Thesis conclusions on PSI re-use online in Europe

Title

Accessibility: the exponential factor of PSI re-use

Stockholm University
Master Program in Law and Information Technology                           Course D Thesis 
Supervisor: Cecilia Magnusson Sjöberg
Student: María Palma


Conclusions

•    Necessity of an Ownership Mind Shift in Europe: abandon the conception of PSI as a private asset and urgently adopt the public asset perspective

•       Open standard formats for PSI re-use as a guarantee of implementation of the internal EU market principles: transparency; non-discrimination; and fair practices.

•      PSI offered as Raw Data in order to avoid IPRs (Intellectual Property Rights) by PSBs (Public Sector Bodies).

•      A single open access point for PSI re-use to solve practical issues as well as competition law issues, while ensuring transparency and fair competition, which are the principles of the internal market.
 

•    Unified and integrated information policies that balance the interest of the public sector; the citizens; and the private sector, that address economic and democratic matters guaranteeing universal free access and fair trading conditions.

•     A more proactive approach by PSBs regarding sharing and publication of their PSI, and a stronger collaboration between public and private sectors.

Italian Digital Agenda

Available at adi.ideascale.com

Marc de Vries introduction to the PSI Directive revision

Introduction by Marc de Vries on the proposal to amend the PSI Directive on re-use of PSI the newly proposed revision for the PSI Directive

Plenary I : Introduction by Marc de Vries from ePSI platform on Vimeo.

UK 70, US 33, Sweden 25, and Spain 0 out of 100% is the score in the “The Closed World of Company Data” report

Spain, cathegorized in the report as one of the most important economies in the world, got 0 points in the general score, same punctuation as Tanzania, Brazil, Romania, or Greeze, among others. On the oposite side, first in the list was the UK with 70 points out of 100, followed by the Czech Republic with 50 points, and the Slovak Republic and Albania with 45 points each.
The 55 countries surveyed are all members of the Open Government Partnership, a new multilateral initiative to make governments better, and which aim is to secure concrete commitments from governments on topics of transparency, citizens empowerment, anitcorruption actions, and to encourage new technologies to strengthen governance.
According to the report private corporations around the world are benefitting from unjustified levels of secrecy around company registers which makes very difficult and hard to, for instance, how businesses are structured or who owns them. These practices are, according to Chris Taggart of London-based OpenCorporates, "likely to support unfair business practices and even corruption because there cannot be proper scrutiny from and accountability to shareholders or the general public.”

New Zealand is mentioned in the report because "all the information on the company register is open for everybody, without charge, without registration, and without significant restrictions. In addition, the entries on the register are much more detailed than on all the OGP countries we have examined, including directors, statutory filings and significant shareholders."

OpenCorporates’ report

Open Data actions in the 2012-2015 Irish eGovernment Plan

12 of April is the publishing date of the new Irish eGovernment Plan for 2012-2015. As the release says, the plan contains several commitments to data release and data sharing including a section on re-use of data. 

The Irish Government has adopted a "release by default" approach according to the source, meaning that PSBs will be required to release open Data and to make open formats of all types of documents available. At the same time, PSBs are required to produce exhaustive eGovernment plans outlining the implementation of these open Data measures, and will also be required to report on progress in implementing these plans.

The eGovernment Plan is aligned with the Public Service Reform Plan of last November 2011.

Report: PSI: Identification of Potential Exclusive Agreements – Spain / Final Report

Study on the potential existence of possible exclusive agreements between public sector bodies and third parties in Spain, in light of Article 11 of the Directive 2003/98/EC on the re-use of public sector information (the PSI Directive).

Call for proposals to OKFestival related to specific open knowledge and open data topics

OKFestival in Helsinki, 17-22 Sept 2012