The 2012 Report on Adoption of the Declaration on Open and Transparent Government was released on 18 June 2012 by Colin MacDonald, Chair, Data and Information Re-use Chief Executives Steering Group following Cabinet approval [See the Cabinet Paper and SEC Min (12) 7/7].
2012 Report on agency adoption of the New Zealand Declaration on Open and Transparent Government [PDF 342 KB]
SEC Min (12) 7/7 [PDF 35 KB]
Key findings are that businesses are starting to re-use government public data innovatively by creating new smartphone applications, mashing up open government data from multiple departments and the private sector and using open data web services to reduce cost and processing. They are also partnering with government to host and deliver government data.
Government departments and businesses are also working in new ways to share data, for example, the land zone and technical category data released publicly by CERA to assist with the Canterbury earthquake recovery.
All government departments are moving to incorporate the Declaration into their core business. All have assigned senior staff to lead this work and none reported insurmountable barriers to adopting the Declaration.
The aggregated spreadsheets below (in csv format) provide the raw data from the departmental returns. These first reports set a benchmark for subsequent annual reports on progress.
Wellington: New Zealand Open Government Data and Information Programme Secretariat, June 2012 ISSN 2253-4369 (online)
Other documents
2012 case studies [CSV 12 KB]
2012 detail of current releases [CSV 46 KB]
2012 detail of future releases [CSV 10 KB]
2012 detail of survey responses [CSV 24 KB]
2012 summary of incorporation into business [CSV 1 KB]
2012 summary of releases and outcomes [CSV 1 KB]
2012 tally of case studies and barrier responses [CSV 1 KB]
Appendix 1: Examples of the re-use of departmental data
Appendix 2: Declaration adoption survey questions
1. This progress report provides the first picture of government agencies’ adoption of the 2011 Declaration on Open and Transparent Government by reporting on adoption by public service departments. This presents a benchmark for annual measurement of the adoption and impact of re-use of high value public data.
2. The adoption of the Declaration has begun well. All public service departments have appointed a Data Champion at senior management level, 27 departments (75%) have already released data for re-use, and 20 (56%) have plans for future releases.
3. Two departments (6%) regularly license and release their high value public data for re-use in accordance with the Declaration. Twenty five departments (69%) still focus on publication or dissemination. Many report that they are now releasing some of their data for re-use in accordance with the Declaration.
4. Departments’ planned releases of new high value public data indicate they are moving to prioritising for release high value public data with potential economic, social, transparency and efficiency outcomes.
5. There is encouraging evidence of the re-use of government data by third parties. Smartphone applications are being developed, businesses are using government data to support and grow their core business, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) data is being re-used widely by local government and industry and there has been strong interest in the Chief Executives’ expense data.
6. Over 2012 the Open Government Data and Information programme will focus on working closely with the Data Champions, providing further guidance and practical assistance for departments, finding and publishing more case studies, gaining industry and community feedback and implementing the programme across the wider public sector. It will also support the development of a business case to test the feasibility of the concept of a Shared Data Service and explore the costs and benefits of such a service.
7. The Declaration on Open and Transparent Government , (the Declaration) approved by Cabinet in August 2011 [Cab Min (11) 29/12 refers], anticipated that the private and community sectors could use high value public data “to grow the economy, strengthen our social and cultural fabric, and sustain our environment”. Cabinet also wished to “encourage business and community involvement in government decision-making”. It anticipated “a more efficient and accountable public sector, more services tailored to citizen needs, and a greater level of participation in shaping government decisions”.
8. Public service departments were directed to adopt the Declaration, and other agencies across the public sector encouraged or invited to do so. Cabinet noted that an aggregated progress report would be presented to the Ministerial Committee on Government Information and Communications Technology annually.
9. The Data and Information Re-use Chief Executives’ Steering Group has overseen an active programme to support adoption of the Declaration, application of the New Zealand Government Open Access and Licensing framework (NZGOAL) and the release of high value public data for re-use. They have provided guidance to public service departments and ensured that each department has selected a Data Champion from their senior management to lead and drive releasing their public data for re-use. The Minister of Local Government has also written to Mayors, alerting them to the Declaration and encouraging them to adopt it. Statistics New Zealand has provided advice outlining the support they can provide on key aspects around confidentiality, metadata standards and data dissemination standards. The Department of Internal Affairs has piloted a draft data release prioritisation process and shared this approach with other government departments.
10. This report is based on responses from public service departments that were directed to report on their adoption of the Declaration. It summarises the progress made between August 2011 and March 2012, forms a benchmark from which to measure future adoption, and sets out the next steps for supporting departments in their adoption of the Declaration.
11. Public service departments were selected as the first stage, as their data is generally fully taxpayer funded.
12. The following results aggregate and analyse survey responses from 31 (86%) of New Zealand’s public service departments . (See survey questions in Appendix 2).
13. All 36 public sector departments, including all security agencies, have appointed a senior management Data Champion to lead adoption of the Declaration in their departments.
14. With only five departments (14%) having plans in their current Statement of Intent to release high value public data for re-use, it is encouraging to see that almost three quarters (72%) of the departments are intending to incorporate release of data in their core business planning in 2012.
15. The four departments (14%) not intending to incorporate the Declaration in their 2012 core business planning report that they either do not hold high value public data or that their information is protected.
16. “Other” initiatives (see question six of the survey) reported include:
17. Six departments (16%) have licensed and released high value public data for re-use in accordance with the Declaration, compared with 25 departments (69%) that have focused on publishing or disseminating their data. The Declaration and the New Zealand Data and Information Management Principles both state that all high value public data be routinely licensed and released in re-usable, machine readable formats that are open and non-proprietary.
18. Two departments (Land Information New Zealand and Statistics New Zealand) provide most of the public data currently licensed, released for re-use, and exposed on data.govt.nz. The Treasury provides regular updates to data.govt.nz, using an automated feed process.
19. Two departments (the Serious Fraud Office and Statistics New Zealand) have updated their website copyright statements to reflect NZGOAL.
20. Statistics New Zealand, New Zealand's main producer of official statistics, releases vast amounts of high value public data. The data complies with the New Zealand Government Open Access Licensing framework and the majority of it is accessible through data.govt.nz and available for public re-use in fully open formats. Statistics New Zealand is working towards a standardised data dissemination system, which will also improve their capability to provide data in fully open formats and expose it on data.govt.nz. Note here that Statistics New Zealand also releases other agencies’ data, such as Customs data.
21. Statistics New Zealand’s official yearbooks from 1893 have also been digitised and placed online. The tables in these yearbooks can be copied and pasted for re-use.
22. Departments planning future data releases indicate that they are less likely to use NZGOAL and expose their future data on data.govt.nz. This could indicate:
23. No departments reported insurmountable barriers to releasing high value public data. The issues they raised include:
24. Suggestions included a shared application programming interface (API) service and a data repository for releasing data, which may be more efficient than everyone building their own. Web-enabled tools that support data releases were also suggested. This feedback suggests that the availability of shared services could remove technology as a barrier to releasing data and information and could avoid agencies investing in point-to-point solutions that are unhelpful for end users and that duplicate investment across government as a whole.
25. Consistency in the data model used to manage the relationship between address, land parcel, building and rating unit data would make sharing of data across departments easier. CERA and LINZ have initiated work in this area.
26. Departments also requested guidance on formats, data quality standards, and a more detailed definition of personal data.
Feedback from direct engagement with departments
27. In addition to receiving responses from departments, the Open Government Information and Data Programme Secretariat has provided written guidance and engaged in one-on-one consultations to support departmental Data Champions. These discussions have revealed that departments are largely willing to comply, but there is:
a) low awareness of:
b) an underestimation of the value of their data to others; and
c) a lack of clarity on the difference between information and data.
28. The outcomes anticipated by the Declaration will be achieved when there is evidence of the marketplace, communities and people creating new products, business and services based on the re-use of government’s high value public data. There will be instances of new knowledge collaboratively built and applied, and central, regional and local government programmes and business initiatives will be regularly aligned.
29. Planned data releases reported by agencies indicate a move to prioritising high value public data with potential economic, social, transparency and efficiency outcomes. Examples are data on the value of water network assets, local government development contribution levels, pesticides summaries map data, and reconviction and re-imprisonment rate data.
30. At this stage it appears that departments are still developing mechanisms for identifying how the high value public data they have released for re-use has been re-used and what impact this may have had. An obvious exception is the wide use of official statistics.
31. There is some encouraging evidence of re-use by third parties (see also Appendix 1):
32. The following next steps will be overseen by the Data and Information Re-use Chief Executives’ Steering Group:
a) continue to work with departmental Data Champions to ensure adoption of the Declaration is incorporated in departments’ core business activities;
b) Continue to work with industry and communities, particularly, OpenNZ , to meet their requirements for re-using high value public data for economic and social gain;
c) Focus on practical assistance for departments, including:
d) Support the development of a business case that would test the feasibility of the concept of a Shared Data Service and explore the costs and benefits of such a service;
e) Accelerate the preparation of case studies describing:
The Ministry of Fisheries has partnered with a private web developer Mogeo.co.nz to develop multiple applications to make recreational fishing easier for the general public.
beforeUdig: www.beforeudig.co.nz
The Before-u-Dig asset protection service directly sources LINZ base topographic map layer and survey marks. This reduces cost and processing time and provides a faster turnaround time for advising customers.
1. In which ways have you incorporated the Declaration in your core business activities
2. Have you released high value public data for re-use in accordance with the 2011 Declaration?
If yes, please use Table 1 below to list what has been released for re-use, and which outcomes it contributes to. (Please refer over to the definition of High Value Data for assessing outcomes. Please add rows as required.
Table 1:
3. Have you identified potential high value public data for re-use?
If yes, please use Table 2 below to list what you plan to release for re-use, and which outcomes it will contribute to. (Please refer over to the definition of High Value Data for assessing outcomes. Please add rows as required.)
Table 2 :
4 Please provide details of any case studies of successful re-use of your agency’s data.
5. Please comment on any significant or insurmountable barriers to the release of your high value public data for re-use to date.
6. Please add any other comments about your release of high value public data in accordance with the Declaration on Open and Transparent Government.
Data is factual information (as measurements or statistics) used as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation or information in numerical form that can be digitally transmitted or processed (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/data).
Agencies publish data in a variety of re-usable and less re-usable formats, for example, databases, datasets, spreadsheets, tables in reports.
Note that any published data with totals, averages and other aggregates is likely to meet the statutory definition of official statistics and would thus be managed under the provisions of the Statistics Act 1975.
Public data is non-personal, unclassified and non-confidential data:
(a) in the case of copyright works, to its release and re-use, in accordance with NZGOAL , under any of the Creative Common NZ law licences, or(b) in the case of non-copyright material, to its open release and re-use.
High value public data released for re-use may have at least 1 of these outcomes:
Economic & social outcomes
Transparency & democratic outcomes
Efficiency outcomes
Last updated 20/09/2016