Open Data and Beyond
“Open data is the idea that some data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control” - Wikipedia
Open Data is the word that countries are bracing now. This is not new, these initiatives actually predate the birth of the internet. In 1958, World Data Center was formed to open access to the scientific data. Since then, there are several instances where Institutions embraced upon open access data to everyone. For example, In the human genome project, all human genomic information is openly available in a public domain.
Revolution
In 2004, OECD (Organization for Economic cooperation and Development) signed a declaration to make publicly funded archive data openly available. This is to ensure transparency in the governments and to improve public services, which in turn contributes to economic growth.
If one would like to open his/her Data, OKI (Open Knowledge international) curated a Handbook to answer several questions on open Data.
Open Data of Governments
Data.gov is managed and hosted by the U.S. General Services Administration, Technology Transformation Service. It consists of over 193,141 data sets. Topics ranging from Agriculture, Health, Education, Climate, Consumer, Ecosystems, Maritime, Ocean, Public safety, Energy, Finance, Ocean, Local government, Manufacturing, Public Safety and many more.
Russia open Data portal is the core of open data ecosystem of the Russian Federation.
3. UK Open Data
The UK Government is releasing public data to become more transparent and foster innovation. Datasets are available from all central government departments and a number of other public sector bodies and local authorities.
As said in this portal, It is a link between all those that are part of the data ecosystem:
- Users, citizens or professionals who demand information.
- Public bodies that provide and use public information.
- Reusers and infomediaries that create products and services based on data.
In the library of GovData, you will find information and documents on the subject of “Open Government”, such as legal texts, studies or guides.Also links to other organizations and projects etc.
This is an open government platform of India. In this portal you can find data related to topics like Food, Commerce, Parliament of India, Water and Sanitation, Animal husbandry, Economy, Education, Housing, Rural, Power and Energy, Travel and Tourism, and many more related to the Indian subcontinent.
This site consists of data about Government of Canada services, Financials, National demographic information and High resolution maps.
Open data initiative of the Republic of Ghana government.
Open data initiative of the Kenyan government.
There are many governments actively sharing their Open Data. If, you like to understand the impact of these open data initiatives and interested to know, which all governments are giving access to Public Data. Then, go to Open Data Barometer (ODB).
Kindly, share any important government open data sites missing here. If you like to know about data analytic softwares, go to CybrHome. Thank you.