This month the German City of Potsdam will present its open data concept to the City Council for approval. The strategy serves two main goals: to provide information to citizens, and to allow third parties to reuse and link administrative data in their applications. The city will start implementing an open data portal on its municipal website, which will then be gradually developed into a fully-fledged repository.

The concept describes a possible direction to make digital data available in a transparent way, in the interest of the public and for reuse by citizens, businesses and scientists, says Potsdam Major Burkhard Exner.

Online survey

Since open data is a complex topic, involving issues related to privacy, security and copyright, we had to deal with it on a strategic level, Exner continues. It is also, however, a way to further advance the digital transformation at City Hall and a great opportunity for local government, as well as the economy, society and the daily lives of citizens. So we had the citizens involved from the start.

In summer 2015, the City conducted an online survey to gather input for the open data project. The outcome is a gradual approach, in which the publication of data on construction and housing, conservation, spatial data and population gets priority.

Organisation

The Potsdam open data concept is the result of a Council decision from November 2014 to develop a new IT and eGovernment strategy that also includes the introduction of open government data. It contains the organisational, legal and technical conditions for the implementation of open data ain the municipality. The presentation of the new strategy was initially planned for March 2015 but has been postponed several times.

The Open Data project team is part of the City's Management and Innovation department.