Executive opens portal for free access following publication of strategy document early in the year
The Northern Ireland Executive has opened a portal to provide open access to a range of public sector data.
It marks a significant step by the Executive in following the open data agenda, which has involved the UK government in a campaign to release large numbers of data for free access and re-use.
OpenDataNI will provide a single source of data from a range of sources, covering areas including healthcare, education, employment and the economy, population and society, property and land and environment and agriculture. It includes application programme interfaces to make it possible to stream feeds.
The Executive said the data is free to copy, adapt, commercially exploit and publish, and that it is open to suggestions about other datasets that users would like to see.
In January, the Executive published the Open data strategy for Northern Ireland 2015-18, with the aim of creating an “open by default” culture in which the publication of data becomes part of everyday management in the public sector.
The Scottish Government has also recently provided a push for the agenda, with the publication of an open data resource pack in August.
