The state of open, publicly produced data 

"open content" and "open access."Also Canada and Australia seem to be well on their way 

(Guardian, 2010) 

A web journal, Owni.eu, recently published an interesting summary by Pierre Alonso (Alonso, 2011) of the legal frameworks around open data in different countries based on OECD information.Among the origins of the recent discussions on this subject is that the US and Great Britain have started the opening of governmental data with projects like www.data.gov and www.data.gov.uk.Examples: Russia, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ukraine, Turkey, Hungary, Slovakia, Italy.Examples: Brazil, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, UK, Switzerland.For example, Schellong & Stepanets (2011) present eight principles according to which it is possible to define whether data is open or not (see also Lehtonen, 2011).Data are not subject to Ito any copyright, patent, trademark or trade-secret regulation.Spain, Portugal, Israel, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Korea.In the second cluster, the majority of data are published by custom, without a set legal framework.All of these ideals want to free data and information in general from all kinds of restrictions, be they copyrights, patents or other kinds of control.Open data 

principles according to Schellong and Stepanets abide by the following eight principles.Data are collected at the source, with the finest possible level of granularity, not in aggregated or modified forms.Data are reasonably structured to allow for automated are processing.Open government has become an important term underlining the significance of public access to governmental data and information, and the transparency of governmental actions.In the first cluster, the majority of data must be published under penalty of law.There are several definitions of open data, all of which refer more or less to the same features.Data are available to the widest range of users for the widest range of purposes.Data are available in a format over which no entity has exclusive control.The US and Great Britain are quite far when it comes to implementing open data ideas into practices.Through a comparison of the different types of open data, Alonso was able to grade the freedom of data in different countries into five clusters.In the third cluster, as much data are published by law as is published customarily.In the fourth cluster, as much data are published by custom as are not published at all.Examples: United States, Egypt, Norway,Public data are not subject to valid privacy, security or privilege limitations.Sixth, absence of discrimination.Data are available to anyone, with no requirement of registration.Seventh, absence of propriety.Finally, an absence of license requirements.First, completeness.Second, primacy.Third, timeliness.Data are made available as quickly as possible to preserve their value.Fourth, accessibility.Fifth, machine readability.Reasonable privacy, security and privilege restrictions may be allowed.Example: Australia.All public data are made available.