Hi SM,
Thanks for the interesting links... I'll jump on this bandwagon.
I quite like the principles in "Open Government Data: The Book
<
https://opengovdata.io/2014/online-free-primary-timely-accessible/>".
*For data to "open" it must be:*
*1. **Online and Free
*Information is not meaningfully public if it is not available on the
Internet for free.
*2. **Primary*
Primary data is data as collected at the source, with the finest
possible level of granularity, not in aggregate or modified forms
*3. **Timely*
Data are made available as quickly as necessary to preserve the value of
the data
*4. **Accessible*
Data are available to the widest range of users for the widest range of
purposes. If the data is accessible through an interactive interface, it
must also be possible to download the complete data set in raw form and
in bulk through an automated process (i.e. a bulk data download).
Reading through the Open Government Data Initiatives
<
http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un-dpadm/unpan050413.pdf>
presentation, it's hard to tell which (if any) of the initiatives
actually classify as open using this definition. The government
departments I know something about tend to fail in providing truly open
data on at least one point:
a) Statistics Mauritius Data Portal
<
http://dataportal.statsmauritius.govmu.org/> (As mentioned by SM)
Although the Statistics Mauritius data portal provides data *Online and
Free*, I think it fails to provide the *Primary *data sets (everything
is aggregated), and the data is not at all *Accessible *for bulk download.
b) Registrar General’s Department (Slide 35) and Lavims (Slide 38, 39)
Last I checked, this does have the *Primary* land registry deeds
available in a raw format (PDF scan of original document). However, the
data is *not available **online*, it is *not free*, and it is not easily
*Accessible* (data is not indexed properly, and there are no bulk
downloads allowed). I have not seen any access to aerial photo maps.
c) Building Planning Applications
I enquired about accessing planning applications in Rivière du Rempart.
I was told that the planning applications are essentially secret. (they
are public information in the UK).
d) Meteorological Data from the Mauritius Meteorological Services
<
http://metservice.intnet.mu/>They do provide free forecasts. They do
not however provide most of their data, e.g.:
* Weather station data (temperature, rainfall, wind, humidity, etc)
* Satellite data
* Weather radar data
Cheers,
Dan.
On 05/20/2015 10:47 AM, S Moonesamy wrote:
> Hi Alla,
>
> I am copying this message to the Mauritius Internet Users mailing list
> as there are a few developers on the mailing list interested in Open
> Data.
>
> In 2012, there was a presentation by Mr A K Hoolass, Permanent
> Secretary, Ministry of Civil Service and Administrative Reforms about
> the "implementation and Monitoring of Open
> Government Data Initiatives in Mauritius" [1]. Slide 18 has the
> following:
>
> "65 e-services for the citizen of Mauritius to interact with the
> Government
> anytime, anywhere and in real-time"
>
> There is a screenshot of the "Sign in" for the Government Web Portal
> at
> http://hacklog.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/govmu-org-mobile-no-captcha.jpg
> Ish Sookun was unable to sign in from a smartphone as the user is
> expected to solve a CAPTCHA while the form does not display any
> CAPTCHA. A person would have to solve that mystery to get those
> e-services to work.
>
> Slide 34 has the following:
>
> "Easy access to statistical data and publications on the website of
> Statistics
> Mauritius: http://statsmauritius.gov.mu and are also circulated in
> hard copies"
>
> I went to the web site [2]. I assume that the Open Data is at
> http://dataportal.statsmauritius.govmu.org/ I did a data search and
> got a Time Series. I clicked on "Browse" and I was given the
> following options:
>
> 1. Export to XLSX
> 2. Export to DOCX
> 3. Export to PPTX
> 4. Export to PDF
>
> I do not consider any of the options above as appropriate for Open
> Data as it is not in an easily accessible format.
>
> Slide 35 has the following:
>
> "This includes detailed aerial photo maps of the whole country;
> copies of
> every deed and survey plan relating to the sale and lease of land,
> going
> back over 250 years; and, valuation records for every property."
>
> I would like the above to be available in a format which is easily
> accessible over the internet and in a machine-readable format as it is
> not possible to get free access to GIS-related information for
> Mauritius. I assume that Open Data is not about data which is already
> available and not data which will be made available on request.
>
> I looked at some Open Data for Mauritius [3]. The statistics are for
> 2011. That is four years ago. I visited the web site of the
> Mauritius Meteorological Services [4]. The isn't any Open Data about
> the weather available.
>
> Open Data is a subset of Open Government Data. There are other data
> silos in Mauritius. It would be helpful if some companies could at
> least release some minimal data as a first step so that software
> developers can explore what can be done with Open Data.
>
> Regards,
> S. Moonesamy
>
> 1.
> http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un-dpadm/unpan050413.pdf
> 2. http://www.elandsys.com/~sm/govmu-org-domain-name-issues.html
> 3.
> http://mauritius.opendataforafrica.org/iwgmexe/mauritius-telecomunication
> 4. http://metservice.intnet.mu
>
>
--
Daniel Laeng
Software Developer
+230 5775 1037
Received on Wed May 20 2015 - 20:30:02 PST
