Open data is an international movement aimed at releasing useful public sector data in technically and legally open formats to enable society to benefit from the large number of datasets held by governments.
Omani society is eager to access and utilise public sector data. There is evidence that the growing amount of open data has contributed to the emergence of new trends in news reporting, civil society initiatives, and business projects.
The government of Oman has contributed to the open data movement by publishing an Open Data Policy to encourage government entities to publish their data openly and an Open Government Licence to create the legal framework for sharing open data. It has also created an open data category for Sultan Qaboos Award for Excellence in eGovernment and released a number of datasets on various government websites.