1. ePSINet Policy Conference Recommendations for improving the re-use of Public Sector Information* Athens, 14 January 2005 Philippe Pierre / Makx Dekkers  *connectedthinking

2. Agenda Scope & approach Management aspects Conclusions

3. Scope & approach Management aspects Conclusions

4. PricewaterhouseCoopers Luxembourg 14 January 2005 Page 4 ePSINet Policy Conference, Athens Main sources IDA eGovernment Observatory IDA Open Source Observatory PSI site of the European Commission ePSINet country reports Interviews Scope & approach

5. PricewaterhouseCoopers Luxembourg 14 January 2005 Page 5 ePSINet Policy Conference, Athens Areas of interest Five levels of management aspects: Scope & approach 2. Organisational level 1. Policy level 3. Semantic level 4. Technical level 5. System level

6. Management aspects Scope & approach Management aspects Conclusions

7. PricewaterhouseCoopers Luxembourg 14 January 2005 Page 7 ePSINet Policy Conference, Athens Policy level Management aspects Most countries have a general regulatory framework covering access of citizens to PSI for personal purposes (commercial purposes are often not mentioned) Almost all countries have eGovernment policies, which usually do not mention re-use or exploitation, with the exception of Finland, Ireland, the Czech Republic and the UK Many policies aim to establish central portals for the PS itself Clarify whether commercial exploitation of PSI is covered by regulation of access to PSI. Develop regulation if needed Include objectives and action lines related to re-use and exploitation of PSI in national eGovernment strategies Observations Recommendations

8. PricewaterhouseCoopers Luxembourg 14 January 2005 Page 8 ePSINet Policy Conference, Athens Organisational level Management aspects Many countries have a central agency or cross-agency cooperation structure to coordinate eGovernment activities It is not clear in many cases whether these agencies are also responsible for the implementation of policies related to the exploitation of PSI Some countries (France, Germany, UK) are establishing common information or KM environments Establish a central organisation that publishes and maintains guidelines, provides tools and supports common approaches across the public sector, explicitly covering the area of exploitation of PSI Observations Recommendation

9. PricewaterhouseCoopers Luxembourg 14 January 2005 Page 9 ePSINet Policy Conference, Athens Semantic level Management aspects Although it is widely recognised that these semantic standards and recommendations are necessary to enable better organisation of information, framework specifications for semantics are in existence in relatively few countries (e.g. Denmark and the UK) There are reports that many other countries are working on this Establish common standards and approaches for description and classification of PSI to benefit the exploitation of PSI Observations Recommendation

10. PricewaterhouseCoopers Luxembourg 14 January 2005 Page 10 ePSINet Policy Conference, Athens Technical level Management aspects In all cases where specifications are provided, all countries stress the importance of open standards In Denmark, in order to provide a coherent foundation for analysis and discussion, a working definition of open standards has been prepared Establish recommendations for open standards and proven approaches to underlie the technical environment of PSI Observations Recommendation

11. PricewaterhouseCoopers Luxembourg 14 January 2005 Page 11 ePSINet Policy Conference, Athens System level Management aspects More and more countries are opting for open source software that supports the open standards defined for the technical level The Danish Board of Technology lists a set of recommendations, among which the most important is on creating open standards for document storage and exchange, noting that open source is “a real alternative for e-government” Establish a policy for open source products supporting open standards taking into account aspects of stability and scalability, while developments based on open source products should be coordinated to avoid duplication of effort Observations Recommendation

12. Conclusions Scope & approach Management aspects Conclusions

13. PricewaterhouseCoopers Luxembourg 14 January 2005 Page 13 ePSINet Policy Conference, Athens Areas of interest All five levels are taken into consideration in many countries The main drive is towards establishing common approaches and specifications Central agencies or cross-agency collaboration structures have been or are being set up to provide support to PS organisations on various levels to help implement common approaches These approaches, if successful, will help the private sector to get easier access to information that they want to exploit Many initiatives and approaches are recent / under development Conclusions

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