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New perspectives for electronic governance: the adoption of open

government data in Brazil1

Jos Carlos Vaz, University of So Paulo, So Paulo, [email protected]

Manuella Maia Ribeiro, Getlio Vargas Foundation, So Paulo, [email protected]

Ricardo Matheus, University of So Paulo, So Paulo, [email protected]

Abstract

Through the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs)

has become possible for the bases of raw data, be freely manipulated, filtered, or

cross and building new applications. These possibilities are called Open

Government Data (OGD). The aim of this paper is to present the State of Art of the

Open Government Data in Brazils governments. The benefits are: promoting

transparency, social control and citizen participation.

After reviewing literature about ODG and transparency main concepts and their

relationship, this article presents an exploratory study conducted on the emerging

ODG experiences in Brazil. Conclusions present the emergence of a new level

of demand for transparency: what is not confidential should be available on the

Internet in the open data format. Despite relatively late in adopting ODG, Brazilian

state and federal governments are doing their first movements and creating new

standards and pratices whice are going to spread in Brazilian public sector.

Keywords: electronic government; electronic governance; transparency; citizen

participation; open government data.

1 Special thanks to Open Society Foundation who supported presentation at First Global Conference onTransparency Research, Rutgers University, Newark, May 19-20, 2011.

VAZ, RIBEIRO & MATHEUS. New perspectives for electronic governance: the adoption of open government data in Brazil.First Global Conference on Transparency Research, Rutgers University, Newark, May 19-20, 2011. PAGE 1
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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countries, have websites with the goal of providing public information in an open

format like the United States, New Zealand, UK and Australia.

The pioneering example is the U.S.. According to Fung & Weil (2010), the federal

government created a level of openness of government information by creating

unprecedented memo on transparency and open government requires that all

actions of the ministries themselves were based on transparency, citizen

participation and collaboration between government and society. In addition, the

Ministry of Science and Technology created the Open Government Initiative

("Open Government Initiative") to effect the availability of open government data.

While civil society organizations have emerged around the world that pressuregovernments to open their data in open format. In the United States, the Sunlight

Foundation, OMB Watch and the League of Women Voters have created a

movement to pressure for open government data and creating applications for

society from these data. Thus, also received support from large organizations in

the country as the Open Society Institute, the Omidyar Foundation and the Ford

Foundation (FUNG & WEIL, 2010).

Despite the limited knowledge available on the subject, it is possible to envisagethe emergence of open government data have impacts in two areas in which

transparency is the subject of disputes, social practices and transparency in its

concept.

This article will explore the state of the art of using government data opened in

Brazil. For this, the methodology used was literature on the subject of open

government data and its relation to transparency and an exploratory study of some

of the few experiences in Brazil. Due to its recent creation, sites that provide open

data were not analyzed its impacts, but only their potential for promoting

transparency, social control and citizen participation by offering OGD.

Initially, this paper presents a discussion of the concept of OGD. Then moves to a

reflection on the relationship of this concept with the concept of transparency, we

show that the emergence of the OGD introduces new fields to the dispute over the



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concept of transparency. In this research, the concept of transparency was

addressed in four views: the transparency as a synonym for publicity, transparency

as a synonym for accountability, transparency as synonymous with openness, and

transparency as a synonym for open government data.

Later, we conducted a structured visit to government sites that use the open

government data analyzed and how the principles of open government data they

serve.

Although open data might be considered in both the public and in private, this

article, as a matter of focus, is only open to government data in government. Once

the conceptual discussion, the article identifies some of the experiences ofreference and uses them to make an exploratory reflection on the limits and

possibilities of the OGD contribute in social struggle around the transparency

practices and the relationship between government and civil society, because the

data open not only relate to the dissemination of information but also to encourage

new uses for the citizens of public data.

2. Open Government Data and Transparency

2.1 Open Government Data (OGD)

Open Government Data (OGD) or open government are terms used to denote "(...)

available via the Internet, information and government data in the public domain

for free use by society "(AGUNI, GREGORIO FILHO & BOLLIGER, 2010).

This concept refers to the protection of public data as belonging to the citizen,

which should have unrestricted access to government information, advocated by

several authors, as Laporte et al (2000), Aguni et al (2010), Diniz (2010), among

others. It also refers to the context of recent development of ICT, where the

Internet, databases, tools, standards and open formats allow and facilitate the

provision and access to this information.



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The idea of the OGD is developed from the discussion on open data engendered

by Tim O'Reilly, owner of O'Reilly Media in mid-2007. That same year, along with

O'Reilly's Carl Malahmud Public.Resource, Org, who defends the public domain of

knowledge, joined by 30 supporters of open government to discuss open

government data and its importance to democracy (OPENDATAGOV, 2007). At the

meeting of experts and advocates of open government was developed eight

principles of open government data. These principles state that the OGD should

be:

1) Complete:All public data is made available. Public data is data that

is not subject to valid privacy, security or privilege limitations.

2) Primary:Data is as collected at the source, with the highest possible

level of granularity, not in aggregate or modified forms.

3) Timely:Data is made available as quickly as necessary to preserve

the value of the data.

4) Accessible: Data is available to the widest range of users for the

widest range of purposes.

5) Machine understandable: Data is reasonably structured to allow

automated processing.

6) Non-discriminatory: Data is available to anyone, with no require-

ment of registration.

7) Non-proprietary: Data is available in a format over which no entity

has exclusive control.

8) License-free:Data is not subject to any copyright, patent, trademark

or trade secret regulation. Reasonable privacy, security and privilege

restrictions may be allowed.

Civil society organizations are using these principles of governments to levy the

availability of government information. David Eaves (2009) presented at an event

in 2009, the three laws of open government data:



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1) If data is not found and indexed on the web, it does not exist;

2) If not already open and available in machine-understandable format,

it cannot be exploited;

3) If any legal provision does not allow its replication, it is useless.

Benefits of adopting the OGD in the field of transparency and social control are, at

least in theory, evident. The provision of DGA tends to contribute to the increased

transparency of government, creating better opportunities for social control of

government actions. However, given the relative newness of the topic, yet there

have been no studies that show the whole of this possibility.

A second category of benefits can also be addressed. It is the possibility of

creating new information and applications from the open government data. In this

case, transparency is not only encouraged but also new services may originate

from the interaction between government and society through the exploitation of

OGD. These services can be generated through new ways of working

collaboratively across the participatory government and private institutions, since

the concept of OGD avoids the vision of the citizen as a mere recipient of public

information. Allows any interested party, to sue the government data freely,

creating content from the reuse of data.

The focus on the concept of citizen open government data is emphasized by Silva

(2010): "(...) the concept (...) relates to an understanding that the way

governments have their information available allows the intelligence collectively

create better ways to work with them than the governments themselves could do.

As an example, the author says that it would be possible to optimize resources inpublic administration, if they leach from the traffic data in urban open format.

Thus, citizens who would take care through the use of ICT to produce charts and

graphs on traffic.

To Diniz (2010): "the provision of open government data allows information to be

used in the manner and convenience of the person concerned so that they can be

mixed and matched to add more value to the data." For this author, the purpose of



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the public information is made available under the rules of open data is "(...)

overcome the limitations that exist for users of public information can easily find,

access, understand and use the public data according to their interests and

convenience. "

Not without reason therefore that the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an

international consortium that aims to develop Web standards, defines government

data as open: "(...) the publication and dissemination of public sector information

on the web , shared in raw format and open, understandable of course, to allow its

reuse in digital applications developed by society "(W3C, 2010). In addition, the

W3C considers that governments should encourage citizens to use the open data

available by governments, ie, they should be encouraged to reuse the data

according to their needs and wants. Diniz (2010) summarizes the purpose of this

incentive: "There is value in providing open government data if the company has

no interest in re-use them".

Likewise, the Declaration on the Public Service Open Europe believes that public

bodies must provide the government data: "(...) in open formats and reusable (...)

public institutions should seek to act as a platform for building of public value.Public organizations should offer citizens the ability to solve problems for

themselves by providing them the proper tools to do so "(Open Declaration on the

European public services apud AGUNI, GREGORIO FILHO & BOLLIGER, 2010).

Protection of open data as a promoter of transparency is due to the possibilities of

making government records accessible to eliminating all restrictions concerning

technology, accessibility and legislation to ensure unrestricted access and use of

public data by citizens.

The relevance of the provision of open data in the public sector basis in the public

interest that involves government information and regulation surrounding the

issue. Most states adopt the constitutional law principle of publicity means that the

transparency of government data as the rule and secrecy an exception.

For Bobbio, the Democratic Republic "(...) requires that power be visible (...)



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meetings of the Assembly shall be open to the public so that any citizen can have

access to them "(BOBBIO, 1987) ie, several countries in the world live in a context

that access to public data is a constitutional requirement.

Ribeiro (2009) shows that there is a contest between different visions of

transparency: transparency has different views as synonymous with the principle

of openness, accountability, and openness. In addition to these views, this paper

understands that transparency can also be understood from the vision of open

government data. While the first two visions are not directly associated to ICTs, the

concepts of openness and open government data are directly linked to the use of

technology by governments to ensure transparency.

Among the principles of public administration listed in Article 37 of the Constitution,

the principle of advertising is that it has more links to the subject of transparency.

But this principle means that all acts of government should be widely

disseminated. Advertising ensures that information be disclosed and to legitimize

certain acts of government. For example, if there is no disclosure of certain phases

of the bidding process, it can be challenged by any of the participants or the

society. In cases where advertising is required and it is not made, the acts areconsidered void.

Advertising can be general or restricted. General advertising is contained in the

publication in the official gazette. In some cases it is mandatory and must be

extensive, as in public procurement. Advertising restricted refers to information

from personal knowledge (ARAUJO, 2006, p. 59) of the persons concerned, for

example, by notification, quotes, record of administrative actions in books, among

others. Advertising is also prepared in other sections of Article 5 of the Constitutionof 1988 confirming this principle: XIV (access to information and guard the

secrecy), XXXIII (right to private information or general exist in public agencies or

public character), XXXIV (b, right to extract); LXXII (habeas data).

For authors who focus on the theme, the principle of publicity is closely linked and

sometimes is seen as synonymous with transparency. Normally associated with

the transparency and access to the information disclosure of public administration,



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ie, only the principle of publicity (MELLO, 2008; ARAUJO, 2006; DI PIETRO,

2006):

(...) It is also evident that everyone is entitled to have knowledge of

what agents do in the management of public affairs. It is the sense

commonly referred to transparency, often mentioned by politicians,

influenced by the process at this point in the recent past (glasnost) in

the former socialist countries (ARAUJO, 2006, p. 58).

Among the objectives of transparency, Paiva Martins Junior cites "the pursuit of

legitimacy and efficiency of the acts of public administration and reducing the

distance between it and the administration" (MARTINS JUNIOR, 2004, cover). Theprinciple of openness ensures that government information is disseminated widely

to society allowing control of and access to information that can prevent many

vices of Public Administration, among them corruption. In short, it can be linked

directly to the publicity principle, contained in the Federal Constitution.

Accountability is another term associated with transparency. The terms

accountability and transparency are closely related. The decrease in administrative

opacity provides greater opportunity to the citizen's knowledge about the res

publica. With the information available and clear on the public entity, the public can

control the acts of public administration and be more prepared to exercise its right

to participate.

Accountability, which broadly refers to accountability and the definition of the

objects on which they are accountable along with its accountability (LEVY, 1999),

comes along with the transparency of the actions that builds trust between the

rulers and society . For these concepts are interdependent and near several

authors define transparency from the concept of accountability. Prado & Loureiro

(2006, p. 360) discuss the literature that transparency is often automatically

associated with the reporting and accountability.

Pinho is one of the authors who associate the term accountability to transparency,

understanding how "(...) transparency, engagement with government



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accountability, and also the accountability of governments for their actions

"(PINHO, 2008, p . 478). The relationship between accountability and

transparency is also emphasized by Akutsu (2005):

Another feature of accountability is the essential transparency of

decisions and actions taken by public officials. It is not enough to

merely comply with bureaucratic requirements, it is shown that the

administration acted with economy, efficiency and honesty

(AKUTSU, 2005, p. 5).

Although this term has not yet been translated into Portuguese (PINHO, 2008, p.

478) and is a topic for discussion without a definitive conceptualization (PRADO &LOUREIRO, 2006, p. 359), it is defined as: "(. ..) a principle that is expressed in

institutional mechanisms that must continually embarrass governments

accountable to society and other actors in the political system "(PRADO &

Loureiro, 2006, p. 360). For these authors, the transparency of public information

is one of the steps of accountability along with the accountability of government

and accountability.

Campos (1990) also points out that "(...) accountability is not just a matter oforganizational development and administrative reform. Simply creating

bureaucratic control mechanisms has not proven effective enough to make the

accountability of public servants "(CAMPOS, 1990, p. 30-31).

It is noticed that although the relationship between the concepts of accountability

and transparency exist, the concept is not synonymous with the first second. The

concept of accountability is affecting not only the broader accountability and direct

the actions of governments, but also a performance of control over public

administration that would create incentives or sanctions that will actually occur if

the public official complies with particular obligation or breach.

Laporte et al (2000) describe a broader sense of transparency that proposes to

use the term called openness. The term openness may be defined as follows:

"openness to the provision of information, understood as free and universal

VAZ, RIBEIRO & MATHEUS. New perspectives for electronic governance: the adoption of open government data in Brazil.First Global Conference on Transparency Research, Rutgers University, Newark, May 19-20, 2011. PAGE10


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provision of information to your audience" (VAZ 2002). To achieve this, there are

two basic categories: transparency and interactivity (VAZ, 2003: 70-79).

Transparency is the very information available on the agency by her and

interactivity is the ease with which information can be accessed by willing citizens

in government site (LAPORTE et al, 2000). Being a "government openness"

means first, to declare that public information belongs to the public and therefore

should be provided in accordance with that law (LAPORTE et al, 2000). The

Government must assert the right of citizens to information and create ways for

citizens to have access to information clearly easier and possible. Should be

proposed that the public may know and their structures and their decisions.

Government should not only promote transparency on the availability of

information, but must provide this information in the public and are understood. For

example, the budget and accountability can be made fully available in electronic

portal of the public agency. For ease of access via the Internet, in theory, any

citizen can check. But will the average citizen can understand the technical terms

contained in these documents?

This body is not fully transparent since it has the data, but there is understandingof your target audience by, or society as a whole. The same Government that

provides a portal into your data will not be more transparent if the information is

hard to find or not to be updated constantly (LAPORTE et al, 2000). Laporte et al

(2000) state that there are no formulas or patterns to reach the administrative

openness, because there are several ways to provide information and access to

them.

Transparency defined based on the concept of openness advocated by Laporte et

alli (2000), means that a transparent government is one that provides information

and updates them and create facilities for citizen access. Thus, it can be stated, for

example, that the information made publicly updated comprehensive internal and

widely accessible is an empirical indicator of an agency's attitude toward openness

(LAPORTE ET ALL, 2000).



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As already stated earlier, government data are those that open governments

publish via the internet and share with the people in raw format, open and

accessible by machines that could be used by citizens according to their

convenience. One of the benefits of adopting open data policies by governments

are the possibilities of promoting transparency.

According to the W3C Brazil (2010), open government data promote more

transparency because "(...) open and accessible public sector information improve

transparency, because stakeholders can use them appropriately for their

purposes, getting a better understanding of the government (W3C, 2010).

Silva (2010) and Aguni, Gregorio Filho and Bolliger (2010) also believe thatgovernment records open governments can ensure more transparent. For them,

Brazil, for example, has a series of initiatives to promote transparency as the

portals of transparency.

However, the Brazilian government portals are focused on monitoring a proportion

of public tasks, especially the accounts and the behavior of politicians. Public

organizations in the country have a lot of information and databases, non-

sensitive, but when available on the Internet is usually provided: "(...) partially andin ways few highly bureaucratized and transparent "(AGUNI, GREGORIO FILHO &

BOLLIGER, 2010).

To Aguni, Gregorio Filho and Bolliger (2010), the current model in Brazil, which

has not adopted mostly open data policy, prevents and hinders "(...) that the

person can work, analyze, and integrate data across information and second focus

and interests. "Thus, the data open for its characteristics of unrestricted access to

all non-confidential public data on the web without technological or legal limits for

your viewing and use also would ensure greater transparency of public data.

The views of transparency presented indicates that in contemporary society

access to public information is an important issue and highlighted. The first two

concepts, publicity and transparency, not dialogue directly with the use of

information technology and communication, but are extremely important to ensure



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legally that government information is public domain and create instruments of

punishment to public servants who commit acts of against the Government.

The concept of openness and open government data already applied in a context

that ICTs enable the provision and sharing of information in a way never before

possible. The government believes openness transparency not only with the

availability of public data, but also adds the way data is accessed by ensuring that

outdated data, for example, just by being on the Internet are not considered

examples of transparency. Government records open advance this theory in that

setting universal rules for availability and accessibility of data by ensuring that

despite the technological formats or legislation in force anyone to access and use

data, and the reusability of public data by citizens seems be exclusive of the

theory of open data.

Worldwide, activists, international organizations and governments are thinking

about access to public information from the data open. Although the discussion on

this topic is new, there are already some experience of government provision of

open data.

Several national and subnational governments now provide their data from theorientations of open government. Among the countries that have policies of open

data include: U.S., UK, Australia and New Zealand (AGUNI, GREGORIO FILHO &

BOLLIGER, 2010; SILVA, 2010). These countries have developed national policies

on access to public data and created web portals that provide public information in

different formats. Moreover, they often encourage citizens to create new

applications and ways of using information published in their portals.

The Australian government created the portal Data Australia in February 2010.

The objective of the portal of transparency is to be the database of public

information government of this country. They encourage us to use the information

contained within the portal to create gadgets and computer programs by users

who do social control of all information within the portal. The website of the New

Zealand government was created this year to offer information and intelligence



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agencies and public bodies of government. It has space for discussion through

forums that may be proposed by citizens.

The example of the United Kingdom intends to offer data and information to

citizens in public administration for the expansion of government social control. It

has space for the wiki, online community, send in new web applications, among

others. In 2008, Britain ceded public information to a competition to develop

solutions to public data named Show us a better way.

The flagship plan for adoption of open data is the U.S. Initiatives in this country

can also be found in the sub-national governments. According to Silva (2010),

Washington DC was one of the pioneers in developing the incentive tocollaborative work between government and society with public data. President

Obama early in the mandate, set policies for the promotion of transparency that

encourages the provision of government data in open format.

The memo sent by the president on January 21, 2009 to all heads of government

called the Federal Transparency and Open Government. "(...) This memo pledged

to create "unprecedented levels of openness" in government. The president called

the representatives of the executive to work to ensure trust and establish a systemof transparency, public participation and collaboration. The opening will strengthen

democracy and will promote efficiency and effectiveness to government "(Silva,

2010).

The Open Government Initiative policy aimed to guarantee the realization of this

memo. Among its actions, is the portal Data.gov, created in May 2009. The aim of

Data.gov, portal transparency of the federal government is offering information and

expand the creative use of government data through web applications,

encouraging innovative ideas to provide greater transparency of governmental

actions. The site contains information about hundreds of government agencies

and offices separated by organ. Statistics tell visitors monthly, daily, yearly. It also

has space for participation of citizens wishing to express their will.



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Besides the government experiences, there are already non-governmental

organizations that seek to promote and support the adoption of open data policy.

For example, the Sunlight Foundation and Project Open Government Data,

Access the Open Knowledge Foundation Info. These experiences advocate in

favor of adopting the policy of open data by governments and perform a variety of

activities from research to encourage the creation of solutions and standards for

open formats. In short, despite the recent discussion of existence and availability

of open government data, there are already examples of governments that adopt

this theory as a public policy to promote transparency and collaboration between

government and society.

3. Research approach

Literature review that guided this study focused on the key concepts and the

relationship between the Open Government Data (DGA) and transparency. This

allowed us to highlight the possibilities that, in theory, the DGA can offer as tools

for promoting transparency.

However, the virtually nonexistent literature on DGA in Brazil has required an

exploratory study to identify the initiatives already undertaken by governments.

We decided to perform preliminary research from experts and publicity materials

on the Internet, which identified experiences promoted by the federal government

and state governments. After identifying the set of experiences available, we

decided to carry out structured visits to the following government websites that

publish open government data: DadosGov Project (Federal Government), theCear State Municipalities Court of Audits of Municipalities (TCM--CE), Public

Security Secretariat of Rio Grande do Sul, SP Open Government (Government of

the State of So Paulo).

A series of structured inspections on these websites was done between

20/12/2010 e 14/04/2011. Data collected were used to assess how the eight



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principles of open government data proposed by OPENGOVDATA (2007) are

followed in these cases.

The exploratory study was conducted because the cases we found are recent

experiences, once OGD are a very recent issue in Brazil. Therefore, there was no

way to make an analysis of its impacts.

4. Results

4.1 Open Government Data in Brazilian Federal Government

In Brazil there is still no transparency portal experience that is associated with acentral policy of open government data available (AGUNE, GREGORIO FILHO &

BOLLIGER, 2010; DINIZ, 2010; SILVA, 2010). In general, cases in Brazil are far

short of international experiences, such as the U.S. and UK. Therefore, the

availability of open government data in Brazil does not have a systematic policy as

the U.S.. Nevertheless, there are individual experiments and partial availability of

public data by some government agencies and specific laws that encourage the

adoption of open data by governments.

In December 2010, the federal government launched the first site that aims to

provide public data on this being an open format. The DadosGov project was

developed Information Organizing Committee from the Presidency of the Republic

(IOC-PR) which consists of the following Federal Government agencies: Office of

Deputy Information for Decision Support, President's Chief of Staff, Institutional

Relations Secretariat (SRI-PR), Department of Logistics and Information

Technology , and two federal government-owned IT companies that provide

services to government.

The aim of this new website is to organize and make available to the President,

gederal government agencies and society governmental information, a reliable

and easily accessible. For this, DadosGov website is structured to provide data in

open format to be taken by anyone interested. The data come from federal



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government agencies, ministries and other public organizations. The table below

shows the main government agencies that provided data to the project:

Table 1 Main data provided by DadosGov ProjectGovernmentorganization

Time Series Examples of content

Ministry of Education (MEC)

252 Childhood Education, SchoolHealth Program, UniversityScholarships (PROUNI), StudentLoans Fund for Higher Education (FIES), among

others.Ministry of SocialWelfare(MPS)

132 Ministry branches

Ministry of AgrarianDevelopment(MDA)

131 Rural microcredit, Family FarmInsurance, among others.

Ministry of Justice(MJ)

127 services to women victims ofdomestic violence, Amnisty

Comission deliberations, amongothers.Ministrio daAgricultura (MAPA)

110 Contracts for urban foodsuppliyng.

Source: DADOSGOV Project (2010)

DadosGov portal (https://i3gov.planejamento.gov.br/coi/ ), like the site of the U.S.federal government, cataloging data that were already available in public bodies,

but were not systematized in a single portal and open format. Over 30 agencies

have provided historical series of public information for use of both governments

and citizens. Among the sites studied is the one that provides more information.

Due to the large amount of data available was not possible to verify that all data

presented were the raw data.

https://i3gov.planejamento.gov.br/coi/https://i3gov.planejamento.gov.br/coi/


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Data are presented usually by historical series that can be analyzed by the user

via graphics, tables or records. Extraction of the series are in the following formats:

CSV, RTF, PDF, XLS, XML.

Another principle adopted by this site is that user identification is not required for

data extraction. Although there is no space on site to discuss applications and

other uses of the available information, there is an incentive for citizens to use

these: "The idea of linked data formats is to allow civil society to development

tools able to read data supplied by the government and make comparisons and

analysis" (DATA GOV, 2010). Regarding to license to use the data, the site is not

clear what are the chances of reproduction and use of information available.

In 2010, federal government, through the Secretariat of Logistics and Information

Technology of the Ministry of Planning has initiated a project to create the Open

Data National Infrastructure (ODNI). The initiative focuses on interoperability and

standardization of information resources. It also intends to promote best practices

for the provision of open government data. It is defined as an "integrated set of

technologies, policies, procedures and mechanisms for coordination and

monitoring, standards and agreements necessary to facilitate the storage, access,sharing, dissemination and use of open data" (MIRANDA & SILVA, 2010).

Factors that motivated the ODNI lauching were difficulties for searching, accessing

and reusing government data, both for the society and the government itself. The

initiative seeks to support demands of changes in relationship between

government and society, promoting transparency, control of government by

citizens and citizen participation in policymaking.

The ODNI will use existing experiences in the dissemination of public data

available in the federal government as a starting point, including some isolated

actions in federal agencies and two centralized operations of the federal

government: the aforementioned DadosGov portal and federal government's

Transparency Portal (http://www.portaltransparencia.gov.br/).

http://www.portaltransparencia.gov.br/http://www.portaltransparencia.gov.br/


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ODNI's staff points out as a challenge to the success of the initiative the federal

agencies involvement and a successful consensus around a single set of

concepts.

Implementation strategy for ODNI has some main elements: lauching a virtual

community for collaborative work involving officials of various public agencies,

scripts and roadmaps for publishing open data, voluntary membership by various

public agencies, technical training of civil servants in ontology modeling and

implementation of a pilot project on public procurement.

Portal was based on the availability of summary information and statistical series

in a single location on the Internet. ODNI means a step forward from theexperience of DadosGov.

The ODNI's proposal takes a different approach: to create conditions for the

various agencies to make available their data in a decentralized way. With this,

ODNI will provide integrated data with a high level of interoperability through

technologies such as Linked Data,. This strategy will make ODNI able to foster the

opening of a much larger volume of data.

4.2 Open government data in Brazilian state governments

The portal of the State of Cear Municipalities Court of Audits of (TCM-CE) has

released all its data in a format that all computers can read and encourages

citizens to use them and find new ways to use them:

The TCM-CE is providing SIM data via the Application Programming

Interface (or API). We believe in collective creativity and through it

we are sure that the community is able to create their own

applications using the data in the manner that best suits them. For

achieving this goal nothing better than to facilitate the creation of

these applications. We seek to establish contact with developers



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interested in creating their own applications using data from the

TCM / EC (TCM / CE - 2010).

Following information is provided: list of candidates for municipal election; basic

information about municipalities as public managers, programs, bank accounts,

among others; documents relating to the municipal budget. Among the information

available are data on purchases and contracts and supporting documentation of

expenditures.

Data are available in non-proprietary formats (XML, JSON, CSV e HTML) and are

machine understandable information.The focus of the availability of data from

TCM-CE is to encourage citizens to create new applications and uses for these,especially by programmers and computer specialists. However, there is no space

for citizens contact, discuss or submit their applications. No registration is

required, but it is not clearly presented the license of such data.

The Sao Paulo State Government Portal created SP Open Government portal in

2010. It's goal is to make available to civil society, via the Internet, copies of

databases and information which is not confidential and gives unrestricted access

to the organs and entities of the State Public Administration. The decree thatcreated the portal provides the rules of data and creation of the portal,

summarized in its second article:

Rules of provision, information, guidance and providing

access to databases, as well as to the responsibilities of the

parties

Conditions of use of these bases provided, suposed to befree for any purpose or activity, safeguarding the legal

restrictions and associated regulations

Register of available bases, containing the identification and

detailed description of each one and identify the agency or

entity responsible



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Tools to facilitate collaboration between users of the available

databases, including self-identification for who obtains a copy

of available basis, including information of purpose for which

the base was required; and registration and publication of

products generated through the use of bases, identifying their

authors.

The So Paulo law falls largely to the principles of open government data to

ensure the free reuse of all available non-sensitive state data.

The SP Open Government portal was released in January 2011. The website

seeks to stimulate lauching of new electronic services, promoting transparencyand improving the quality of information of interest to society by providing updated

copies of their public databases, on a free and open basis, using the Internet"

(GOVERNO ABERTO, 2010).

Databases provided are produced by the State Statistical Agency (Fundao

SEADE), which has most state social and economic indicators. However, the

website does not provide data from other agencies in So Paulo, i.e. not all data

are available on site.

Among the information available are: Elections (information concerning the

elections in So Paulo between 1998 and 2008); state indicators (Sao Paulo State

Social Responsibility Index(IPRS), catalogue of public services offered through the

Internet; Information from municipalities.

Unlike other sites, rules regarding use and availability of data are clear. All data

available on the site are non-sensitive and have unrestricted access. The onlyrequirements are that users accept the rules set out in this. Registration is optional

for accessing the data. Develpers can register applications built within the portal

itself. However, for sending and accessing applications created registering is

mandatory.



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Another pioneer experiment is ruled by Public Security Secretariat of Rio Grande

do Sul State, started in 2011(http://www.ssp.rs.gov.br/portal/principal.php?

action=estatistica&cod_catestat=33).

The service is "based on the principles of fairness, transparency, participation and

collaboration in building a closer relationship with the state of society" (RIO

GRANDE DO SUL, 2011). The State Public Security Secretariat encourages the

development of new applications and services by society, and calls developers to

share them. However, the portal has until not published any case of reuse of data

in digital applications developed by society.

The service provides quantitative data on non-proprietary formats .XML and .CSV,relating indicators of crime in the state. Data are organized by municipality and

crime, with year, month, and number of crimes for the years 2008, 2009 and 2010.

This is a case still in deployment phase. The data presented show an intermediate

level of detail, not allowing access to individual occurrences.

The following table summarizes how open government data principles of are

adopted by the Brazilian experiences:

Table 2 OGD principles adoption in Brazilian cases

Principles DADOSGOV TCM-CE PublicSecurity - RS

GOVERNOABERTO SP

Completedata

No No No No

Primarydata

No X No No

Timely data X X X XAcessble

dataX X X

Machineunderstand

able

X X X X

Non-discriminat

ory

X X X X

No-proprietary

X X X X

http://www.ssp.rs.gov.br/portal/principal.php?action=estatistica&cod_catestat=33http://www.ssp.rs.gov.br/portal/principal.php?action=estatistica&cod_catestat=33http://www.ssp.rs.gov.br/portal/principal.php?action=estatistica&cod_catestat=33http://www.ssp.rs.gov.br/portal/principal.php?action=estatistica&cod_catestat=33


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Licence-free

Informationnot provided.



X

Source: Created by authors from cases websites.

Therefore, when we compare these cases and the principles of open governmentdata, we can realize that most of the principles are used in the examples of Brazil.

Data are not complete and most are not primary. However, there was still little

information available. There is also lack of clarity about the license of the data

presented. Another positive point is that they all have current data, accessible and

understandable by machines.

Besides the few public sites that adopt the open government data, there is a law

proposal that deals with data opened in Brazil in debate by the Congress, known

as the Law on Access to Public Information, which will regulate access to

government information as provided in the Constitution.

If passed, this law will provide the procedures for federal, state and municipal level

and for the three powers (executive, legislative and judiciary) and organizations

using public money in its activities to ensure citizens' right to government

information.

Another impact of the Brazilian law on transparency is that it emphasizes the new

information technologies and communication, in particular the Internet,

encouraging and requiring public organizations to make the information on the

World Wide Web. The internet is regarded as a means of easy access and

opportunities to reach a large number of people.

Among the required data are public expenditures and the general data for the

monitoring of programs, activities, projects and public works. There is an obligation

of public agencies not only to disclose such information, but also make them

available so that they are easily accessed, understood and updated.

Open government means that public data should be disclosed in the most

disaggregated level possible and in different formats. Disclosure must attain the

raw data which should be able to be viewed on any type of machine for anyone



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who want to make use of such data. Thus, the law proposal has principles of open

government (even if not explicitly quote) for the dissemination of public

information.

5. Conclusion

The emergence of the OGD requires a shift in thinking about the transparency of

governmental actions and information. This need is not just theoretical. The very

practice of social actors involved is creating new demands for transparency, not

served by traditional practices in electronic government.

There is a major change in the principles that guide the handling of demands for

transparency. So far, everything that was not confidential should be made

available to the public upon request, or kept available as possible. The new

framework gives rise to a new level of demand for transparency: everything that is

not confidential should be available on the internet as open data in a way people

can not just access data, but also create new services and analysis with these

open data.

Logically, implementing broader OGD programs will face huge barriers, because

most governments wouldn't be mobilized to increase the level of social control

over them. However, the complexity of the issue makes it impossible to reduce it

only to the interest of governments in promoting transparency through the OGD.

Civil society actor have an important role, too.

In addition, comprehensive programs to spread open government data require

using data formats and technologies are not always employed by governments

themselves. Therefore it will be a difficult task even for well-intentioned

governments and surely will took many years to reach a high level of open

government data availability.

According to Agune, Gregorio Filho e Bolliger (2010),technology already exists for

governments and civil society to use government data as they decide. Available



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technology can support new ways and new indicators of thinking about public

administration. In this way, civil society could generate more innovation from

unrestricted access to public data.

For these authors, the development of open government data depends on: a clear

policy of the Administration in regard to access to public information, changes in

public sector strategies aiming to foster transformation of relations between state

and society. Moreover, it depends on a change in the central locus of public

organizations (...) as interpreters of social needs and also as service delivery

agents (AGUNE, GREGORIO FILHO & BOLLIGER, 2010).

W3C (2010) argues that to achieve the goal of providing open government recordsshould be observed three fronts:

Framework: the construction of legislation to define the rules of

provision, access and format of public information to ensure the

possibility of access by citizens and civil society organizations;

Access to the public: information should be available to citizens via

the Internet;

Training professionals in public agencies: training for the the use of

open data technologies

Both views make clear the need for specific strategies for implementation of

policies, since the technical dimension is only part of the problem. The provision of

open data therefore depends on a specific institutional arrangement for its

realization and the effectiveness of their use by society.

Not without reason, therefore, that the Brazilian experience of open government

data is still scarce. Brazilian law provides great conditions for deepening the

supply of public data via the Internet, but governments can not easily accomplish

all the possibilities.

On the other hand, in civil society organizations can be seen innovative practices.

Unhappy with a standard of transparency in which the state determines the format



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and content of information delivered to society, civil society groups require access

to open government data.

These groups have a peculiar feature: while they are mobilized to demand greater

presence of open data in government portals, these initiatives also seek to

anticipate and produce content from the limited data available open, or those who

can hack from the government portals.

They advocate the dissemination of databases that can be processed by programs

developed by civil society, which makes citizens capable of analyzing the

government information in greater depth.

These ideas extend the focus of transparency: not just that it helps to fight

corruption and limiting the control of public spending. Supported by open

government data, transparency should allows analysis that achieve the quality of

spending and helps civil society to evaluate public policies.

Civil society has taken the lead in the discussion of government data in open

country, in this context where there is little government action.

While governments do not adopt the principles of open government data veryenthusiastically, citizens have been using the few existing data to build new

applications. One example of citizen action is the system of statistics and

monitoring of complaints from residents in the municipality of So Paulo (SAC-

SP).

The SAC-SP has features that shows analyses about services asked by city

residents and their in the city government single-shop service portal. The site

shows the number of complaints, structured by place and type of service, using

geo-referenced information.

SAC-SP's mission is to help citizens to oversee the work of the municipal

government in their neighborhoods using the web platform. It was created for

another movement for the use of public data: Tranparency Hack Day. (Thackday).



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The Thackday is based on an event that already occurs in the United States which

aims "to discuss the creation of new interfaces for access to databases of

government agencies, making access to information easier and more democratic"

(AGUNE, GREGORIO FILHO & BOLLIGER, 2010). It was held first time in So

Paulo in October, 2009. In this event, attended by about 150 participants,

developers from all over Brazil, present and remotely create new applications from

the public data obtained through hacking in the government websites, or already

available.

In addition to the SAC-SP, other applications have emerged in this event:

Map of Youth and Adults School(EJA): map showing the openings ofadult education in public schools in Brazil;

Tr3e: website that crosses over the information of deforestation in

Brazil;

Open Parliament: website designed to facilitate access to information

about MPs in Brazil.

These civil society initiatives demonstrate how the issue is increasingly taking upspace on the agenda of organizations and groups interested in using IT to promote

democratic developments in Brazil. Taken together with the emergence of new

government initiatives, these initiatives show a clear sign of an expanding supply

of OGD in the coming years.

Despite the existence of few theoretical and empirical data on open government in

Brazil, there is a clear expansion of national experiences and discussions. We

began monitoring the experiences in the second half of 2010. Within months, the

service of the Public Security Secretariat of Rio Grande do Sul was started and the

federal government began implementing the Open Data National Infrastructure

(ODNI).

If we take the experience of Transparency Portal of the federal government as a

reference, it can be said that the ODNI has great potential to accelerate the



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adoption of open government data initiatives in the country. Its impact should go

beyond the limits of the Federal Government and stimulate initiatives at the

subnational level, by giving greater visibility to the idea of the OGD, and by offering

standards and roadmaps that may be adopted by states and municipalities.

Future additional studies would be useful for better understanding demands for

OGD and evaluate impacts of present and new cases of OGD to promote

transparency, social control and citizen participation.

6. References

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