Foundation Document for the development of the Public Service Open Data Strategy

Under the Open Data Strategy, all Public Bodies will engage in the Open Data Initiative, and ensure that Open Data is embedded in their knowledge management processes.

Public Bodies will:

• Adopt best practice in data management to ensure they understand the datasets they hold and ensure that all appropriate new datasets are considered for release as Open Data during the development phase. This should include consideration of releasing datasets as Open by Default.
• Make it easier for any interested stakeholder to access, re-use and redistribute Government data, whether for commercial, research or citizen engagement purposes.
• Ensure that datasets published meet with the requirements of the Open Data Technical Framework, including ensuring that Open Data is free to re-use.
• Build trust in Open Data by ensuring that it is regularly updated; and that it safeguards the rights to privacy under Data Protection law. This means that anonymisation and/or aggregation of data is tested to ensure compliance with best practice.
• Collaborate with other stakeholders to identify possible pilots and ensure that appropriate datasets are made available as Open Data.
• Identify and address capacity building requirements, as envisaged under the Public Service ICT Strategy and Civil Service Renewal Plan to ensure that the skills needed in a data-driven Public Service are available to public bodies.
• Use data analytics to improve the administrative functioning of the Organisation through use of the data itself, and by making it available to others.
• Use Open Data to achieve efficiency and effectiveness gains in their activities.
• Regularly engage in outreach and collaboration activities to raise awareness of Open Data, publicise Open Data progress, and seek input from business, researchers and citizens.
• Identify a member of their senior management team to become an Open Data leader for their Organisation.

The success of this Strategy will depend on engagement and cooperation between all stakeholders. The Business community will engage with public bodies to demonstrate use cases and identify datasets with commercial potential.

Businesses will:

• Support the Open Data Initiative by seeking out and using Open Government Data to develop and improve data services and products.
• Identify sectors where potential economic benefits can be achieved by wider availability of Open Data. Examples of sectors where Open Data may deliver benefits include, for example:
  • Tourism,
  • Culture and Heritage,
  • Transport,
  • Energy & Environment,
  • Health,
  • Planning,
  • Education,
  • Science and Research
• Develop their own strategies to exploit the value of Open Data.
• Participate in measurement activities to capture benefits realisation of Open Data-enabled enterprise.
• Communicate Ireland’s success in Open data internationally to foster further investment and innovation using Open Data.

The Research Community has a key role to play in identifying the economic, social and democratic opportunities of Open Data.

Researchers will:

• Identify emerging national and international trends for Open Data.
• Develop metrics that allow benefits capture: for example, what contribution does Open Data make to improving efficiency and effectiveness of Public Service delivery.
• Identify opportunities to improve accountability and transparency through Open Data.
• Consider the potential for increasing citizen engagement in Open Data activities.
• Through publication of Use Cases, help drive uptake of Open Data for Research and Development purposes.
• Use Open Data to further innovation through research and, where the research is public-funded, make their research findings available in Open Data formats.
• Identify future skills needs to ensure students acquire the skills necessary to succeed in a data-driven economy.

The Civil Society/Citizens community has an important role to play in ensuring that Open Data supports good practice in maximising the transparency and accountability gains from the release of datasets. This is particularly important in the context of Ireland’s Open Government Partnership Action Plan which spans three main areas:

• Open Data and Transparency,
• Citizen Participation, and
• Rebuilding public trust in Government

Under the Open Data strategy, citizens/Civil Society will:

• Use Open Data to participate in decision-making and consultations.
• Identify new datasets to publish as Open Data.
• Be engaged by public bodies early in the legislative process.

In making data open public bodies seek to do so in an intelligent and managed manner. A key priority is to identify the data which they already hold. To ensure that the expansion of the portal, data.gov.ie, leads to the availability and use of high value datasets, a planned and structured approach to the publication of data as open data is required. This approach should take into account the value, potential for re-use and contribution a dataset can make to achieving the economic, social and democratic benefits of Open Data.

Organisational data audits play a key role in this regard. More generally, auditing of datasets should be seen as part of an organisation’s information management strategy. The Open Data Strategy recognises that there is considerable value in having a comprehensive list of the datasets created, managed and maintained by each Department, regardless of whether or not they can be published at present. Progress in this area will support the objective of the Civil Service Renewal Plan to improve data management processes and data quality. It also supports the ICT Strategy commitment to treating data as a corporate asset and will support data sharing in due course.

Under this Open Data Strategy, all public bodies will be required to conduct an audit of their datasets using a template developed by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, based on COMSODE methodology.

The output of the audit would not only facilitate publication of datasets via data.gov.ie, but would also promote the effective management of information across the public bodies.

Following the audit, each public body should produce a Publication Plan for their datasets. In the context of the datasets included in the audit returns.

It is proposed that the following steps be taken towards publication as Open Data, taking account of the balance between costs and anticipated benefits.

Factors to be considered in preparing data for publication as Open Data include:

1. Where a dataset is already published and linked to the Open Data portal, are enhancements or modifications required to make the datasets more searchable?
2. Where a dataset is already published, but not as Open Data, consider whether it can be linked to the Open Data portal. Are any enhancements required, e.g., in terms of formats, etc.?
3. Are unpublished datasets suitable for publication as Open Data, or can they be published following any necessary actions (e.g., associating with Open Data licence, aggregation, anonymisation, etc.)?
4. Where a dataset requires anonymisation before publication, how will this process occur?
5. Can personal or commercially sensitive data be sufficiently anonymised or aggregated to allow publication?
6. Is publication feasible in terms of the efforts required and costs of publishing as Open Data; compared to the potential demand or benefits?

The development of Publication Plans should take account of “high-demand” datasets, such as regular information requests, Representations to Ministers, Parliamentary Questions, responses to Open Data surveys, requests through the Open Data portal, and other requests arising from other engagement with the Open Data user community, as appropriate.

The key objective of this Strategy will be to ensure that high quality datasets are released and published via data.gov.ie.

Publication of datasets via the portal will be based on the requirements of the Open Data Technical Framework, which has been developed in collaboration with the Public Bodies Working Group.

The Open Data Strategy will use the 5-star deployment scheme for Open Data. The greater the number of stars, the more reusable the data is, and the easier it is to reuse and interconnect data.

While public bodies are encouraged to maximise the openness of their formats and move towards 4 and 5 Star linked data, this Strategy recognises that this will take time and public bodies may adopt a phased approach to reaching required Open Data formats.

Accordingly, all datasets published on the Open data portal will, within an agreed timeframe, be:

• Machine-Readable
• Non-Proprietary
• Associated with an Open Licence
• Described by standardised Metadata

An Open Data Governance Board (ODGB) will be established on a non-statutory basis to provide leadership in line with best international practice in the area of open data. It will support the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and the Government in driving implementation of the National Open Data Strategy. The Board will consider opportunities to maximise the value of Open Data for long-term economic, social and democratic benefit, and will advise the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in this regard.

The Board will focus on governance of implementation of the Open Data Initiative across the Public Service, with particular emphasis on cross-cutting issues.

The Public Bodies Working Group (PBWG) was established in October 2014 to support D/PER in agreeing a way forward on infrastructure and enabling issues. The result of the deliberations of the PBWG is the Open Data Technical Framework.

It is envisaged that, as implementation of the Open Data Strategy progresses, the PBWG will be tasked with considering capacity building activities; providing advice, guidance and ideas on implementation activities for the Open Data Strategy; and identifying Open Data projects and other initiatives to raise awareness, promote usage to ensure sustainability of Open Data activities. The PBWG will also provide support, advice and guidance to public bodies in Open Data Strategy implementation activities.

Public bodies provide regular progress updates under existing Reform Initiatives, including the Public Service Reform Plan. To minimise the reporting burden on public bodies, it is envisaged that high level Open Data developments will continue to be included in these regular reports.

The Open Data Strategy will be supported by the existing Intellectual Property Rights provisions of the Office of Government Procurement’s (OGP) standard services Request for Tenders ("RFT").

The OGP stipulates that Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) title and interest in all reports, data manuals and/or other materials (other than software) (including without limitation all and any audio or audio visual recordings, transcripts, books, papers, records, notes, illustrations, photographs, diagrams) shall vest in the Client (the public body). For the avoidance of doubt the Contractor on signing the Agreement assigns all IPR, title and interest in the Materials lies with the public body.

IPR in data, information, output (in whatever media) and reports produced for the Client become the property of the Client.”

The value of Open Data ultimately lies in the use made of the data, and examples of use cases will help provide and maintain the momentum of the Initiative.

The end-use scenario will be assessed in a series of “Pilots” focussing on each of the three key area where benefits are anticipated.

It is proposed that the first three pilots will focus on:

• Business
• Transparency/Accountability
• Social Impact

Subsequent pilots will be developed in order to identify area where Open Data is realising real, measurable benefits.

The results of these pilots will be included in Annual Progress Reports for Government, which will prepared by the ODGB in conjunction with public bodies, setting out the progress achieved in achieving the targets set out in this Strategy.

The implementation of the Open Data Strategy will require collaboration and cooperation between data producers and data users to ensure that resources and efforts are targeted where most value will be derived.

Accordingly, regular outreach and dissemination events will be arranged to facilitate a constructive engagement between producers and users.

There will be ongoing engagement between the ODGB, PBWG and public bodies to identify emerging training requirements and to, where appropriate, organise training events for Public Servants.

It is also anticipated that the Open Data Strategy will be supported by Capability Building activities outlined in the ICT Strategy.