Selecting Data Sets for Publishing

Survey your datasets

An initial activity in the process of publishing open data is to get an overview of the data sets available in your organisation. The data sets can then be classified, e.g. using the traffic light system suggested by Difi with green meaning data that can be published, yellow meaning that it is uncertain whether the data can or should be opened, and red meaning that the data should not be published (e.g. due to security or privacy issues).

The overview itself (except the datasets marked as “red”) can be published as open data, and can also be used to gather feedback on what datasets you should open first.

Define priorities

Priorities depends on goals for publishing, e.g.:

• facilitating innovation based on open data
• supporting open governance
• fulfilling obligation to publish

We recommend that you involve potential users of the data in the process of defining the priorities.

References and further reading

Difi has good resources (in Norwegian) for publishers of open data, including descriptions on:

• surveying datasets
• the traffic light system
• selection of datasets to publish