All posts in the topic What Is Government Data? (Short link)
Summary
- There are 2 posts — by 2 authors — in this topic.
- Latest post made by Glen Barnes at 2009 Jun 17 21:50 NZST
This is not a philosophical question.
I am trying to add a dataset but the one I'm interested in is not
exactly owned by government. It's _curated_ by a CRI but with the
assurance that it is to remain independent. The CRI has contributed much
of the data, but the public can also contribute data to it.
Now I could submit it and give Glen the problem of deciding whether it's
"Open Government Data" or not, but I'm on Glen's side.
Is there already a criterion for this? If not, do we need one so that
Glen or whoever else handles submissions can decide whether or not to
accept them?
Its not this one is it? http://opengovt.org.nz/cat/2009/06/17/national-vegetation-survey-nvs-databank/ My take on it is that if the data is available for download by the public free of charge (or can be requested) then we should add it. If it is a more restricted dataset then we need to look at it a bit closer. We may have to make some judgement calls on whether we think it _should_ be free or not (for example an old public dataset which was taken into 'private' hands, sort of like CDDB). Being pragmatic I would be happy to look at specific examples with everyone and make a call either way. It's hard to say without seeing what the data is.