Norwegian Government is serious about a data.norge.no
The Norwegian Ministry of Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs (FAD) has launched data.norge.no – stage 1 as a blog inviting input into the development of a Norwegian Government data portal. Data.norge.no is described as a meeting place for all persons interested in government data – those who work in government agencies and manage the data and those who use technology to re-use the data. Everyone is invited to follow the blog and join the debate and discussions.
Questions can be sent via Twitter to @fornyingsdep or by contacting:
- Ann Kristin Lindaas (Telefon: 45 24 17 81) or Sverre Andreas Lunde-Danbolt (Telefon: 41 48 04 95)
Within only a couple of weeks, the blog already has posts, comments and links to useful resources and reports.
The launching of Data.norge.no follows on from the Norwegian Government’s announcement of the Web 2.0 Boxes Competition supporting individuals, companies and public entities to make innovative web 2.0 projects happen (2.5 million Kroner).
Olav Anders Øvrebø (on Vox Publica) has published news capturing the innovative spirit of the data.norge.no initiative pointing the work on the Norwegian open data community contributors. Here is the news by Olav entitled: “data.norge.no” (Approximate English translation) (Norwegian Text Online):
“It [data.norge.no] is the address of the site to gather information on public data, writes renewal Secretary Rigmor Aasrud in this guest post.
Did you know you can find out what zip code has a street address with postal Electronic Mail Address Book? The fact that the winter can download information for the entire country with the Norwegian Coastal Administration? You can download weather forecasts from the Meteorological Institute at Yr.no? Or you can see how much money the various political parties have been in support of partifinansiering.no? These are good examples of information the government makes available to citizens, and there will be many more such examples in the years to come.
Therefore I have begun work to create a website that can collect information on public data. This site should have the address data.norge.no! When both the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Denmark, New Zealand and Australia have done so, it is time that we also do it! The aim is that this site will be a meeting place for everyone who works with the use of public data. The public data can be used by anyone other than the agencies and municipalities that have collected them in fact have a huge value creation potential. Maybe someone can create a service that sends weather information to your mobile phone when you are thinking of pulling out the boat? A service that points the way to the nearest City bikes stand? Or perhaps a service that alerts you if there is road construction sites along the road you tend to walk, cycle or drive to work, so you can take a different path and avoid queuing?
This topic has been discussed frequently in the past year, and many good and constructive suggestions have emerged through debates in both NRKbeta on Origo blog and online magazine Vox Publica and the blog on the Facts First Report. It has also been inspiring to see the work Sondre Bjellås added into the wiki datakilder.no, and volunteer-based mapping work of Olav Anders Øvrebø and Vox Publica, where they collected the data sources in a worksheet that is editable to anyone on the Internet and, more recently no.ckan.net.
I need their help to develop the site data.norge.no as a good overview of public data sources that are available for further use. What do you think is important? What should we consider? What information should be on site? What types of data are most important? What is important to know whether the data in order to re-use them in practice?
Say your opinion here – or through other channels such as Twitter or email. We are open to suggestions for creating a great site for data.norge.no, and make public data available on a proper and appropriate manner.”
Source: EPSIplatform
