Mark your calendar! On September 20 the Web Foundation will launch the next version of our Open Data Barometer. Now in its fifth year, the Barometer is a measure of how governments publish and use open data for accountability, innovation and social impact.

2018 marks a decade of open data — it isn’t the new kid on the block anymore (hello artificial intelligence, good to meet you blockchain). It’s time then to ask: what progress have governments made on open data? What impact is it having on people’s lives? What should the next 10 years of open data look like?

Introducing the Leaders Edition

To answer these questions, this year’s Barometer is a departure from previous editions. Rather than having a global scope, it will focus on 30 governments — those who have adopted the Open Data Charter or those who, as members of G20, have signed up to the G20 Anti-Corruption Open Data Principles — which are themselves based on the Charter Principles.

The Charter represents a globally-agreed set of best practices for publishing and using data. That means these 30 governments should — having made specific commitments — be leaders in the space. The Barometer will put this leadership to the test by measuring their progress against three essential ingredients for good open data governance. These ingredients are based on upcoming updates of the Charter Principles.

• Open by default — Are governments successfully building policies, skills and processes across the whole of government to enable a culture of data openness in which publishing open data is the norm?
• Data infrastructure — Are they working on the technical infrastructure that that will support openness in government and organisational transformation over the long term?
• Publishing with purpose — Are they thinking about who will use open data and what they will use it for? Are they publishing the data that people need, in a way they can easily use?

From promise to progress

These 30 governments have made specific commitments on open data. Now they must turn these promises into progress and take the necessary steps as leaders to make sure open data reaches the potential we know it has to make a real difference in people’s lives.

The Open Data Barometer will be published on September 20, head of the International Open Data Conference in Buenos Aires, and will be available at opendatabarometer.org.

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