New South Wales Government has released its first Open Data Policy as part of a commitment to improve the way government agencies interact with customers.
Minister for Finance and Services Andrew Constance announced “We want to transform government through IT over the next ten years by better utilising mobile apps and social media, improving the way we interact with customers”. “Open data is at the heart of open government and we have developed a principles-based approach to the way public sector agencies provide access to their information”.
“We are making more data available through the State’s central data portal – data.nsw.gov.au, by piloting federation with the Commonwealth, Queensland and South Australian data portals, enabling easy access to their datasets from data.nsw.gov.au” he added.
Mr Constance said the NSW Government is supporting these initiatives by implementing an open access licensing framework to make it easier for agencies and those who use the data to understand and apply open licences.
“AusGOAL, the Australian Governments’ Open Access Licensing Framework, provides a system by which Government can make appropriate licencing decisions to allow the reuse of data and information in new and innovative ways by the community,” he said. “Applying this framework will also make it easier to share information with other jurisdictions.”
The policy identifies four principles underpinning the Open Data Initiative:
- Government data will be available for open use.
- Government data will be available free.
- Government data will be in accessible formats and easy to find.
- Government data will be released within set standards and accountabilities.
The announcement follows release of the first Queensland Open Data Policy in October 2012, as part of the QLD Governments ‘open data revolution’.
Read the NSW Open Data Policy.
