial data. Data regarding the performance of a country's stock market should be provided and updated daily to reflect the current market rates for bonds, stocks and shares. Statistical data will consist of any statistical data produced by the different government bodies. Census data, traffic statistics, and socioeconomic indicators are just some examples. Environment data is vital as it provides information regarding the environment. Information regarding the quality of rivers, lakes, and seas and the level of pollution in different areas would be beneficial to the citizens. Scientific data is any data produced from scientific research. Transport data will include routes, time schedules for the different transport systems, transport statistics, and modes of transport. It could also include data regarding tourist locations and how to get there.

In Austria, the data that is currently open in the open data repositories is population, finance, geographical, health, culture, environment, sports, transport, administration, economic, and community data. The Austrian government has tried to provide as much information as possible, and it endeavors to open up more data. The data provided on the open government portal is updated regularly and change logs provided. There is also an archive that allows anyone to search and link to it from external applications. Making as much information available to everyone has ensured that the Austrian government proactively releases information. The government is considered to be proactive since it has made the data available before anyone requests for the data. Currently the data provided by the Austrian Government is only available in one language that is German, but there is a possibility that an English version would be developed (Vienna City Administration, N.D,). Having the portal in only one language is a hindrance as only German speaking people could use the data provided. Accessibility is the key principle for open data. Although the government has made vast amounts of data readily available, there are restrictions as only citizens have complete access. The Austrian portal has combined data from different cities, which has ensured that a person has access to data from any city in Austria. Combining the different city data repositories on one location has made it easy for a person to search and access the data they seek.

In Germany, the data currently available is grouped in the following categories population, education and science, social, health, culture, leisure, sport, politics and elections, public administration, budget and taxes, geography, geology, infrastructure, construction, law, and justice. The categories do cover all the recommended types of open data suggested by open knowledge foundation. A vast majority of the data is freely accessible, but there is some data that the government charges. For certain data, one has to make a formal request before they can gain access to the data (Chimeblu, 2013). These restrictions have made the data be less than open as had initially been thought. Compared to the Austrian open data portal, the German portal makes use of many licenses, which place more restrictions on the people accessing the data. Restrictive data policies and licenses have made the portal less open, which goes against the principle of ease of access. Placing barriers to data access beats the logic of having the information online. It was better if the German government did not publish the information. The German open data portal has made use of creative commons license for some of the data. This license is similar to the one used by the Austrian government. Requiring that users attribute the sources of the data promotes the portal and encourages sharing of the data. Attribution is not a hard thing since it is not restrictive in any way.

The open data portal should encourage voluntary publishing of data. Authorities are not forced to publish any data, but rather they are only encouraged to do so by the federal government. Encouraging the authorities to publish data in a manner that is accessible, open, and searchable is what the government is doing. The city of Hamburg is doing it differently. The city has implemented a law that mandates all the authorities to publish data in an open, accessible, and searchable manner (Chimeblu, 2013). Hamburg is the only city in the world that has opted to use this method. All other cities encourage voluntary publishing of data. Enforcing laws would lead to resistance and lack of compliance by some or all authorities. The validity of the data would also be questioned, since the authorities would publish data as a requirement and not for the sale of the public.

Germany has also been adding the number of data providers with each passing day. This way their portal is constantly increasing and they are able to remain proactive in most of their aspects. The German portal was launched as a prototype. There are still numerous aspects developers are working on, and the portal would be considered under development. Suggestions are still being made, but majority of the net activists withdrew their support after they realized that the government would charge for some of the datasets. This they felt was going against the principles of open data since the data would not be freely accessible and open.

Germany should borrow from Austria considering that Austria has opened their data for longer. Using the same licensing agreement that Austria is using would ensure that Germany does provide truly open data. Reducing the number of restrictions would provide the citizens with less hurdles and would encourage them to make use of the portal. The portal should also have English support. Currently the portal is only available in German, which denies non-German speakers and readers from accessing the portal. Language packs are vital to ensure that different people from different locations can access the data published on the portal. The essence of having an online portal is encouraging visitors from different parts of the world. With this in mind, the developers should ensure that they provide the data in the common languages.

Openness of the data based on the ten principles of open government data

The ten principles for open government data were developed during a conference held in Sebastopol, California in October 2007 (Wonderlich, 2010). The principles are primacy, completeness, ease of physical and electronic access, timeliness, non-discrimination, machine readability, use of commonly owned standards, permanence, usage costs, and licensing (Wonderlich, 2010). These principles provide a lens that could be used to gauge how open government data is and its accessibility to the public. Completeness of data refers to how complete the published datasets are. Any data published by the government should include all the data the government has on the subject. The only restriction to this principle is that the released data should not have any personally identifiable information. The Austrian government has been working hard to ensure that it releases all the data its various authorities have regarding different subjects. This is a massive task because the authorities have to sift through their data and ensure that any digital information they have is published. Working on improving the datasets as time goes by will ensure that the government is able to release as much information as possible. In Germany, the situation is not different, especially considering that they launched their portal the other day. The new portal contains vast information, but the information is not exhaustive. Compilations are still been carried out, and new data is added continuously.

Any data sets that the government releases to the public should be its primary data. The government should not release datasets that are the works of others. This would ensure that the government is responsible for the datasets, and verification can be conducted. The government should also provide details regarding how the data was collected, recorded, and original source documents. Some of the data published on the portals for the public by both governments might not be primary data. Modifications might be made due to federal laws, which place restrictions on the government. That said, it is clear that the governments are trying to release as much primary data as possible. When the German open government data portal was launched, it had to publish vast amounts of data in a short while. This placed restrictions on the data the government could publish without making alterations. The push for open data by the private sector has forced the government to update the datasets on a regular basis. The datasets include primary data as was collected.

Data released to the public should be timely. For example, there is no need to release budget estimates after the budget has been approved. This would deny the public access to the data beforehand. Whenever possible, any information that the government collects should be released in a timely fashion. Open data in Austria is released in a timely fashion especially time sensitive data like budget estimates. German has included data on laws and regulations, and it is vital that changes made on the laws be updated immediately. This would ensure that the public is made aware and can access the new changes immediately. Transport information is considered real-time information and updates regarding any major transport routes should always be up-to-date. This would allow people to access the data and make good use of the data. The vital thing is preserving the value of the data, and releasing the data as quickly as possible would ensure value is preserved. The German and Austrian governments have discovered this, and they endeavor to provide and update the datasets in a timely manner.

The two governments have provided their data in different formats, which has ensured that the citizens are able to access the data without any restrictions. Providing data in open access formats enables people to access the data and not be required to make purchases of the requisite software. The open data portal is online based and can be accessed from different part of the world. This improves the accessibility of the data from all over the world. German has some restrictions on the data that people can access since it requires formal requests before the data is made available. Another restriction placed by the German government is purchase of certain data. The Austrian government on the other hand has not placed any restrictions on access, and it does not sell any of its data. The Austrian government has allowed for the access of their information from all over the world by using the internet. Being proactive instead of being reactive has allowed the Austrian government to open up its data to the public before any request is made for the data.

The data provided should be readable using machines. This means that the data should be typed and presented in a format that machines can read. The Austrian and German governments have presented their data in machine-readable formats. All the data placed on their portal is easily readable and is not prone to processing or transcription errors. This will guarantee that the data is not misrepresented in any way. The likelihood of formatting and matching errors that would result when handwritten text is scanned is eliminated. Austria has been presenting its data in the widely used PDF format since it launched its open portal. Austria present its data in more formats that German. Using this many formats guarantees that anyone can access the data irrespective of their computing power. Having different formats is the best way to make sure that data is truly open and accessible. German followed suit but also included other widely used formats. Making use of different formats allows people with different applications to access the data.

The formats that the data is presented in should be non-proprietary. The open knowledge foundation recommends the use of formats that place no restrictions to the user when they try to access the data. The data presented by Austria is in many formats. Some of the formats are proprietary and some non-proprietary. This way the government has ensured that it caters for all the citizens. Including open formats guarantees that no user is blocked from accessing the data. The different formats only require that the visitor have a valid operating system. German only presents its data in PDF, which could be seen as restrictive especially considering that not every user would have access to the application. PDF is an open format, but that should not be reason enough since the application is solely owned by one entity. This would mean that the users are disadvantaged if the owner decides to place restrictions on use.