Reuse Open Data

For technical information on automatized access to datasets and other functions of the portal, consult the API documentation page.

The main functions of an open data portal is to ease and promote the reuse of data, under open licenses, which means that any citizen, company or organization may use the data for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

There are several international successful cases within the open data reuse’s area, with different purposes and contexts, such as:

Dollars for Docs - Website to promote the transparency in the relationship of the pharmaceutical industry with doctors and hospitals.

Mejora tu escuela - Participative platform where the citizen may compare data on Mexican schools.

be walking be.brussels - Application which suggests and helps plan pedestrian walks in Brussels.

The entities which promote the opening and availability of the data are also responsible to ensure that these are freely provided, not requiring any type of registry or reuse request. All datasets at dados.gov are therefore provided and may be downloaded by any re-user.

Promotion of reuses

At dados.gov, any citizen may also disclose reuses done through public open data. To promote reuses, it is necessary to create an account in the portal, access the administration page and upload a reuse. The most interesting reuses may be shared in the portal’s main page, in the highlights section.

Interacting with the data producers / suppliers

So that the open data ecosystem may grow in order to benefit all stakeholders, it is important that the interaction between those who provide the data and those who reuse them is possible. Events or other face-to-face meetings shall have an important role, but there are several functions at dados.gov which may be used for the same purpose.

In each page of a dataset, it is possible to comment or create discussion topics which shall be monitored by the responsible supplier. It is also possible to promote reuses of data which use these resources, making reuse cases visible and also signalling the data which are being used, which reinforces the importance of keeping them up-to-date.

The re-users may also share transformations or alterations carried out in a dataset, able to upload “alternative” files/resources (e.g. with the creation of different columns, adding geographical information, etc.) and relate them with specific datasets.

These functions are always available at the bottom part of each individual dataset’s page.