Opendata.ch 2012 conference for open access to and free reuse of government data

-> French translation
-> Videos and downloads from the conference

The Open Government Data movement has reached Switzerland. The administration, the developer community and the media are all intensively discussing access to open government data, and at parliamentary level a number of initiatives have been launched in recent months. The Opendata.ch conference on 28 June 2012 is the forum for continuing these debates. After the Federal Archives last year, this year the host is the City of Zurich, which is launching its data portal at the same time with its «eZürich» initiative.

Andreas Németh, eZürich overall e-government project manager, at the «make.opendata.ch» hackday in front of designers, app developers and data liberalisation activists.

Sometimes things move quickly in Switzerland: in recent months, the topic of «open government data», under the title «make.opendata.ch», brought together more than 300 software developers, designers and concept developers from all parts of the country to work on  applications and visualisations using government data that are already publicly accessible today. In the National Council, members of the Parliamentary Group for Digital Sustainability have submitted initiatives on the subject, while the Swiss Federal Archives are pushing ahead with a register of the Confederation’s data holdings. In order to pool and further expand activities for more direct data democracy in Switzerland, the Swiss OGD movement founded the Opendata.ch association in January.

Interactive expert sessions on four topics

André Golliez, president of the association, organiser of the «Opendata.ch 2012» conference and for many years one of the leading representatives of the Swiss IT industry, explains: «The aim of the conference is not only to present the progress made, but also to clarify framework conditions on various fronts and to discuss further steps.» Andreas Amsler, board member, moderator of the event and co-organiser of the «make.opendata.ch» hackdays, adds: «With panels on ‹mobility›, ‹health & environment›, ‹finance & procurement› and ‹science & culture›, our programme is full to the brim – after all, the topic of ‹open data› will soon cover every part of society.»

First Swiss Open Government Data portal

Zurich city councillor and head of the finance department Martin Vollenwyder will open the conference morning and present the goals the City of Zurich is pursuing with the launch of the first Swiss administrative data portal. The Bern University of Applied Sciences and its partners will also present the results of Switzerland’s first comprehensive Open Government Data study. By means of a roadmap, the study aims to show decision-makers in politics, business and civil society the way towards using open data in Switzerland.

Combined know-how from Switzerland and abroad

Finally, the interim Swiss results will also be placed in an international comparison: the list of speakers includes a number of experts and «open data» pioneers, among them Prof. Nigel Shadbolt, member of the UK Public Sector Transparency Board, Daniel Dietrich, Open Knowledge Foundation Germany, Martin Kaltenböck, Cooperation OGD Austria, Prof. Abraham Bernstein of the University of Zurich, Prof. Ernst Hafen of ETH Zurich and Rufus Pollock, director of the Open Knowledge Foundation UK.

The day’s programme with all contributions and speakers: /2012

Organiser:	Opendata.ch association
Host:	«eZü­rich» initia­tive (City of Zurich)
Partners:	Parliamentary Group for Digital Sustainability (PGDN)
	/ch/open (Swiss Open Systems User Group)
	Swiss Informatics Society
Sponsors:	itopia ag
	Ernst & Young AG
	Liip AG
	Netcetera AG