Environmental data, education sector data, registers, statistics: Public sector agencies are engaged in collecting and managing vast amounts of data covering most aspects of society. In different sectors and industries there is an increasing interest in the re-use and “mashup” of data from the public sector. With access to data sets, journalists can present facts and analyses in innovative and thought-provoking ways. IT developers can use data to construct new services of great value to citizens and consumers. Intelligent use of existing data sources can contribute to a more transparent and democratic society, according to supporters of open government data.

At the seminar key questions regarding the release and re-use of public sector data will be discussed. The speakers will focus on two main aspects:

• What are the possibilities and challenges of opening up government data today in Norway and internationally?
• How can data be used to renew journalism and create new, informative services?

Programme:

10.00-10.30: Olav A. Øvrebø, Infomedia: Locating and re-using government data in Norway. Presentation of project report. Project blog: Fakta først.

10.30-11.00: Cathrine Lippert, National IT and Telecom Agency, Copenhagen: The initiative “Offentlige Data I Spil” – cooperating with government agencies, users and developers to inspire creative use of open data in Denmark.

11.00-11.15: Coffee break.

11.15-12.00: Simon Rogers, The Guardian: “Facts are sacred”. On The Guardian’s use of data sets in journalism, in the Datablog and other contexts.

12.00-12.45: Lunch.

12.45-13.15: Harald Groven, utdanning.no: Hidden data treasures. How we can make more government data available for re-use without sacrificing the privacy of citizens.

13.15-13.45: Gaute Tjemsland, tv2nyhetene.no: Government data and computational journalism in TV 2.

13.45-14.15: Debate/workshop: Participants attempt to identify the main challenges ahead. In what ways can public sector agencies be encouraged to release more data? What role does political leadership play? In today’s economic climate, do the media have the resources to invest in computational journalism – and can they afford not to?