Since its launch in 2010 the website rijksoverheid.nl applies the Creative Commons zero declaration (CC0) to the content of the website, unless stated otherwise. This means that all content available on the site is in the public domain and is free from copyright or other usage restrictions. This is important in order to facilitate the re-use of the data/content. Other government websites have taken the same approach, for instance www.government.nl and www.answersforbusiness.nl

More recently, the focus has shifted to what comes after openness: the sharing – in electronic, computer-readable formats – of various types of open data produced by government agencies and public institutions.

So what exactly is meant with ‘open data’? What type of information is made available, and how is this being re-used in commercial websites and mobile apps? Read on to find out the answers and get inspired to apply ‘open data’ in your own context.

What is ‘Open Data’?

Open data is information that can be used and spread freely by everyone, without restrictions from copyrights, patents or other controls. The basic philosophy behind open data is not new, but the term has been popularized recently thanks to some major open data initiatives in the worlds of science and government.

The basic idea is simple: When information is freely shared, it will stimulate individuals and organizations to re-use, combine and build on the available data. Typical examples include commercial use in new online applications, or use for scientific research.

In the past, the problem with this type of information was that it was often difficult to find or not available in any standardized, machine-readable format. This is now changing in the Netherlands: An increasing number of datasets are becoming available on the dedicated portal site data.overheid.nl. To access the data from within other applications, open standards are supported, allowing the developers to focus on creating added value with the data, rather than on low-level data manipulation and communication.

Some examples of data sets that are being shared:

• Education data: For instance, the number of students in the various types of primary and secondary schools across the country
• Weather data: evolution of showers from satellite data, information from local observation posts, water levels in rivers and canals, …
• Maps: from historical maps and drawings to recent geographical data

How re-use of open data stimulates innovation

The main objective of the Dutch government is to stimulate the development of new innovative applications. A first example – see screenshot below – is the site weetmeer.nl (‘know more’), targeting researchers and policy makers. The site aggregates various kinds of open data about the Dutch municipalities, ranging from demographic data to election results:

This first example is built as a traditional website, but my expectation is that the most innovative applications will come in the form of mobile sites and apps for use on smartphones. At the end of 2011, the Dutch government launched a national competition called ‘National App Prize’ to inspire people to develop smart, creative apps based on open data. First winner of the competition is Vistory, an iPhone app that shows pictures and movies about the history of the place, monument,… where you currently are – based on your smartphone’s geo-location. It also allows you to take a picture of the site, compare and overlay it with the historic photo, and share with friends. Here is how it works:

Looking for more examples of innovative apps? Check out appsvoornederland.nl

Open data – under the hood

Sharing of open data goes hand in hand with open standards: uniform methods and formats to access and manipulate data. The Dutch government has chosen a REST (Representational State Transfer) API, with data stored in XML and JSON formats. Modern content management systems based on open source, such as the Hippo CMS used by rijksoverheid.nl, provide out-of-the-box support for RESTful components. This makes it easy to implement multi-channel distribution of content and opens up many other possibilities for further sharing.

Of course data sets are also presented in older formats, in line with the strategy to make as much data available as possible. For more information on the open standards subject see: www.forumstandaardisatie.nl/english

Other examples of sharing is caring

At J. Boye we see ‘sharing is caring’ as a trend in many areas of online business, which is why we’ve chosen it as the central theme for our 2012 conferences in Philadelphia and Aarhus.

In an earlier blog post, Janus gave examples of sharing as a new business model in the museum and higher education world. Some of my earlier posts talked about sharing on the intranet, and especially . sharing in SharePoint. All these stories have a common theme and message: Share your data openly and you will spark creativity and innovation.

How would you use open data in your business?

Do you see opportunities for using open data in your industry? Can you think of creative ways to improve your online products and services by integrating open data?

At the J. Boye Aarhus 12 conference you will be challenged to think out of the box and discuss the subject with other online professionals. Join us from 6 to 8 November 2012 in Aarhus, Denmark for more examples of creativity and innovation!

Today most countries are drowning in central government websites. In a small, but highly digital country like Denmark with just over 5 million inhabitants there are currently 1000+ government websites and in the US the number is 24.000 websites.

There are certainly more government websites out there than necessary.

To put it another way – time has come for central government to reduce the number of websites, maybe all the way down to 1.

This would be particularly beneficial and sensible given the current tough economic climate.

One government – few websites

In reality, citizens and professionals  care very little about which ministry delivers what. Ministries come and go in different shapes, forms and names.

What matters to the customers/citizens is getting their tasks done e.g. doing their tax return or finding the latest legislation within a specific area.

Do you really think the citizens care if it is one ministry or another that delivers? No, exactly – it doesn’t matter.

It’s no natural law that all public offices should have their own website. In Holland they actually did something about it. They realized that they didn’t need 16 different government websites and then merged them all into one website.

One website doesn’t fit all

Proponents of  ‘one government – many websites’ would argue that you need many websites because they deliver all kinds of information to all facets of society and hence need many websites. They would say that you cannot have information and tasks regarding defence, traffic and education within one website.

It would create a congestion of tasks, messages and information in general. Could you imagine a teacher looking for a new national curriculum on a single government website? She would have to browse through social initiatives against drug abuse and costal protection plans. It simply wouldn’t work. Government isn’t one entity. It consists of different ministries, boards etc.

They all have different organisations with different target audiences. Hence they need to have different websites.Governments have a special obligation. They must (amongst many other things) deliver information and tools to its citizens and professionals alike.

The vast possibilities of the web help governments to achieve those objectives. Most of the time they must deliver all the soft stuff – knowledge and visibility – but increasingly they bring up advanced solutions that deliver essential tools e.g. the ability to fill in tax returns electronically.

Time for fewer government websites

Maybe one website cannot fit all the tools and information needed, but having 1000+ central governmental websites in a country like Denmark of just 5.5 million is definitely too much.

Both the US and the UK currently have initiatives that seek to reduce the number of governmental websites and this trend will undoubtedly grow elsewhere in the months and years ahead.

What do you think? How can government reduce their number of websites?

At our Philadelphia conference earlier this month Eric Karjaluoto made a very compelling case for organisations to 'speak human' in order to better connect with customers. He illustrated his keynote with best and worst practice examples from large and small enterprises that made it clear why you can no longer “lie, cheat, steal” your way to making it big. This advice applies equally well to government administration, which would be able to make real progress if they became better at connecting with citizens.

A few stories to illustrate the potential and how the web could help:

• In Denmark with a population of 5 million, the Danish Tax and Customs Administration receives about 4,5 million phone calls every year with questions about taxes. In a a story in a Danish newspaper, a government representative says that the Danish tax rules are particularly complex. That might be true, but a good content strategy making the website much easier to use should be able to reduce the number of  calls greatly.
• In the US, The New York Times recently reported that doctors, once used to answering patients’ questions about their hearts or other matters physical, have lately spent up to half of their time answering a range of different questions — about the new health care law. Needless to say, substantial policy changes will always lead to questions. Better websites with plain language texts should help answer most of these.

Part of 'speaking human' is about using plain language. In the UK, The Plain English campaign has been campaigning since 1979, "against gobbledygook, jargon and misleading public information." Here's an educational example from their website:

Before:

High-quality learning environments are a necessary precondition for facilitation and enhancement of the ongoing learning process.

After:

Children need good schools if they are to learn properly.

Plain language will indeed get you far in terms of speaking human. You've probably seen plenty of examples like the above in both paper and online communication if you have had to deal with government. Plain language in a sense is the easy part, the difficult one is the "connect" part. This is where you actually listen and builds a relationship - regardless of whether online or offline. I can name several enterprises that do this well at the moment and Eric Karjaluoto also named a few.

Please, dear reader, can you mention just one government agency that 'speaks human' today?

To quote Shakespeare: "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark".

The statement on Plone is from the Danish National IT and Telecom Agency, which belongs in the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. You'll find the innocent looking quote as a part of an IT dictionary on their website.

I agree that Plone is a good CMS and I've also previously called Plone a popular open source CMS, but that does not mean I would blindly adopt it for any web project or recommend Plone on any shortlist for a CMS selection. As you probably know, there are many relevant open source alternatives, e.g. Liferay, Typo3 and Umbraco. On the commercial side I compare Plone to Microsoft SharePoint, mainly due to product strengths behind the firewall, in particular with collaboration. Interestingly SharePoint is very popular with government projects, including in Denmark.

For the government based buyer, please remember that the consulting firms with Plone experience tend to be quite small in size. Also, Plone requires Python knowledge for advanced customisation and is known for having a steep learning curve.

There is a potential role for government in this market. What would be very helpful for government buyers are:

• 3 - 5 recommended content management systems with strengths and weaknesses for each CMS when used in particular types of projects
• a listing of unsupported systems and a good reason for why the system is on the list

To be fair, it is an improvement for the Danish government to recommend Plone rather than having a gov't funded proprietary CMS, which was the case back in 2005.

Does your country's government have publicly stated preferences with regards to CMS? If so, what are they?

UPDATE 30 July: Plone has been removed from the IT dictionary