Open data
What is open data?
Open data is data that anyone can freely access, use, modify and share for any purpose, subject at most to requirements that preserve provenance and openness. That is the core of the Open Definition maintained by Open Knowledge Foundation.
Three practical tests
- Availability and access: the whole dataset is available at no more than a reasonable reproduction cost, preferably by download over the internet.
- Reuse and redistribution: the terms allow reuse, combination with other data, and redistribution.
- Universal participation: no restrictions on who may use it or for what field of endeavour (for example, no “non-commercial only” clauses).
In practice that means a clear open licence and machine-readable formats.
Open is not the same as public
A PDF table on a website is public, but hard to reuse. A spreadsheet with no licence is public, but legally unclear. Open data is both legally open (licensed for reuse) and technically open (structured, documented and accessible).
Open also does not mean “everything”: personal and sensitive data needs protection. See privacy and GDPR.
Work with ex omnia
Contact details for ex omnia will be published here once confirmed.