G8 focus on open data

The G8 open data charter, agreed at Lough Erne, sets high standards for open data but only some governments are taking action and US surveillance has led to tensions between its members.

One of the most tangible results from the G8 summit at Lough Erne was an open data charter through which the governments pledged to release more data to the public and the private sector.

“The world,” it notes, “is witnessing the growth of a global movement facilitated by technology and social media and fuelled by information.” Open data “can increase transparency” and also increase awareness about how countries’ natural resources are used and how land is transacted and managed: “All of which promotes accountability and good governance, enhances public debate, and helps to combat corruption.”

G8 governments have therefore adopted five principles to improve access:

1. open data by default;

2. quality and quantity;

3. useable by all;

4. releasing data for improved governance; and

5. releasing data for innovation.

Open data by default refers to government data in the widest sense possible i.e. those owned by national, federal, local, or international government bodies, or by the wider public sector. Data can be legitimately withheld due to intellectual property, data protection and security reasons, according to national and international law.

The governments committed to releasing high-quality open data in a “timely, comprehensive, and accurate” manner. Wherever possible, these data should be “in their original, unmodified form and at the finest level of granularity available.”

The third principle – useable by all – recognises that open data should be available free of charge to encourage widespread use. This has led to tensions inside governments. Mapping agencies for example, fear that this will effectively lead to a free-for-all which will damage their sales and budgets.

Releasing data improves governance by providing more openness per se and also providing more evidence for policy-making. G8 countries pledged to be transparent about their own data collection, standards, and publishing processes, by documenting all of these related processes online.

Likewise, open data can stimulate creativity and innovation and the G8 would encourage developers of applications and civil society organisations to unlock the concept’s value. Data would be made available in machine-readable formats so that they can be used more extensively.

The charter’s technical annex is a “living” set of guidelines that may be amended as new technology solutions or practical experience emerges. It outlines best practices such as publishing data on a national portal, listening to feedback from data users, releasing data using application programming interfaces (APIs) and encouraging innovation through challenges, prizes and mentoring.

National action plans were to be published by October 2013. Four categories were prioritised for early release – national statistics, elections, budgets and mapping – to be followed by other high level datasets (see table).

The UK’s action plan was published on 1 November 2013. National statistics are already published in full but the Office for National Statistics will improve how those data are presented on www.data.gov.uk

The Electoral Commission is to publish full datasets about national elections by April 2014. A new “common chart of accounts” will be published from April onwards, to help data users understand the workings of the Budget. The Ordnance Survey of Great Britain will publish a wider range of mapping data by next December.

Most of the high level datasets

are already available through www.data.gov.uk and the UK is recognised is a leader in the field. On

31 October, the UK Government launched a national information infrastructure (NII) which it describes as “a world first in terms of scope, content and ambition.” The NII lists datasets (currently 322) which are “likely to have the broadest and most significant economic and social impact if made available and accessible outside of Government.” The information is available through www.gov.uk/cabinet-office

Action plans have also been published by Canada, France, Italy and the EU. As the G8 has no binding rules and only meets annually, Russia, Germany and the USA cannot be obliged to release more data.

There is some overlap between the UK and EU action plans. The main aim of the EU version is to roll out best practice in non-G8 member states. The European Commission has allowed re-use of its documents since 2006 and it launched an open data portal in December 2012: www.open-data.europa.eu

The Commission emphasises that the fundamental right to data protection must be safeguarded and the Data Protection Directive takes precedence over rights to open data. The revelations about the mass surveillance programme by the National Security Agency (NSA) highlighted the much lower standards in the USA.

Over one 30-day period, the NSA’s Boundless Informant programme collected 97 billion internet data records and 124 billion telephony data records, with the Middle East and South Asia being the main focus of surveillance. Germany and Britain – close allies of the US – were the main targets within Europe and the tapping of Chancellor Merkel’s phone led to a diplomatic crisis.

In this context, the priorities of the next G8 summit will probably involve tackling the abuse of data rather than the benefits of open data.