SE: 'Swedish public data should be published in open formats'
Swedish public administrations should publish their data in an open format, says Peter Krantz, a government IT worker, speaking under personal title. Krantz earlier this month launched a website, Opengov.se, showing whether public data is available or not, and listing data formats.
"On opengov.se I want to make visible how data is tucked away in the Swedish public sector. I hope this will result in more of this data becoming available", Krantz explains on the site.
The IT worker is inviting others to help collecting information about public administration's data sets. He hopes that the website will demonstrate the benefits of open access to public sector data in open formats. "Information becomes more valuable as it is shared, less valuable as it is hoarded", Krantz writes on the website.
"Access to this information will enable citizens to form an opinion on the performance of the public sector and their use of resources. Companies could help create new e-government services, using and refining the information."
The table currently lists thirty data sets. It shows for instance, that a collection of statistics on the city of Malmö is available for free as HTML. Similar data on the city of Göteborg is not freely available and stored in a proprietary data format.
On the front page of the website, Krantz displays the percentage of data sets that are fully open, meaning free to be used by anyone and free to be distributed without restriction. Currently 16 percent, or five out the thirty data sets are open.
Swedish TV and newspapers this month reported on Krantz' initiative. Krantz confirms a blog post by the Open Knowledge Foundation, that writes that he has been in contact with civil servants that want help and that he has talked to a politician about changes to legislation.
"I heard from a few civil workers in the administration and was contacted by one member of parliament. I do not think other politicians are aware of my initiative."
Krantz explains that Swedish government agencies are traditionally very independent from ministries. "This makes it difficult to get agencies to hand over their data. European legislation on this topic could be helpful."
More information:
Expressen news item (in Swedish)
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