Share-PSI 2.0 Best Practice

Source: Best_Practices/Commercial_Considerations_in_Open_Data_Portal_Design

Outline of the best practice

While certainly data markets have existed long before the advent of the internet, the wholesale exchange of large structured dataset is relatively new. Recent studies identify data marketplaces and data enrichment as important business models utilizing open data. Many early entrants have been forced to shift their focus from "statistics on speed" (timetrics) to more cautious approaches or they left the market altogether

Marketplaces:

• function as search engines for (public or exclusive) datasets or data services, API access,
• provide quality indication for data (often crowdsourced),
• facilitate the comparison of datasets,
• allow the download of data,

Data enrichment providers:

• collect data necessary for a certain task
• enhance, refine or otherwise improve this data
• sell datasets or services specifically designed for the needs of a certain business

Data enrichers - often specialist for a narrow business area (like geo marketing) seem to fare better but here the public data sources are often not spelled out in detail.

Management summary

Challenge

Early commercial data marketplaces and data enrichers have faced a number of challenges (sometimes forcing them do abandon their business models), that were aggravated because the possible commercial re-use of PSI was not adequately addressed in the design of public sector data portals as well as in licensing policies. Among the challenges are:

• Possible market foreclosure for data brokers through public data portals
• Bandwidth issues for large datasets
• Overly restrictive application of privacy rules
• Obstacles for commercial re-use through Technical restriction prohibition and share alike clauses

Solution

• Distinguish between the task of a data broker and that of an open data portal
• Accepting computational queries and delivering results instead of data
• Treat privacy issue as a risk to be managed, not a yes/dichotomy
• Do not demand share alike for open data an don't prohibit technical restrictions for sharing the data

Best Practice Identification

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

Commercial re-use of PSI is an important driver for Open Data. The suggested measures remove common hurdles to commercial re-use an thus strengthen the demand-side of the Open Data process.

Link(s) the PSI Directive

Policies and Legislation

Why is there a need for this Best Practice?

Not addressing these issues will hinder important areas of commercial re-use of PSI.

What do you need for this Best Practice?

Freedom in the design of Open Data Portals (not out-of-the box solutions) and license regimes.

Applicability by other member states?

The best practice can be applied in any member state on all levels of government. It should be especially useful for projects with at least moderate budgets that can afford a custom design of their open data portal.

Contact info - record of the person to be contacted for additional information or advice.

Dietmar Gattwinkel

Projektleiter Open Government Data \| Project Manager Open Government Data

STAATSBETRIEB SÄCHSISCHE INFORMATIK DIENSTE \| SAXON IT SERVICES

Fachbereich 3.1 \| E-Government- und Querschnittverfahren

Riesaer Straße 7 Haus D \| 01129 Dresden Tel.: +49 351 20545259 \| Fax: +49 351 451 3264 310 dietmar.gattwinkel@sid.sachsen.de \| www.sid.sachsen.de

Related Best Practices

• Best Practices/Study the Companies that Build on PSI at National Level
• Best Practices/Support Open Data Start Ups