IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

Earlier this year, the Organization of American States (OAS) in collaboration with the US Embassy in Belize rolled out the “Promoting an Open Government Ecosystem in Belize” project. The project seeks to establish management practices based on openness, accountability, and easy access to public information. There were four workshops held in August geared towards promoting this ecosystem. Love news spoke with Henry Wade, the Local Coordinator for The Trust for the Americas in Belize, who said that the government has already embarked on developing e-government; however, there is more to be done.

The Spanish Open Data Portal published its source code for reuse under the umbrella of the Open Source Forge of CENATIC, the National Center for Open Source based Technologies (Centro Nacional de Referencia de Aplicación de las TIC basadas en fuentes abiertas, in Spanish). Moreover, a project has been created containing the additional software developed for  the datos.gob.es portal, based on open source software as Drupal. The publication of this source code allows any citizen, organisation or company to use it and create their own space dedicated to open data.

European Union & EFTA nations recognize open source software as a key driver of government digital transformation.

It was thus fitting that Estonia, the current EU presidency, brought together Ministers from 32 countries (under the umbrellas of the EU and European Free Trade Association) to adopt the Tallinn Declaration on E-Government, creating a renewed political dynamism coupled with legal tools to accelerate the implementation of a range of existing EU policy instruments (e.g., the e-Government Action Plan and ISA² program).

The Ministry of Finance's open data programme has ended the use of information barriers and has created incentives and conditions for the opening up of information and the development of content and services. The data portal constitutes part of the implementation of this programme, and facilitates the finding and exploitation of information resources.

Burkina Faso, the small West African state rated the third-poorest country in the world by the United Nations, last week launched the Burkina Open Data Initiative in the capital, Ougadougou. The project makes 50 data sets from the country’s health ministry available to the public, with data from more government ministries to follow in September.

There are over 50 participating countries, but now that the first round of action plans has come to an end, how can the OGP maintain the momentum to increase the number of participating countries (especially those that are already eligible) whilst at the same time,  remain focused on moving current participants forward on their commitments? Resources to expand the OGP with eligible countries will inevitably be stretched as the independent reporting mechanism and new action plans are presented later this year.

At the beginning of 2013, the Foreign Office launched a programme to identify potential global leaders of the future.

The programme brings a small group of potential leaders to the UK for a series of events, discussions, visits and briefings, and in October, a group of 10 international leaders came to the Guardian, to talk about the work of the Guardian and the Public Leaders Network. As the visit coincided with the Open Government Partnership summit, we took the opportunity to ask some of the leaders what open government means to them.

The Emirates Identity Authority, the United Nations Public Administration Network and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs will jointly conduct the first Open Government Data Forum on April 28 and 29 at Ritz Carlton Hotel in Abu Dhabi.

Salem Al Shair, Deputy Director General of eGovernment and Information Sector at the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said that eGoverment and information sector will be focused on “open data,” or making the government sector’s data available to everyone.

“The data that the different governmental departments have we want to avail it electronically, avail it in a format that is reusable so that people can take that data and connect and relate it to other data and produce a service or a benefit to the public,” Al Shair said. “The channels should always be open.”

Publishing open data is also one of the United Nations criteria for measuring online presence and eGovernment readiness. The UN is expected to issue the 2012 eGovernment Survey later this month.

Open Data is increasingly gaining attention from several countries and is being considered to be adopted as part of the larger concept of Open Government. Open Data is also an important practice of Gov 2.0; under which, governments employ latest technology to share information and stay connected with the people.

Open Data enriches public knowledge, encourages them to participate in governmental issues and in turn impacts the country's social and economic strength.

As part of the government’s ICT Implementation Strategy Plan, the Policy announced at an Open Data Forum in Sydney this week will require state agencies to “start from a position of data openness”.

The move to open data repositories comes as NSW follows similar US and European initiatives that have spawned thousands of new and innovative low cost applications for citizens that range from being alerted to new development applications to plotting the progress of approaching public transport.

The Queensland Government will be moving to a new round of information law reforms in the form of an "open data" initiative modelled on the NYC OpenData framework.

As part of these open data reforms, the Premier has appointed an Assistant Minister to the Premier on e-government, and announced the establishment of a website to be the accessible portal for the release of State Government information releases, and, an Open Data Reform Group to lead cultural change across the sector.

Under the government’s just-released ICT reforms agenda, an “e-government” initiative is being rolled, out, including a new web site offering a portal into announcements and policy updates.

Ray Stevens, Queensland’s Member for Mermaid, takes up the role of Assistant Minister to Premier Newman, managing a newly-created “e-government” portfolio. This latest appointment opens up avenues for informed discussion and debate between government, industry and community stakeholders.

The online portal, Queensland Government Data, currently gives the public free access to 73 datasets under categories such as government, public safety, education, transportation and health.

The Queensland Government has named the Member for Mermaid Beach, Ray Stevens, as Assistant Minister to Premier Campbell Newman on e-government, as part of its aim to make data more accessible to the public.

FutureGov spoke to Professor John McMillan, Australian Information Commissioner, on how the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) is leveraging Big Data and promoting open government, to bring new opportunities to Government information management.

Anhänger der Open-Data-Bewegung haben einen Grund mehr zum Feiern: In Australien werden die amtlichen Datenschleusen geöffnet. Auf der Website data.gov.au stellen im Auftrag der australischen Regierung verschiedene Behörden umfangreiche Datensätze zum Download zur Verfügung.

Azerbaijan joined the official launch of Open Government Partnership (OGP) on Sept. 20, dining the 66lh UN General Assembly, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov's letter to U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. The text of the letter was published on the OGP website.

The workshop comes as part of implementing the National eGovernment Strategy 2016 action plans and initiatives carried out in order to facilitate government formalities- allowing an open data - excluding the confidential and personal- accessible for the public that will contribute in attracting and promoting investment in the Kingdom.