In July, we told you about the earnest plans of the federal government regarding Open Data. Today, we’re happy to share the federal Open Data policy. Here’s a short summary. Below the summary, we’ve linked to the original policies.

• We’re talking about data that governments collected during their activities, that has no privacy or intellectual property rights. They will be released in an machine-readable format and can be used for commercial and non-commercial purposes.
• The federal government also focuses on creating a community, consisting out of companies and citizens.
• All governmental data will act in accord to the the comply or explain principle.
• By 2020, all data will be available proactively, without any need for registration for companies or citizens who want to use the data. In the meantime, data demanded by citizens and companies will be prioritized.
• All data will be licensed under CC0. If not, the comply or explain principle is applied.
• To ensure the authenticity of the data, all data must originate from the federal sources. Every civil service will be responsible of publication and management of their data and meta-data. Meta-data ought to follow the European standard for data portals (DCAT-AP).

Do you want to read the original federal Open Data policy? There’s a Dutch version and a French one. We’ve been told an English version is on its way. We’ll be happy to share it here when it’s ready!