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Datasets available for reuse.
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What's next?
Different things you can do to start benefiting from the European OGDI.
Government agency
Get involved with the European OGDI by uploading your public data.
Citizens
Browse the Open Data catalogues available for re-use. For advanced exploring and data analysis download the Excel PowerPivot feature for Office 2010.
ISV's and developers
Reuse the opened data by including Data Access in your applications.
You can also demo the applications that are already re-using Open Data here.
Contact us
If you are ready to publish government datasets or if you have questions, e-mail us.
Microsoft

Delivering Open Government: setting free public data

Open Government is transforming the way organizations across the world handle data and make it available to citizens and communities and is based on four common principles:
Publishing digital data produced and collected by public bodies is a way to realize a piece of Open Government. Overall, this initiative aims to make it easier to publish and reuse a wide variety of public data This includes maps, meteorological, legal, traffic, financial, economic, population and demographics. Typically, it doesn't include personal or identifiable information.

The Open Government challenge

As much public data sits on different - and commonly incompatible - systems, the main challenge is delivering interoperability to enable its wider distribution and reuse. Interoperability enables governments to unlock data from disparate locations and make it available in an array of e-government services, security and privacy intact.

By using emerging protocols, smart tagging, semantics, and document format standards, it is now possible to extract data from incompatible systems. New, simple and accessible ways of using the data are already creating services that benefit both local and global communities, but there's still so much potential.


Why is public data so important?

In the EU, the PSI Directive sets the legislative framework for the re-use of public information. But Open Government is so much more than a legal requirement. Better access to Public Sector Information (PSI) can improve people's quality of life and make how they interface with government much easier. Plus, it can create new businesses and jobs while giving consumers more choice and greater value for money.