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ODO Open Data Principles

This document sets out seven key principles of open data, tackling both the technical and legal aspects of open data. The principles are inspired by the 8 principles originally developed in 2007 by the Open Government Working Group in Sebastopol, California. The objectives of this document is to assist open data publishers in ensuring the data they publish is truly useful for members of the public. 

Principle 1: Data Must be Complete

Open data must be published in complete form. This simply means the dataset must make sense and does not include any incomplete fields or missing information. Open data must also be accompanied by metadata. Metadata is information that puts a particular dataset into context by setting out descriptive details such as the data owner, method of collection, frequency of update, geographic coverage, and temporal coverage. 

Principle 2: Data Release Must be Timely

Open data must have some relevance to the period during which it is published. It should also be current and up-to-date. Publication of historical data is encouraged where that dataset is relevant today; for example, to uncover data trends. Data publishers should strive to share data in real-time to the maximum extent possible. 

Principle 3: The Data Source Must Be Primary and Reliable 

Open data must be published by its primary source. This does not necessarily mean that open data may only be published by the primary collector, although it does mean that the data must be published by an entity that has overall responsibility for the dataset.  In other words, a data user should be able to trace back the original source of the data. It should provide users with the confidence that the data is reliable or authoritative. Whatever data is published as open data should be permanently discoverable and not made available for a temporary period only. 

Principle 4: Data Must be Raw

Open data must be made available in its rawest form. This means that data should be published in the form that it was collected. Data which has been grouped, manipulated, or previously used for a different purpose are nonconforming to this principle. 

Principle 5: Data Must Be Technically Reusable 

Open data must be published in digital form and in machine-readable format which allows for automated processing (for example: CSV, XLSX, JSON, or XML). Open data should also be structured in a predefined structure that enables the data to be stored, analysed, and processed easily (for example, tabular format). Finally for open data to be technically reusable, it must also be published in a technological format which ‘places no restrictions, monetary or otherwise, upon its use‘ or which, at the very least, ‘can be processed with at least one free/libre/open-source software tool‘ (for example: XLS and XLSX). In other words, this data must be published in open format.

Principle 6: Data Must Be Legally Reusable

Open data must be legally reusable. This means that users should be allowed to use open data freely and beyond its original intended purposes, for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. This is typically achieved by adopting the Open Government Licence or another widely accepted open licence such as those of the Creative Commons.

Principle 7: Data Must Be Accessible and Discoverable

Data providers must ensure that any open data is easily discoverable in that they may be easily accessed online. Access to Open Data must also be free of charge and available for download in bulk. Discriminatory restrictions, such as making data available only to nationals or residents, are not permissible.

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Datasets

Coordinates of Omani Forts

This dataset covers the coordinates of major historic forts and castles in the Sultanate of Oman.

Dataset Description

SourceIndependently collected by ODO.

Metadata

FieldDescription
NameThe name of the fort or castle.
CityThe city in which the fort or castle is located.
CoordinatesThe latitude and longitude coordinates in decimal degrees.

Data

Notes

The Sultanate of Oman is home to a large number of forts and castles, the majority of which are open to the public. This dataset covers the data for some of these forts and castles. This is a reference dataset that does not have a specific update frequency, but we intend to expand it over time.

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Toolkit

How to Manage Open Data

Executing an open data initiative in a government entity in Oman in a sustainable manner requires devising a management structure within the entity.

There are three possible options:

Open Data Committee

The open data initiative is managed by a committee of employees from a variety of divisions.

Pros: Easy to setup and does not require any legal formalities besides a ministerial decision to establish the committee.

Cons: The lack of a dedicated employee for open data makes this difficult to sustain. Committee members might not have the time or expertise required for the open data project.

Individual Open Data Officer

The open data initiative is managed by an employee as part of his primary tasks. The employee is placed in a division that has a general mandate not directly related to open data.

Pros: The existence of a dedicated open data officer will contribute directly to ensuring the sustainability of the open data initiative.

Cons: There might be friction between the objectives of the open data initiative of the entity and the direct objectives of the division in which the open data officer is placed.

Dedicated Open Data Division

The open data initiative is managed by a dedicated division made up on multiple team members and this division that reports to a senior executive office in the entity.

Pros: Entire team working towards specific goal. Existence is clear within the organisation.

Cons: Requires a change to the structure of the government entity and approvals from multiple entities.

The approach taken by a government entity to manage its open data program depends on a number of factors such as the size of the organisation, the amount of data that the entity possess and the amount of data it wishes to publish, and the degree of commitment the organisation is willing to make to put work in open data.

An organisation with a small team that holds a small amount of data is unlikely to require a full-fledged open data division and is likely to be able to launch an open data program using a committee or by dedicated one employee to be responsible for open data.

Open Data Committee

Establishing an open data committee is one of the easiest mechanism that can be used to establish some sort of a formal structure for managing open data within the organisation. The committee structure is also useful for collaborating with various stakeholders from around the organisation in a way that can facilitate obtaining the data that all these stakeholders possess. The committee structure also does not require a ministry to obtain any approval from outside the entity and does not require creating new positions or divisions in the organisation.

The appropriate membership for an open data committee largely depends on the nature of the data that the entity wishes to publish and the existing structure of the organisation. However, it is important for this committee to have a senior member of staff as its chair with the authority to take actions regarding whether certain datasets can be published or not and with the authority to request to have the content of the website of the entity, or the portal on which the entity wishes to publish its data, updated. A reasonable structure for such a committee should include the following:

  • The undersecretary of the entity or a director general as the chair of the committee.
  • Senior representatives of the key data owners within the organisation.
  • A representative from the team responsible for the website of the entity.
  • A representative from the team responsible for the social media presence of the entity if different from those responsible for the website.
  • A representative from the team responsible for statistics.

The committee should be responsible for the following functions:

  • Creating the data inventory of the organisation.
  • Creating and publishing the open data catalogue of the entity.
  • Creating a mechanism for ensuring the protection of the privacy of the subjects of the data the entity holds.
  • Creating an open data engagement plan.
  • Respond to requests from the public to publish open data.
  • Monitor international indicators relevant to the data of the entity.
  • Coordinate with the Ministry of Transport, Communications, and IT in matters relating to open data.

The drawbacks of having a committee to manage the open data program of an entity are the usual drawbacks of having a committee responsible for any project within the government such as committee members might not have the time or resources to dedicate to the open data project.

Individual Open Data Officer

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Datasets

Royal Decrees

Royal decrees are the primary type of legislative instrument issued in the Sultanate of Oman. They promulgate laws, appoint government officials, and undertake a variety of other functions. This dataset includes the royal decree number, title, and date, as well as the Official Gazette issue number in which it was published.

Dataset Description

SourceDecree.
Time period covered2020-2022.
Frequency of updateYearly.

Metadata

FieldDescription
NumberThe royal decree number in the format of YYYY-NNNN where YYYY is the year in a four-digit format and NNNN is the sequence number in a four-digit format.
Title-ArabicThe title of the royal decree in Arabic.
Title-EnglishThe title of the royal decree in English.
DateThe date on which the royal decree was issued in the format YYYY-MM-DD.
OG IssueThe number of the Official Gazette issue in which the royal decree was published.

Data

More Information

This dataset has been contributed to Open Data Oman by Decree.

The full archive of all Omani legislation can be accessed in text format on Qanoon.om. The original source for recent royal decrees can be downloaded from the website of the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs.

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Datasets

Folklore Music

This dataset includes a collection of folklore music professionally recorded by the former Ministry of Heritage and Culture. The dataset includes actual audio files as well as an Excel sheet providing the metadata of the files.

DOWNLOAD

Dataset Description

SourceThe audio files were downloaded from the SoundCloud account of the former Ministry of Heritage and Culture.

The Excel sheet was independently created using the metadata of the audio files.
File formatMP3 and Excel.
LicenceCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Metadata

FieldDescription
Title ENThe title of the track in English.
Title ARThe title of the track in Arabic.
RegionThe Omani region associated with the track.
DurationThe duration of the track in the format MM:SS.
LinkLink to download the track.
Categories
Laws & Policies

Privacy Law

A responsible open data initiative must respect the privacy of individuals by not putting the personal data of members of the public at risk. Oman has a variety of laws that protect the privacy of users and that must be taken into consideration by publishers of open data.

First of all, article 36 of the Basic Statute of the State, i.e. the Omani Constitution, protects the right to private life as a constitutional right. Secondly, Oman has a comprehensive Personal Data Protection Law that grants data subjects several rights and imposes on data controllers and data processors a variety of obligations. Thirdly, the Penal Law and the Cybercrime Law both criminalise certain activities that violate the privacy of individuals.

In addition to these general provisions, the release of certain personal data is regulated in the banking sector by article 70 of the Banking Law, in regard to electronic transactions and electronic certification services by article 43 of the Electronic Transactions Law, in the telecom sector by the TRA Data Protection Guidelines, and in the health sector by article 33 of the Medical Profession Law.

Depending on the sector to which the data belongs, the publisher of the data must be aware of the relevant legal provisions restricting release.

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Datasets

Natural Gas Production

This dataset covers the data for the monthly production of associated and non-associated natural gas in the Sultanate of Oman.

Dataset Description

SourceNCSI.
Time period coveredJanuary 2014 to December 2021.
Frequency of updateYearly.

Metadata

FieldDescription
MonthThe month in the format of YYYY-MM.
Associated GasThe quantity of produced natural gas found in association with oil within the reservoir in standard cubic feet.
Non-associated GasThe quantity of produced natural gas found in reservoirs that contain only natural gas in standard cubic feet.

Data

Visualization

More Info

The most recent version of the dataset can be downloaded in Excel format as a direct link here from NCSI’s website.

Categories
Datasets

Population in Oman

This dataset covers the population in Oman with a breakdown for Omanis and non-Omanis.

Dataset Description

SourceNCSI.
Time period covered1985 to 2021.
Frequency of updateYearly.

Metadata

FieldDescription
YearThe year in YYYY format.
Total populationThe total population.
OmaniThe number of Omanis.
Non-OmanisThe total of resident non-Omanis.

Data

Visualization

More Info

This data is available from multiple sources on NCSI’s website and NCSI’s Data Portal. The data for 1985 to 2020 was taken from this source, while the data for later years was taken from this source.

Categories
Laws & Policies

State Records Classification Law

Data publishers must consider the classification requirements of government records in order to determine the public sector data that can be legally released.

The Law on the Classification of State Records and the Governance of Protected Places governs the classification of government information. This law sets out four classification categories for public documents: top secret, secret, restricted, and confidential. Broadly speaking, the different classifications are aimed at protecting national security and public interest and are not aimed at classifying all workings of the government.

This law does not expressly recognise “open” or “public” as a category under which government information may be classified. Equally, the law does not prohibit an unclassified document from being made public. Therefore, government employees play an important role in identifying the amount of government data capable of being made open or public by avoiding overclassification.

Categories
Laws & Policies

Copyright Law

Any open data initiative must consider copyright law. This law sets out the rules for protecting a wide variety of works, including public sector data.

As a general rule, a copyright protected work may not be used without the consent of the copyright owner. However, article 4(a) of the Omani Copyright Law excludes “official documents” from copyright protection making them automatically legally open. This allows members of the public to use official documents for both commercial and non-commercial purposes, without the need to seek anyone’s permission and without the need to rely on an open licence.

A concept of “free uses” is set out in article 20 of the law which allows members of the general public to use copyright-protected works without the need to seek anyone’s permission in specific circumstances. For example, article 20(1) allows quoting a protected work for illustration or criticism without the need to obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Notwithstanding the official document exclusion and the free uses concept, the adoption of open licences is encouraged since the law does not provide specific guidance on what government works would qualify as an official document and since the grounds for free use are limited.