At OGD Camp last week in Warsaw we organized a workshop to bring together the established PSI re-using industry with the Open Data movement, and to start a conversation on what each can learn from the other.

The existing PSI re-users have been around for a long time, and urging governments to make PSI re-usable for decades. The open data movement is a recent addition to the re-use arena, but brings with it a much wider and diverse group of stakeholders, and plenty new energy.

The workshop aimed to create a better understanding of the basic positions of both the information industry and the Open Data movement.

Rolf Nordqvist, chairman of the PSI Alliance, representing re-use based companies gave a short introduction on how the information industry looks at open data and re-use. He signalled that the starting points for both the information industry and the open data movement are largely the same.

Additionally the market has several other needs. One is that data provision is relatively stable, and that it is possible to enter into agreements with government bodies on this (while recognizing that this may mean paying for the costs this causes to public sector bodies). Another is ending the situation that currently PSB's sometimes compete with their data re-users in the market.

Thomas Thurner also gave a short introduction, and explained how the Austrian open data movement combines all relevant stakeholders, including long-time PSI re-using companies. This has resulted in a higher speed of progress in working with government to open up data, as government recognizes they are dealing with a good representation of the 'demand side' of re-use.

After both introductions discussion followed.