G8 leaders (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom, United States, and the European Union) signed a charter on open data.   The Open Data Charter sets out 5 strategic principles that all G8 members will act on. G8 members also identified 14 high-value sectors from which they will release data which include geospatial and infrastructure.  

Motivation

Technology and increasing volumes of information have created an enormous potential to enable more accountable, efficient, responsive, and effective governments and businesses and to spur economic growth.

“Open data sit at the heart of this global movement.”   Governments and businesses collect a wide range of data, but mich of this date remains unaccessible.

Open data also increases transparency about what government and business are doing which promotes accountability and good governance.

Government open data is a catalyst for innovation in the private sector, supporting the creation of new markets, businesses, and jobs.  Government open data practices are also a model for the private sector encouraging businesses to recognize the value of open data and to adopt open data policies.

Open data principles

The G8 countries aggredd to a sset of principles agree to follow a set of principlesthat are the foundation for access to, and the release and re-use of, data collected by by G8 governments.

Principle 1: Open Data by Default

G8 governments will establish an expectation that all government data be published openly by default, while recognising that there are legitimate reasons why some data cannot be released.

Principle 2: Quality and Quantity

G8 governments will  release high-quality open data that are timely, comprehensive, and accurate in their original, unmodified form and at the finest level of granularity available.

Principle 3: Usable by All

G8 governments will release data in open formats wherever possible.  In many cases this will include providing data in multiple formats.

Principle 4: Releasing Data for Improved Governance

G8 governments will transparent about their own data collection, standards, and publishing processes, by documenting all of these related processes online.  This includes a G8_Metadata_Mapping initiative that is documented on Github which shows the mapping between the metadata on datasets published by G8 Members through their open data portals.

Principle 5: Releasing Data for Innovation

G8 governments will work to increase open data literacy and encourage people, such as developers of applications, by providing data in machine-readable formats.

Key high-value sectors

G8 members identified 14 high-value sectors from which they will release data. 

• Crime and Justice – Crime statistics, safety
• Earth observation – Meteorological/weather, agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting
• Education- List of schools; performance of schools, digital skills
• Energy and Environment – Pollution levels, energy consumption
• Finance and contracts – Transaction spend, contracts let, call for tender, future tenders, local budget, national budget (planned and spent)
• Geospatial – Topography, postcodes, national maps, local maps
• Global Development – Aid, food security, extractives, land
• Government Accountability and Democracy – Government contact points, election results, legislation and statutes, salaries (pay scales), hospitality/gifts
• Health – Prescription data, performance data
• Science and Research – Genome data, research and educational activity, experiment results
• Statistics – National Statistics, Census, infrastructure, wealth, skills
• Social mobility and welfare – Housing, health insurance and unemployment benefits
• Transport and Infrastructure – Public transport timetables, access points broadband penetration