European Data Portal - Open Data in a nutshell

Details: Category: Blog; Created on Monday, 18 July 2016 08:22

Public Sector Information and Open Government Data

Public Sector Information (PSI) is the wide range of information that public sector bodies collect, produce, reproduce, and disseminate in many areas of activity while accomplishing their institutional tasks. PSI may include (among others) social, economic, geographical, cadastral, weather, tourist, and business information.

Open Government Data refers to the information collected, produced or paid for by the public bodies (PSI) and made freely available for re-use for any purpose. Open Government Data is published under an open licence and is free to use within private and public domains.

In 2013, the G8 summit defined the importance of Open Government Data by creating the Open Data Charter. This charter emphasises the role that Open Data can play in both governance and growth stimulation. The charter defines five principles that nations that open up their data should follow. The 5 basic principles are shown in below.

The Open Data Charter Principle