Minister Mikhail Abyzov has held a meeting of the Council on Open Data, and has presented a report on the results of the G8 ranking of the public disclosure of state information in the form of open data. According to the report prepared by the Open Knowledge Foundation, Russia ranked eighth with five points out of six for the transparency of data on government spending and ZIP codes, and four for the state budget data. The United States and the United Kingdom top the list with 54 and 51 points out of 60, while Germany, Italy and Russia, with 41, 39 and 30 points, respectively, are at the bottom, meaning that all the G8 countries have a long way to go and will have to do a lot of work with regard to wide-scale disclosure of information in the form of open data in the near future. The Russian project received new impetus after the President signed amendments to Federal Law No. 8 on Open Data.
Mikhail Abyzov issued a directive for his staff to draft an analytical memo with an analysis of the methods used in the ratings and proposals for improving the work performed by all key participants in the process. This issue will be raised at a roundtable discussion of the Open Government, “Open Data: What’s Next after the First Step?” to be held at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 21.
Source: Open Government.
