Library of Parliament Publications on E-Government and Open Data Initiatives

The Library of Parliament recently published 2 documents on open data initiatives in Canada and other countries:

• Government 2.0 and Access to Information: 1. Recent Developments in Proactive Disclosure and Open Data in Canada
• Government 2.0 and Access to Information:
  2. Recent Developments in Proactive Disclosure and Open Data in the United States and Other Countries

From the intro of the first document:

"In addition to operating the traditional request-based system where a member of the public asks for a government document and receives a hard copy (or an electronic one), increasingly, governments are moving many of their documents and data online, where members of the public can search for material themselves."

(...)

"Another term frequently used in this context is 'Government 2.0,' which refers to the integration of new-generation digital media technologies into government structure and operations."

"Many municipal and local governments, including some in Canada, have started rolling out 'open data' web portals that provide raw government data to the public. The governments of the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia all made major announcements regarding the launch of open data and other proactive disclosure initiatives in December 2009. Some countries, such as Mexico, India, Finland and New Zealand have had proactive disclosure systems in place for some time."

"This paper will provide examples of the proactive disclosure systems that are developing or already in place in Canada. A second paper in this series will look at the development of proactive disclosure systems in the United States and selected other countries."