Best Practice: Categorise openness of data

Challenge

Public sector organisations often only consider what can be open for all. However, it may also be useful to publish data that can be shared under certain restrictions.

Solution

Both open data and data with restrictions can be published with an indication of how open it is:

• green for data that can be made available with no restrictions;
• yellow for data that is not open for all and has some restrictions;
• Red for data than is highly sensitive and can only be made available under strict conditions.

Why is this a Best Practice? What’s the impact of the Best Practice

The categorisation is simple. It is not designed to facilitate a deep and exhaustive mapping of data in an organisation, but rather it allows for an initial overview and categorisation to get the ball rolling.

Links to the Revised PSI Directive

Selection

Why is there a need for this Best Practice?

This best practice allows a twin-track approach: 'publish early even if imperfect' and a commitment to a 'high quality core.' This twin-track policy will maximise the benefit within practical constraints. It will reduce the excuses for poor or slow delivery; it says 'get it all out and then improve.'

What do you need for this Best Practice?

The only major requirement here is that someone has responsibility to perform this for the organisation. Technical requirements are minimal. Some simple tools are necessary to assist in the identification and release of some data early.