Frederik Siegumfeldt

Special advisor

Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation

20 November 2008

Re-use of public sector information in Denmark - Pricing Policy

Pricing policy in general

Pricing has been regulated for several years

Taxes and fees requires a law (the Danish Constitution)

When providing specific services, goods, etc. the actual costs can be charged.

Charging the actual costs

General guidelines Sales of goods and services Rental income Sales of data from public authorities …

Direct and indirect costs from period of 4 years should be spread on the estimated number of (re-)users

Exceptions?

Can the authorities charge more?

Can the authorities charge less?

What if the authorities has charge to little in a period?

Data: which costs can be included?

Collec-ting

Produ-cing

Repro-ducing

Disse-mina-ting

Return on investment

Data producedto perform a public authority task

NO NO YES YES NO

Data that has not been produced to perform a public authority task

YES YES YES YES NO

Spreading the costs on the re-users

The estimated costs for a 4 year period has to be spread on the estimated numbers of re-users in a 4 year period.

What if the are only very few re-users?

Who has to pay for the investment in interfaces and conversion of data? Problem: It can be very expensive to provide the data

in a useful format.

Danish Act on the re-use of PSI

(Article 7)1. Where documents or data collections are made available

for re-use, the public sector bodies shall make sure that they are available in any pre-existing language or format, including electronic format, and through electronic means where possible.

2. In consultation with the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation may lay down rules on standards for formats for the purpose of the re-use of documents and data collections of public sector bodies in connection with the establishment of new interfaces and data enhancement.

Why IT standards for PSI?

Common and open XML standards for PSI: Promote e-government and the possibility of creating

joined-up services Enable businesses to plan for specific data formats for PSI

when designing their IT systems and interfaces Reduce the need for investments in interfaces and

conversion of data (data enhancement) in the future Increase competition since interfaces and data formats

are general and independent of any single company The costs of getting access to useful data are reduced

Electronic access to PSI data

PSI data should be made available in all pre-existing formats, including electronic formats, e.g. XML, DOC, XLS etc.

PSI data should be made available through electronic means where possible

Electronic means is interpreted as electronic access (e.g. Internet data transfer, direct data access, RSS feeds, e-mail etc.), not just electronic form (e.g. CD-ROM)

Since February 2005 (eDay 2), citizens, businesses and government authorities have had a general right to receive data electronically where possible, using digital signatures

Recent initiatives

New interfaces and data conversions should be based on common and open XML standards where possible and appropriate

New government IT systems should be based on common and open XML standards where possible and appropriate

Effects of common and open XML standards

Collec-ting

Produ-cing

Repro-ducing

Disse-mina-ting

Return on investment

Data producedto perform a public authority task

NO NO YES YES NO

Data that has not been produced to perform a public authority task

YES YES YES YES NO

Contact information

Frederik Siegumfeldtfrhs@vtu.dkTel. (+45) 3545 0123