Development of Support Technologies and Licensing Models for the Disclosure of Open Data (BR0050)

to research, develop and disclosure technologies with the aim of facilitating data extraction, transformation and disclosure by public bodies and agencies, in compliance with the principles of open data, as well as the existing licensing models for Open Data within the Brazilian legal system with the purpose of assessing the need to develop a new licensing model. The compilation documents on the technological solutions and on the conclusions on licensing shall be develop with the participation of the society, the Academia, developers, and third sector communities, and shall be disclosed in the Brazilian Open Data Portal.

Commitment 2.13. Development of Support Technologies and Licencing Models for the disclosure of open data

Commitment Text: To research, develop and disclosure technologies with the aim of facilitating data extraction, transformation and disclosure by public bodies and agencies, in compliance with the principles of open data, as well as the existing licensing models for Open Data within the Brazilian legal system with the purpose of assessing the need to develop a new licensing model. The compilation documents on the technological solutions and on the conclusions on licensing shall be develop with the participation of the society, the Academia, developers, and third sector communities, and shall be disclosed in the Brazilian Open Data Portal.

Responsible institution: Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management

Supporting institution: None

Start date: Not specified                          End date: 14 August 2014

Commitment aim

The commitment was geared toward defining a data licence format for the use of open government data. This is key to fostering the reuse of open data among civil society and private sector enterprises. A secondary goal was to develop data publication tools to encourage the use of already released open government data.

Status

Midterm: Completed

The data licence proposal was completed by the midterm review. In addition, the government updated its data portal with greater data integration and classification, as well as launched an open data toolkit for government agencies.

Did it open government?

Access to information: Marginal

Civic participation: Marginal

The commitment consisted of an essential, yet preliminary step in fostering open data in the country. It was an improvement in access to information because the updated data portal and new toolkit provide a stronger and clearer framework for the public and private sectors to reuse government data, and for the government to release datasets. However, the commitment’s contribution is marginal in the short term — and uncertain in the long term — because the licencing has not yet been implemented and data release tools are still being adopted by government agencies.

In terms of civic participation, it is worth noting that the licence was developed using collaborative tools, such as a wiki and Google Groups. There is evidence of extensive participation by civil society organisations and activists in the discussion groups. Finally, CSOs had the lead role in developing the licenses themselves,^{[Note 60: INDA Google Group, https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/lista-inda-gt3.]} since the commitment was completed in partnership with the Open Knowledge Foundation.

Carried forward?

The commitment was not carried forward to the next action plan. If the government considers it in the future, the IRM researcher recommends implementing the licencing model and having civil society and the private sector monitor its implementation.