Emirates eGovernment has urged government entities in the UAE to publish more open data on their websites in order to enhance eReadiness and help promote the concept of open government, one of the main pillars of a knowledge-based economy.

Publishing open data is also one of the United Nations criteria for measuring online presence and eGovernment readiness. The UN is expected to issue the 2012 eGovernment Survey later this month.

Emirates eGovernment has allocated a special section on the UAE federal government portal (government.ae) for open data. The section includes open data from many federal government entities in the UAE published according to certain policies that protect confidential information.

Salem Khamis Al Shair Al Suwaidi, Emirates eGovernment Director General said, "Since we publish open data on the official portal of the UAE Government, we urge government entities in the UAE to make more documents available as open data so that we may publish them on the open data section on the portal." He said that Emirates eGovernment intends to dedicate a special portal for UAE Government open data but this depends on the volume of open data available on government web sites.

Al Suwaidi added, "Many governments around the world today publish their data in open formats. Open data is considered a main source of revenue. It helps in the development of the society whether in terms of offering better services to the public or developing useful applications. Researchers, analysts and the media can also use this data to develop products and solutions that facilitate people’s lives." "International studies have proven that the best way to make use of government data is to make it open to the public to use and reuse without restrictions. The European Union, for example, gains around 40 billion Euros a year from making public sector information available to the public," he concluded.
 

We accept Guest Posts

Download the Dubai City Guide iPhone mobile app

DubaiCityGuide.com is owned and managed by Cyber Gear