icegov2012 proceedings

2) An explanation about how civil society can open and read
archive in open format;
3) A blog about the project;
4) Some City Council data in open format.
The open data presented in the website is: a) Presence of
councilors at ordinary and extraordinary plenary sessions; b) Vote
of councilors in ordinary and extraordinary plenary sessions; c)
Budget of the Municipality of São Paulo in 2011; d) Budget
allocations from the Municipal Education in 2011; e) Ratio of
employees (updated monthly); f) Budget Execution of the
Municipality of São Paulo (since January 2010);g) Monthly
Balance of Performance Budget Revenues - Direct
Administration; and, h) Historical Series of the benefits of Aid
Accounts-General Charges In Office.
The data presented in this Portal are few in relation to all
information that has a City Council. But it is a primary and timely
data. They use mainly XML format. Despite claiming that they
follow the recommendations of international organizations, it is
not clear what are the licenses used. They also do not have a
space to present applications that use their data. The following
table summarizes how open government data principles of are
adopted by the Brazilian experiences:
Table 2. OGD principles adoption in Brazilian cases
Principles
Dados
Gov
Governo
Aberto SP
São Paulo
City
Council
No
Complete
Data
No No
Primary
Data
No No
X
Timely
Data
X X
X
Accessible
Data
X X
X
Machine
understandable
X X
X
Non
Discriminatory
X X
X
Non
Proprietary
X X
X
Free License X X
Info not
provided
Source: Created by authors from cases website
Therefore, when we compare these cases and the principles of
open government data, we can realize that most of the principles
are used in the examples of Brazil. Data are not complete and
most are not primary. However, there was still little information
available. There is also lack of clarity about the license of the data
presented in the case of São Paulo City Council.
A positive point is that they all have current data, accessible and
understandable by machines. Furthermore, it is not necessary a
register to data access.
27
5. OGD in Brazil and the Five Stars of Open
Linked Data
In the case of Tim Berners-Lee method, the Brazilian cases are in
the following phase:
1) One Star: the first stage requires that the website contains
data available independently of the format, but with an open
license. All the cases studies presented data available and an
open license. For example, Dados Gov from Federal
Government uses Creative Commons License. We found
three problems to guarantee the excellence of the first stage
in Brazilian initiatives: a) There are few data presented in
these Open Data Portals in relation to public data that
governments have; b) São Paulo City Council does not
explain clearly what open license they use; and c) DadosGov
has some data that is not open license.
2) Two Stars: All portals presented data available as machinereadable
structured data.
3) Three Stars: The Portals use mainly non-proprietary archives
such as XML, CSV and HTML, so, they achieved the third
stage.
Unfortunately, it was not found the four and five stars. To achieve
these stars, the governmental portals have to: i)Use URIs, so
people can point at their stuff, and; ii) Link their data to other data
to provide context.
6. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
The emergence of the OGD requires a shift in thinking about the
transparency of governmental actions and information. This need
is not just theoretical. The very practice of social actors involved
is creating new demands for transparency, not served by
traditional practices in electronic government.
There is a major change in the principles that guide the handling
of demands for transparency. So far, everything that was not
confidential should be made available to the public upon request,
or kept available as possible. The new framework gives rise to a
new level of demand for transparency: everything that is not
confidential should be available on the internet as open data in a
way people cannot just access data, but also create new services
and analysis with these open data.
Logically, implementing broader OGD programs will face huge
barriers, because most governments wouldn't be mobilized to
increase the level of social control over them. However, the
complexity of the issue makes it impossible to reduce it only to
the interest of governments in promoting transparency through the
OGD. Civil society has an important role, too.
In addition, comprehensive programs to spread open government
data require using data formats and technologies are not always
employed by governments themselves. Therefore it will be a
difficult task even for well-intentioned governments and surely
will took many years to reach a high level of open government
data availability.
According to [17] technology already exists for governments and
civil society to use government data as they decide. Available
technology can support new ways and new indicators of thinking
about public administration. In this way, civil society could
generate more innovation from unrestricted access to public data.
For these authors, the development of open government data
depends on: a clear policy of the Administration in regard to