Datadriven Innovation Sweden

Swedish authorities have for centuries made the vast majority of its information as a result of the Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act. In spite of this act’s long tradition, Sweden has been ranked relatively low in international benchmarks regarding open data. In many cases, it is instead EU legislation that has been enforcing publication of digital governmental data.

For municipalities, there are several specific impediments, hindering the publication of open data:

• Uncertainties of what data that can be published considering current legislation
• Technical platforms – most municipalities do not offer Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to ease the consumption of open data. Also, frequently, the documentation is inadequate.
• Coordination – Sweden has 290 municipalities, where each entity controls a subset of the national dataset.
• Understanding of needs – municipal open data have a wide variety of potential reuser groups, yet knowledge about their needs are lacking.

DI@SE seeks to mitigate these barriers.

Implementation

The project will be implemented through three phases:

In phase 1, relevant initiatives within municipal open data are collated. Also, the project will define what datasets that are relevant to implement on a national basis in phase 2, based on national solutions architecture. In phase 1, continued commitment in phase 2 is also ensured.

Phase 2 focuses on implementing at least datasets, using the proposed solutions architecture within a few selected municipalities. Also, the project will produce guidelines, templates, and processes to support the publication of open municipal data.

In phase 3, the project will continue to support municipalities to publish open data in the realized solutions architecture. Finally, phase three will focus on establish collaboration between municipalities and national governmental agencies. This collaboration will address and anchor a unified national process for open data where local and national interests intersect.