Germany's National Plan for Implementing the G8 Open Data Charter

Just a few days ago, the Minister of the Interior of Germany presented the document “The Federal Government’s National Action Plan on Implementing the G8 Open Data Charter”.

This charter was adopted at the G8 summit in Ireland in June 2013 and is based on the following principles:

1. government data is published as open by default, at the same time, with the condition that privacy is protected;
2. release of high-quality, timely and well-described open data
3. release as much data in as many formats as possible to make data as convenient as possible for reuse;
4. providing expertise and transparency about data collection, standards and publication processes, through improved management;
5. consultation with users and publication of data in order to develop and stimulate innovation;

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According to this action plan, the German Federal Government undertakes to:

1. ensure the publication of as much data as possible through the development of regulations and other tools;
   
2. publish as many existing government data sets as possible;
   
3. GovData will be the central portal for federal, regional and local governments;
4. regular dialogue with civil society, business, journalists and the research community.

The whole plan can be found on the Ministry’s website - http://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/EN/Broschueren/2014/national-action-plan-open-data.html

By far the most important provision of the plan is the implementation of the principle “Open data by default”. The fact that all data of the state should be provided exactly as open data.