What is Open Government?
Open Government is a global initiative aimed at making governments more transparent, accountable, and accessible to the public.
A key pillar of the Open Government movement is the release of government-funded data and information for public use. This includes geospatial datasets, educational materials, scientific research, and cultural works. By ensuring these resources are freely available, open government promotes reuse without price, copyright, or format restrictions. Open formats and machine-readable data are central to this effort, enabling efficient access and reuse.
Creative Commons licences play a pivotal role in this movement by offering a simple, legal framework for public agencies to share data and information. These licences reduce the transaction costs of sharing resources while facilitating easy dissemination and reuse across the globe.
Open Government in New Zealand
New Zealand has been a leader in embracing open government principles. The New Zealand Government Open Access and Licensing (NZGOAL) framework, introduced in July 2010, provides clear guidance for public agencies to release copyright works using Creative Commons licences. It recommends the Creative Commons Attribution Licence as the default and, since Version 2 (released December 2014), encourages the use of the 4.0 International licences over the 3.0 New Zealand licences (with no requirement for retrospective updates).
Further support came with the 2011 Declaration on Open and Transparent Government, where Cabinet directed government departments and invited State Sector agencies to actively release high-value public data for reuse. This directive aligns with NZGOAL’s Review and Release process, which ensures materials are openly accessible and legally reusable.
Purpose and Benefits of Open Government
The New Zealand Government’s commitment to open government serves two primary objectives, as outlined in NZGOAL:
- Empowering Public Reuse: Enabling individuals and organizations to legally reuse government materials for economic, environmental, cultural, or creative purposes.
- Encouraging Collaboration: Allowing experts and stakeholders to access, analyze, and provide feedback on government resources, fostering improved policy development and operational efficiency.
Open access policies also enable broader democratic participation in public policy formation and innovation. By making publicly funded content and data accessible, open government encourages the creation of new businesses, services, and monetizable opportunities.
Explore the NZGOAL framework and related resources on ict.govt.nz to learn how open government supports transparency and innovation.