Germany
Maximilian Heimstädt is a PhD student within the department for organisation theory at Free University Berlin where he researches the emergence and management of municipal open data ecosystems. He previously studied an M.Sc. in Management and Information Technology at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and worked as a visiting researcher at the Open Data Institute in London.
Germany ranked #26 in the 2014 Open Data Index / Other stories from Europe
Working for the Global Open Data Index is a way to remove the idea of openness from abstraction and to see whether there is ‘real’ open data behind the political rhetoric. Doing research for the Open Data Index can be a challenging task: Some of the data is still buried deep down in some opaque websites. Sometimes it can also be challenging to identify the licensing scheme applied to a certain data set, as its either stored in a website’s bottom corner or simply missing. Finally, having all the relevant data in formats that allow for convenient and unrestricted reuse is still up there on our wish list.
One of last year’s greatest achievements for open data in Germany was the publication of the new national licensing scheme by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The so called “Data License Germany 2.0” is an update of the previous 1.0-version, but unlike its predecessor has been approved by the Open Definition Advisory Council. Although the German chapter of Open Knowledge still recommends the use of the universal Creative Commons licensing scheme it appreciates this development. However, whilst doing research for the Index it became clear that most of the datasets on our national open data portal, GovData.de, are still licensed under the former 1.0-version. We hope to encourage all German data holders to move towards the updated license.
During the last year Open Knowledge Germany has launched civic technology labs in more than a dozen cities in Germany. These “OK Labs” are not just placed for open data and civic tech enthusiasts to meet - they are meant to be vehicles to lobby for more and better data on the local, state and federal levels. The results of the Open Data Index are an important tool for us and our labs to approach public administration and the government and to show them: “What you did so far is a good start, but let’s go on and improve together”.
