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Publishing Public Sector Information: new advice released

AGIMO has released new advice on publishing public sector information (PSI) on the Web Guide. The new advice, prepared in consultation with the Government 2.0 Steering Group, provides agencies with a practical guide to making information available online for public access and reuse (subject to privacy, security and other relevant concerns).

The advice breaks down the process into five steps: discover, process, licence, publish, refine.

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A diagram depicting the continuous cycle of 'Discover, Process, License, Publish and Refine' involved in publishing Public Sector Information

These five steps work as a cycle that aims to encourage agencies to regularly release new PSI and improve their existing PSI over time. As part of this cycle, the advice discusses:

  • Business concerns - such as security, privacy and other legal assessments to determine if a given piece of government information can be released as PSI, and the use of open licences to allow reuse of PSI.
  • Technical matters - such as metadata and open standards, as well as publication options (with a strong preference for agencies to use data.gov.au).
  • Ongoing engagement - such as gaining feedback from users of the information and ensuring the permanence of published PSI.

The Declaration of Open Government in July 2010 encouraged the  release of more PSI online as a means of increasing transparency and encouraging innovative reuse of government data.  This was also emphasised in the Government’s responses in 2010 to the Government 2.0 Taskforce and Ahead of the Game: Blueprint for Reform of Australian Government Administration (the Moran Review).

 In 2011, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner released its Principles on Open Public Sector Information and an issues paper on Understanding the value of public sector information in Australia to provide further advice and discussion on the subject. AGIMO has also worked with many agencies to release PSI on data.gov.au following its release in March 2011.

This new advice on publishing PSI builds on these previous documents and promotes the release of more PSI in useful formats and under open licences to demonstrate the social and economic value that can be realised when PSI is more widely available.


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