The Sunlight Foundation in the United States has issued a 33 point Guidelines for Open Data Policies that also address topics such as exceptions to disclosure and mandated electronic requests.
The guidelines are designed to influence government thinking on open data, according to an introduction written by Laurenellen McCann, the National Policy Manager at the Sunlight Foundation.
With open data laws and regulations appearing “with increasing frequency, especially since 2009, McCann wrote, “… we’re only just starting to really explore what open data policies can do, what broader issues they can address, and what open data can mean.”
The goal is to “present a broad vision of the kinds of challenges that open data policies can address,” and to help policymakers “avoid some of the frequent shortfalls and oversights in open data legislation,” she wrote.
The guidelines open with familiar goals, such as the call for “open formats,” and like the other entries does not provide specific legal language for policies.
Policies should mandate the release of specific new government information, according to the guidelines, commenting, “[O]pen data laws provide an opportunity not just to update and improve access to information that is already open and/or public, but to specify new datasets and records to be published.”
Electronic filing of disclosure requests is the efficient way to go, the guidelines say, and should be mandatory “as long as the filers can be reasonably expected to have access to the necessary technology.”
Public information “should be published online in a timely fashion subject only to common-sense exceptions (such as redacting personally identifiable information in certain contexts.)” Continuous publication of regularly created material is recommended and “[O]nce released, it must remain “findable” at a stable location or through archives in perpetuity.
“Bulk access is a simple, but effective means of publishing datasets in full, giving the public the ability to download all the information stored in a database at once,” Sunlight says. In addition, government bodies can develop Application Programming Interfaces, that allow third parties to automatically search, retrieve, or submit information directly from databases online.
Remove Fees
“To provide truly open access, you must provide both the right to reuse government information (explored in Provision 6) and remove arbitrary technical restrictions, such as registration requirements, access fees, and usage limitations, among others,” Sunlight states.
Also restrictions on the reuse of government information should be dropped.
The guidelines in places appear to recognize only a narrow range of the traditional freedom of information exemptions, but later states, “Open data policy should be complementary to pre-existing legislation and directives about access to public information…. which means taking into consideration pre-existing protections for sensitive information for privacy, security, or other reasons.” The section continues: “While these protections should be upheld, careful thought should be given to the language used to describe what (if any) additional information will be exempt from the policy, as overbroad terms can create loopholes that undermine the soundness of provisions requiring openness.”
The guidelines call for public interest tests to govern disclosure, stating:
Exemptions to disclosure are a necessary component of many transparency requirements. Unfortunately, these exemptions are often crafted as blanket categories for entire types of information, without consideration for competing interests. Valid privacy and security concerns should be addressed through provisions that recognize the public interest in determining whether information will be disclosed or not. For example, rather than saying “information relating to X topic are exempt from disclosure”, provisions should require that “information relating to X topic are exempt from disclosure if the potential for harm outweighs the public interest their disclosure.” Public interest here does not mean public attention, but instead refers to interests like democratic accountability, justice, and effective oversight.
Data portals and similar websites can facilitate the distribution of open data, the guidelines say,
Also, “Partnerships can be useful in the effort to increase awareness of the availability of open data and in connecting government information to that held by non-profits, think tanks, academic institutions and others.” Contests and event can be used to generate “use of, interest in, and attention to the government’s open data resources and repositories.”
Open data policies “can address not only information currently or soon to be available in an electronic format, but also undigitized archival material,” Sunlight advised. In addition, “efforts need to be made to keep the data up to date, clean, accurate, and accessible.”
“Open data policies should require a full public listing of government information,” according to Sunlight’s guidelines.
“Unique identifiers within datasets empower analysis and reuse by allowing disparate datasets to be combined and to be more carefully mapped to real-world entities,’ the guidelines stress. Also, “Metadata and other documentation about the data provided by the government can be useful to the public and government alike.”
Providing the code used to create government websites, portals, tools, and other online resources can provide internal and external benefits, “often as valuable open data itself,” Sunlight wrote.
Clear and ambitious deadlines for implementation should be set and sufficient funding should be provided. “Existing procurement, contracting, or planning processes can be used to create new defaults and requirements for IT systems and databases — to bake open data requirements into new systems being planned. Reliance on contractors should not necessitate sacrificing important public protections, according to the guidelines.
“Whether through a central authority, review board, or other similar body, creating an oversight authority helps ensure compliance with new open data measures,” advises Sunlight. “Open data policies should be informed by provisions already on the books, building on precedent for opening information and taking advantage of pre-existing laws, executive orders, and other policies that defend and establish public access, define standards for information quality, disclosure, and publishing.
Public participation is valuable, Sunlight states, statistics on data use should be kept, and periodic policy review is advisable.
Filed under: What's New