About

This site came out of a 2007 working group held in Sebastopol, California, USA which developed the 8 Principles of Open Government Data. These principles have become the de facto starting point for evaluating openness in government records.

Your comments are welcome on our discussion list.

This site is currently maintained by Josh Tauberer.

Open Government Data Legislation

Enacted Legislation
  • Vancouver Open Data, Open Standards and Open Source, passed May 2009 (?)
    • Requires the adoption of "prevailing open standards"
    • Also puts open source software on an "equal footing" with commercial software
  • Portland, passed Sept. 30, 2009
    • To develop a strategy to "adopt prevailing open standards".
    • To organize a regional contest.
    • Encourages procurement of open source software
  • San Francisco Administrative Code Open Data Policy passed Nov. 9, 2010
    • Refers to standards that make the data available "to the greatest number of users and for the greatest number of applications" (an adaptation of the 8 Principle's accessibility principle) and "non-proprietary technical standards".
    • To evaluate merits of using a Creative Commons or other generic license.

Proposed Legislation
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