The Open Data initiative or open data is a philosophy and practice that seeks to make certain data and information belonging to Public Administrations accessible and available to everyone, without technical or legal restrictions. The purpose of the Open Data initiative is that information can be redistributed and reused by both citizens and companies to achieve a benefit for all parties.Having access to the Administration's data guarantees transparency because there is access to data that come directly from official sources. Efficiency and equal opportunities are also promoted, since citizens and companies can create services that solve their needs in collaboration with the Administration and everyone can access the data under equal conditions.
WHAT IS RISP?
The Reuse of Public Sector Information (RISP) is the main objective of the Open Data initiative. It consists of making public sector information available, raw and in open standard formats, facilitating its access and allowing its reuse by both individuals and companies for commercial or non-commercial purposes.The public sector produces a wide variety of information that is potentially reusable , such as social, economic, geographic, statistical information, etc. This information is very attractive for reuse since it is complete, reliable and of high quality. The aim is to ensure that the reuse and redistribution of public information benefits both the public administrations that bring their data to light, as well as the citizens and companies that see some of their needs covered.
WHY IS THE DATA RELEASED?
Public Administrations have seen the need for people to access certain information that has not been available until now. That is why they have the will to move towards a more open government, based on the values of transparency, participation, service and efficiency. It is also intended to promote the creation of value through the reuse of public information, facilitate the internal organization of information systems within the Administrations and promote interoperability between public sector services. At the same time, the release of data also represents a economic potential as it forms an essential basis for many digital information products. It is essential to ensure the efficient reuse of public information in order to take advantage of its full potential and develop new products, services and markets that achieve greater economic development and greater creation of jobs.
HOW IS THE DATA RELEASED?
The first step is to identify citizens' needs so that Administrations decide what data to make available to them and the most appropriate format to do so, so that this data can be reused. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) , the international community that develops standards for web growth, recommends that the data released be useful and in reusable formats. The better structured and enriched the data is, the easier it will be to reuse it and build applications that can handle it automatically.
OPEN DATA IN THE WORLD
Adherence to the Open Data initiative is being made progressively around the world. It started with the data.gov project in the US, the site where the federal government's open data catalog is located, and little by little it has spread to other countries. More and more governments announce and start transparency and open government initiatives and publish their data catalogs. Currently there are Open Data projects developed in addition to the US, in countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden or Norway and also in Spain.
The CTIC Foundation has a catalog that includes all the Open Data initiatives in the world .
From here you can access the European Open Data catalog , which allows you to search for open data from 34 European countries.
