Cathrine Lippert is a Special Adviser in the Danish Agency for Digitisation (‘Digitaliseringsstyrelsen’) and is responsible for the national open data initiative Open Data Innovation Strategy (‘Offentlige Data I Spil’) which aims to promote and support the opening of public sector data for re-use. As part of performing every-day tasks, public authorities and institutions collect, produce, reproduce and communicate much information and data on a wide range of topics, such as geography, business matters, environment, economy, climate, real estate, culture, health, traffic, energy, tourism, education, weather, transport, politics, general statistics, and many more.

Once datasets have been produced in a public organisation there are socio-economic benefits to be gained from making as much use of this information as possible. Access to data can provide the basis for new services, products and information of great value to citizens, businesses and the public sector itself, making open public sector data a key digital resource which can boost Denmark’s competitiveness and help strengthen transparency, participation and democracy.

However, the lack of a uniform practice when it comes to access to public data constitutes a significant barrier for the realisation of these benefits. In order to support the comprehensive effort to make public sector information available for re-use, the ‘Open Data Innovation Strategy’ helps raise awareness of the potentials of public data, provide guidance on the legislation governing the area, create an overview of available data through a public data catalogue, facilitate the sharing of experience, promote networking and collaboration between the public and private sector, and document good examples of open data and the application of open data.