Public data

an introduction to opening inormation resources

Antti PoikolaPetri KolaKari A. Hintikka

Openly licensed handbook

This handbook is published under a Creative Commons license. When using this material,reerences to both the authors (Antti Poikola, Petri Kola and Kari A. Hintikka) and the fnancingparty (Ministry o Transport and Communications) are required. For detailed inormation onthe license, please visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0/f/This particular license allows others to reely use the handbook as long as reerences tothe original are made. Without the Creative Commons license, the copyrights regarding writ-ten publication would limit the use o this handbook to urther support opening all data. Thispublication urges the administrations to implement similar licensing systems more widely.

Translation:

Emilia Norlamo

Layout:

Kirmo Kivelä

and

Inari Savola

ISBN 978-952-243-237-7 (print)ISBN 978-952-243-238-4 (web publication http://www.lvm.)Edita Prima Oy, Helsinki 2010

Case:Tax tree

Cover image:

Peter Tattersall – Tax tree

Peter Tattersall was the winner o the idea-category in the 2009 Apps or DemocracyFinland contest. Peter’s idea is rather simple. Even or the proessionals, the Budget o Finland is heavy reading. The budgetary materials have been available or some time, andthe media has been trying to make it more visible.The tax tree is an idea o an Internet service, one that would make the revenues andexpenditures o an organisation ran by state, municipality or public administration evenmore visible. Revenues are the roots o the tree. They then become a part o the stem andfnally they branch out as expenditures. The attained profts are represented as leas andruit. The thickness o the roots and branches are equivalent to the amount o sources o income and the items o expenditure.In order to work, the tax tree and other similar applications need open data in amachine-readable ormat. The Netra service (www.netra.f) is run by the State Treasury o Finland, and it provides inormation on the operation, resources and proftability o thestate. However, Netra is designed to specifcally serve the needs o the Finnish Govern-ment. It is the aim o this handbook to answer one simple question: what would we needto do to put the tax tree into practice in Finland?