ANDREW CONSTANCE MP Minister for Finance and Services MEDIA RELEASE

Monday 11 November 2013

NSW GOVERNMENT DELIVERS OPEN DATA POLICY

Minister for Finance and Services Andrew Constance has today released the NSW Governments first Open Data Policy as part of a commitment to improve the way government agencies interact with customers. Mr Constance made the announcement during an Open Data Forum held in Sydney this morning. We want to transform government through IT over the next ten years by better utilising mobile apps and social media, improving the way we interact with customers, Mr Constance said. Open data is at the heart of open government and we have developed a principlesbased approach to the way public sector agencies provide access to their information. We have engaged with the community, industry and the research sector to deliver a policy that drives transparency, accountability and better service delivery to the people of NSW. Importantly, it will support the development of new apps using government data to improve access to services like public transport's real-time updates. We are making more data available through the States central data portal data.nsw.gov.au, by piloting federation with the Commonwealth, Queensland and South Australian data portals, enabling easy access to their datasets from data.nsw.gov.au. Mr Constance said the NSW Government is supporting these initiatives by implementing an open access licensing framework to make it easier for agencies and those who use the data to understand and apply open licences. AusGOAL, the Australian Governments Open Access Licensing Framework, provides a system by which Government can make appropriate licencing decisions to allow the reuse of data and information in new and innovative ways by the community, he said. Applying this framework will also make it easier to share information with other jurisdictions. The Open Data Policy is available at www.finance.nsw.gov.au/ict.

Mr Constance today also launched the next online web competition for apps4nsw. Apps are transforming the way we live from the goods we buy online to the way we travel to work. We look forward to seeing what our passionate developer community creates, Mr Constance said. People are invited to take part in a number of exciting challenges. Winners will receive cash prizes, development space as well as access to agency experts and first-to-market data. Further information on the www.data.nsw.gov.au/apps4nsw. apps4nsw competition is available at