The 8 Principles of Open Government Data

The following is from the 8 principles and the group’s wiki work following their meeting. New annotations are in white boxes.

Government data shall be considered open if it is made public in a way that complies with the principles below:

  1. Complete

    All public data is made available. Public data is data that is not subject to valid privacy, security or privilege limitations.

    While non-electronic information resources, such as physical artifacts, are not subject to the Open Government Data principles, it is always encouraged that such resources be made available electronically to the extent feasible.

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  2. Primary

    Data is as collected at the source, with the highest possible level of granularity, not in aggregate or modified forms.

    If an entity chooses to transform data by aggregation or transcoding for use on an Internet site built for end users, it still has an obligation to make the full-resolution information available in bulk for others to build their own sites with and to preserve the data for posterity.

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  3. Timely

    Data is made available as quickly as necessary to preserve the value of the data.

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  4. Accessible

    Data is available to the widest range of users for the widest range of purposes.

    Data must be made available on the Internet so as to accommodate the widest practical range of users and uses. This means considering how choices in data preparation and publication affect access to the disabled and how it may impact users of a variety of software and hardware platforms. Data must be published with current industry standard protocols and formats, as well as alternative protocols and formats when industry standards impose burdens on wide reuse of the data.

    Data is not accessible if it can be retrieved only through navigating web forms, or if automated tools are not permitted to access it because of a robots.txt file, other policy, or technological restrictions.

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  5. Machine processable

    Data is reasonably structured to allow automated processing.

    The ability for data to be widely used requires that the data be properly encoded. Free-form text is not a substitute for tabular and normalized records. Images of text are not a substitute for the text itself. Sufficient documentation on the data format and meanings of normalized data items must be available to users of the data.

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  6. Non-discriminatory

    Data is available to anyone, with no requirement of registration.

    Anonymous access to the data must be allowed for public data, including access through anonymous proxies. Data should not be hidden behind “walled gardens.”

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    Open Definition (2005)

    (“No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups”, “No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor”)

  7. Non-proprietary

    Data is available in a format over which no entity has exclusive control.

    Proprietary formats add unnecessary restrictions over who can use the data, how it can be used and shared, and whether the data will be usable in the future. While some proprietary formats are nearly ubiquitous, it is nevertheless not acceptable to use only proprietary formats. Likewise, the relevant non-proprietary formats may not reach a wide audience. In these cases, it may be necessary to make the data available in multiple formats.

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  8. License-free

    Data is not subject to any copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret regulation. Reasonable privacy, security and privilege restrictions may be allowed.

    Because government information is a mix of public records, personal information, copyrighted work, and other non-open data, it is important to be clear about what data is available and what licensing, terms of service, and legal restrictions apply. Data for which no restrictions apply should be marked clearly as being in the public domain.

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Compliance must be reviewable.

Definitions

“public” means:

The Open Government Data principles do not address what data should be public and open. Privacy, security, and other concerns may legally (and rightly) prevent data sets from being shared with the public. Rather, these principles specify the conditions public data should meet to be considered “open.”

“data” means:

Electronically stored information or recordings. Examples include documents, databases of contracts, transcripts of hearings, and audio/visual recordings of events.

While non-electronic information resources, such as physical artifacts, are not subject to the Open Government Data principles, it is always encouraged that such resources be made available electronically to the extent feasible.

“reviewable” means:

A contact person must be designated to respond to people trying to use the data.

A contact person must be designated to respond to complaints about violations of the principles.

An administrative or judicial court must have the jurisdiction to review whether the agency has applied these principles appropriately.

About the 2007 Workshop

Participants: Carl Malamud (Public.Resource.Org), Tim O’Reilly (O’Reilly Media), Greg Elin (Sunlight Foundation), Micah Sifry (Sunlight Foundation), Adrian Holovaty (EveryBlock), Daniel X. O’Neil (EveryBlock), Michal Migurski (Stamen Design), Shawn Allen (Stamen Design), Josh Tauberer (GovTrack.us), Lawrence Lessig (Stanford), Dan Newman (MapLight.Org), John Geraci (outside.in), Edwin Bender (Inst. for Money), Tom Steinberg (My Society), David Moore (Participatory Politics), Donny Shaw (Participatory Politics), JL Needham (Google), Joel Hardi (Public.Resource.Org), Ethan Zuckerman (Berkman), Greg Palmer (NewCo), Jamie Taylor (MetaWeb), Bradley Horowitz (Yahoo), Zack Exley (New Organizing Institute), Karl Fogel (Question Copyright), Michael Dale (Metavid), Joseph Lorenzo Hall (UC Berkeley), Marcia Hofmann (EFF), David Orban (Metasocial Web), Will Fitzpatrick (Omidyar Network), Aaron Swartz (Open Library).

The meeting was coordinated by Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media and Carl Malamud of Public.Resource.Org, with sponsorship from the Sunlight Foundation, Google, and Yahoo.