Title: Publishing Open Government Data
Authors: Daniel Bennett, Adam Harvey
Source: The W3C eGovernment Interest Group
Publisher: The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
Date (published): 08/09/2009
Date (accessed): 13/09/2009
Type of information: W3C Working Draft
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Every day, governments and government agencies publish more data on the Internet. Sharing this data enables greater transparency; delivers more efficient public services; and encourages greater public and commercial use and re-use of government information. Some governments have even created catalogs or portals (such as data.gov) to make it easy for the public to find and use this data.

Although the reasons may vary, the logistics and practicalities of opening government data are the same. To help governments open and share their data, the W3C eGov Interest Group has developed the following guidelines. These straightforward steps emphasize standards and methodologies to encourage publication of government data, allowing the public to use this data in new and innovative ways.