The Hague, 12 January 2011

At the request of the Dutch Ministry for Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations the Dutch research institute has published a report on Open Government policies. In the report the current situation in six countries (US, UK, Australia, Denmark, Spain and Estonia) is compared, and recommendations are made for Dutch policies on Open Government. Open government data is named as a key component of open government policies.

From the management summary on the motivation of countries for their open government policies (google translation), which states that the PSI Directive is a driving force:

"There are legal, economic, technological, internal (eg policy) and socio-culturalmotivations and barriers for the advancement of Open Government policy for this. An important motive in European countries is the influence of European legislation on the reuse of government information. In economic terms, the market pressure for the release of information is a key driver: data from governments provide many potential commercial value. Internettechnologies as Web 2.0, the semantic web and cloud computing are still important motivations. In the U.S.,the UK and some regions in Spain progressive political leadership pressed a stamp on Open Government policy. It is not just the politics that shows leadership,technology gurus also provide inspiration for policy and implementation. A strong force finally is international comparison between countries. In almost all countries, see best practices in Open Government from the United States and United Kingdom. In Australia respondents explicitly said that they do not want to fall behind the Open Government leadership of the United States.

"Er zijn op juridisch, economisch, technologisch, intern (bijvoorbeeld beleidsmatig) en sociaal-cultureel vlak drijfveren en barrières voor de voortgang van ‘Open Overheid’-beleid aan te wijzen. Een belangrijke drijfveer in de Europese landen is de invloed van Europese wetgeving op het gebied van het hergebruiken van overheidsinformatie. Op economisch vlak is de druk van de markt voor het vrijgeven van overheidsinformatie een belangrijke drijfveer: de data van overheden bieden potentieel veel commerciële waarde. Internettechnologieën zoals web 2.0, het semantisch web en cloud computing zijn nog steeds belangrijke drijfveren. In de Verenigde Staten, het Verenigd Koninkrijk en enkele vooruitstrevende regio’s in Spanje drukt politiek leiderschap een stempel op ‘Open Overheid’-beleid. Het is echter niet alleen de politiek die leiderschap toont, ook technologische goeroes bieden inspiratie voor beleid en uitvoering. Een laatste sterke drijfveer is de internationale vergelijking tussen de landen. In bijna alle landen wordt verwezen naar ‘best practices’ op het gebied van Open Overheid uit bijvoorbeeld de Verenigde Staten en het Verenigd Koninkrijk. Australië noemt bijvoorbeeld expliciet dat ze niet wil achterblijven bij het ‘Open Overheid’-leiderschap van de Verenigde Staten."

The report points to the ongoing difficulty of clearly evaluating and measuring impact of open government and open data policies, even though the countries in the comparison expect or plan to see effects in many different areas.

As to policy recommendations the report says the following in its summary (google translation):

Based on the country studies is a SWOT analysis of the current 'Open Government' policy in the Netherlands. During a workshop with policy makers, academics and (social) entrepreneurs, the following recommendations (in order of interest identified by the workshop participants): 1. Installing a central, open data portal must make clear what open data are available, the quality of the data and how they are used. 2. The positive and negative effects of Open Government policy should be reviewed so that a clear business case can be made. 3. Provide open data actively to talented students and social entrepreneurs for education and innovation. 4. Open data and e-participation both fall under the umbrella of Open Government, but should be approached separately with its own policies, objectives and instruments. 5. Extend the reach of Open Government by joining the world of the citizens, for example problems in the neighborhood instead of legislation. 6. Action is more important than policy: focus on promoting open data and participation rather than drafting restrictive organizational guidelines. 7. There are open-government champions needed at national and local levels to develop policies and activities. 8. Manage expectations and keep citizens informed of how their input to Open Overheid' initiatives happening. 9. The government should open opportunities for government technology leadership (eg Semantic Web) and innovation potential. 10. Encourage a more open culture within the government. 11.The legal framework and monitoring compliance should be adapted to encourage open data. 12.The government should exploit the opportunities with Open Government policy more effective and efficient public services.

The full report (in Dutch) is available for download at TNO.