Glossary

Anonymisation

The process of turning data that could result into the identification of individuals.

Anonymization

See Anonymisation.

API

See Application Programming Interface.

Application Programming Interface

A way computer programmes talk to one another. Can be understood in terms of how a programmer sends instructions between programmes.

AR

See Information Asset Register.

Attribution Licence

A licence that requires attributing the original source of the material.

Attribution License

See Attribution Licence.

BitTorrent

BitTorrent is a protocol for distributing the bandwith for transferring very large files between the computers which are participating in the transfer. Rather than downloading a file from a specific source, BitTorrent allows peers to download from each other.

Connectivity

Connectivity relates to the ability for communities to connect to the Internet, especially the World Wide Web.

Copyright

A right for the creators of creative works to restrict others’ use of of those works. An owner of copyright is entitled to determine how others may use that work.

DAP

See Data Access Protocol.

Data Access Protocol

A system that allows outsiders to be granted access to databases without overloading either system.

Data protection legislation

Data protection legislation is not about protecting the data, but the right of citizens to live without doubt of the consequences that might come if information of their private lives becomes public. The law protects the privacy (such as information about a person economic status, health and political position) and other rights such as the right to freedom of movement and assembly. For example, in Finland a travel card system used record all instances when the card was shown to the reader machine on different public transport lines. This raised a debate from the perspective of freedom of movement and the travel card data collection was abandoned based on the data protection legislation.

Database rights

A right to prevent others from extracting and reusing content from a database. Exists mainly in European jurisdictions.

EU

European Union.

EU PSI Directive

The Directive on the re-use of public sector information, 2003/98/EC. “deals with the way public sector bodies should enhance re-use of their information resources.” Legislative Actions - PSI Directive

IAR

See Information Asset Register.

Information Asset Register

IARs are registers specifically set up to capture and organise meta-data about the vast quantities of information held by government departments and agencies. A comprehensive IAR includes databases, old sets of files, recent electronic files, collections of statistics, research and so forth.

The EU PSI Directive recognises the importance of asset registers for prospective re-users of public information. It requires that member states provide lists, portals, or something similar. It states:

Tools that help potential re-users to find documents available
for re-use and the conditions for re-use can facilitate
considerably the cross-border use of public sector documents.
Member States should therefore ensure that practical arrangements
are in place that help re-users in their search for documents
available for reuse. Assets lists, accessible preferably online,
of main documents (documents that are extensively re-used or
that have the potential to be extensively re-used), and portal
sites that are linked to decentralised assets lists are examples
of such practical arrangements.

IARs can be developed in different ways. Government departments can develop their own IARs and these can be linked to a national IARs. IARs can include information which is held by public bodies but which has not yet been – and maybe will not be – proactively published. Hence they allow members of the public to identify information which exists and which can be requested.

For the public to make use of these IARs, it is important that any registers of information held be as complete as possible in order to be able to have confidence that documents can be found. The lack of completeness of some registers is a significant problem as it creates a degree of unreliability which may discourage some from using the registers to search for information.

It is essential that the metadata in the IARs be comprehensive so that search engines can function effectively. In the spirit of open government data, public bodies should make available their IARs to the general public as raw data under an open licence so that civic hackers can make use of the data, for example by building search engines and user interfaces.

Intellectual property rights

Monopolies granted to individuals for intellectual creations.

IP rights

See Intellectual property rights.

Machine readable

Information that is machine readable is information that is able to be extracted by computer programmes. PDF documents are not machine readable. Computers can display the text nicely, but have great difficulty understanding the context that surrounds the text.

Open Data

Open data are able to be used for any purpose.

Open standards

Generally understood as technical standards which are free from licencing restrictions. Can also be interpreted to mean standards which are developed in a vendor-neutral manner.

PSI

See Public Sector Information.

Public domain

No copyright exists over the work. Does not exist in all jurisdictions.

Public Sector Information

Information collected or controlled by the public sector.

Re-use

Use of content outside of its original intention.

Share-alike Licence

A licence that requires users of a work to provide the content under the same or similar conditions as the original.

Share-alike License

See Share-alike Licence.

Web API

An API that is designed to work over the Internet.