Open data has reached the big players

Four years after the first meeting of the Swiss open data community, the call to open up public-sector data is increasingly coming from the inside rather than only from the outside. It is no longer just programmers and activists who demand open data, but more and more players within public authorities and other large organisations themselves.

opendata.ch 2014 panel

The panel discussion on “Switzerland, a darkroom?” on 18 September 2014 at the Volkshaus in Zurich. (Image: Ernie Deane)

Take the Rhaetian Railway, for example, which together with the developer community is pressing SBB for open timetable data. This position is increasingly being taken within SBB as well; the call for openness is coming from the inside. Or SRG: at this year’s Opendata.ch conference in Zurich, Dominik Born reported on SRG’s in-house SRG Hackdays, which last week made TV and radio data broadly usable for programmers, designers and start-ups for the first time.

Switzerland, a darkroom?

The closing discussion of the conference at the Volkshaus examined how such a change could also reach further into the federal administration, and what politics, technology and the media can contribute to it. “We must keep a close eye on what happens in the ongoing evaluation of the Freedom of Information Act,” stressed Opendata.ch President André Golliez. If it is restricted, Switzerland even risks a step backwards on transparency. This must be opposed at every level.

More information on the Opendata.ch/2014 conference