Outline
Cross agency strategies must be supported by senior officials.
Links to the Revised PSI Directive
Challenge
Ultimately, laws, directives and policies are implemented by people, some of whom will be enthusiastic about sharing Public Sector Information. Others, however, will be reluctant to do so for a variety of well known 'reasons'. A cross agency strategy for sharing PSI needs support at the very highest level to be effective at overcoming those objections and, no less importantly, securing resources. National government strategies will typically need ministerial support, ideally including the Head of Government him/herself.
Solution
Cross agency strategies must be supported by senior officials who are empowered to provide top down authority where required.
Why is this a Best Practice?
Public sector bodies normally have their own procedures for securing high level support, such as ministerial support. However, such support is often most readily made public by the inclusion of an introduction to the document by the senior official.
How do I implement this Best Practice?
You should have the name of the senior official supporting the strategy readily discoverable.
Where has this best practice been implemented?
This best practice has the following implementation examples:
- Open Data and Shared Services have also been at the center of the eGovernment strategy in Flanders since 2011. The Open Data Program was set up that realising that in a well-functioning, transparent and democratic society, citizens and business must be able to access government data and information and to share and reuse that information, freely and with minimal restrictions. The government decided on a top-down approach to implement the open data strategy. A concept note was drawn up and signed by all ministers.
| Country | Implementation | Contact Point |
|---|---|---|
| Belgium | The Flemish Open Data Program | noel.vanherreweghe@bz.vlaanderen.be |
References
- The Flemish Open Data Program, Noël Van Herreweghe
Contact Info
Noël van Herreweghe, Program Manager Open Data – Government of Flanders in Belgium
Issue Tracker
Any matters arising from this BP, including implementation experience, lessons learnt, places where it has been implemented or guides that cite this BP can be recorded and discussed on the project's GitHub repository