Open Government Data - Are all exceptions to the principle of cost-free access and reuse legitimate?
The United Kingdom, a country seen, like the United States, as a pioneer in open public data, has estimated at £6.8bn (€7,9bn) the revenue in 2010 and 2011 generated for British society by open ... public data, of which £5bn (€5.8bn) is profit. As an example, a start-up has highlighted the existence of areas in which massive savings can be made by analysing prescriptions of patented drugs ... and the corresponding generics.<br/> Such possibilities are not beyond reach for France, which is not only deemed to be among the pioneers but also one of the countries making the most rapid progress in this domain ... ... Open data strategy should decide the costs problem ... French Cour des comptes presents analysis on implementation of the open data practice across the administration. Massive savings are expected, when public access to large amounts of highquality data ... is made easy. France is among the pioneers and countries making the most rapid progress in this domain. Charges for the reuse of the public information has been identified as the main problem.
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Protection of automatically processed personal data
Over the past few years, a number of legal, management, supervision, information, and methodological issues related to the protection of personal data have piled up. As they have not been fully ... resolved,the National Audit Office conducted an audit to assess the efficiency of the protection and supervision of automatically processed personal data and to check whether: - the regulation of personal data ... protection conforms to the data processing practices; - personal data is properly processed at public sector bodies; - the State Data Protection Inspectorate (SDPI) performs sufficient supervision ... ... Data protection needs a long term strategy ... Rapid development of information and communication technology continuously brings about issues of personal data protection. Due to lack of long-term vision in this area they are frequently ... not addressed by the existing legislation. Moreover, SAI of Lithuania revealed failures in organization and control of personal data protection by public sector.
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The rural broadband programme
Intervention in a noncompetitive market The British NAO's audit report of 2013 concerns ambitious yet delayed UK government programme, which objective was to have the best superfast broadband network in Europe by 2015. The report focuses on one of the programme's main problems: rural areas, where commercial providers had no plans to invest, because of lower returns.
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