New master plan for open government data
Bern, 29.11.2023 - At its meeting of 29 November 2023, the Federal Council approved the new 2024-2027 master plan for Open Government Data (OGD) in Switzerland. It follows on from the 2019-2023 strategy for open access data in Switzerland. This master plan defines activities in this field up to 2027 and goes hand in hand with the entry into force of the Federal Act on the Use of Electronic Means to Conduct Official Tasks (EMOTA).
The 2024-2027 Open Government Data master plan, drawn up by the Federal Statistical Office, pursues the objective of making public administration data freely available in order to increase transparency, participation and innovation in all areas of society. The plan sets out the desired principles, goals and measures for the 2024-2027 period and defines implementation priorities for the federal administration (including decentralised units). The document also serves as an important reference for the cantons, communes and state-related enterprises encouraged to promote the open publication of official data.
A master plan with five practical principles
To support the administrative units in implementing Art. 10 of the EMOTA, which enshrines the principle of open access by default (open by default) in law, the master plan defines five principles for open access data: availability, quality of (meta)data, infrastructure, synergies with other fields and exchanges between OGD providers and users in Switzerland. These principles have been translated into objectives, measures and indicators, aimed at helping the federal administrative units to familiarise themselves with the main principles of OGD and to exploit the potential of official data within the framework of legal, organisational, technical and semantic requirements. The implementation of the 2024-2027 OGD master plan also strives to help Switzerland maintain its compatibility and remain competitive in the field of OGD at international level. The OGD Office, attached to the FSO, is also strengthening its role as an information centre for official open access data.
Open Government Data: Open access to government data
Open Government Data (OGD) refers to government data made available to the public free of charge, in a timely manner, in machine-readable form and in an open format. This includes all kinds of data, such as Switzerland's communal boundaries, population statistics, current meteorological data, historical documents or publications from the Swiss administration.
Available at bfs.admin.ch
- 2024-2027 master plan for Open Government Data (available in French and German)
- Assessment of the 2019-2023 Open Government Data strategy (available in French and German
The 2019-2023 strategy draws to a close with positive results
The period covered by the OGD 2019-2023 strategy is ending with positive results. The majority of measures planned in the strategy have been implemented. The key objective - the enshrining in law of the open by default principle - has been achieved with the introduction of Art. 10 EMOTA. The following measures have also been implemented: the opendata.swiss portal was developed, it continues to operate and the financing of its migration in 2026 has been secured; the quantity of datasets on opendata.swiss continues to grow and their quality to improve; various communication measures aimed at increasing the visibility of the topic of OGD have been put in place, together with cooperation, the use of opendata.swiss and cases of data reuse. Training in open public data is also now available. Measures that are still relevant and were not completed during the period in question have been reincorporated into the 2024-2027 OGD master plan.
Address for enquiries
Petra Keller Guéguen, FSO, Staff Division,
tel.: +41 58 463 62 04,
email: Petra.KellerGueguen@bfs.admin.ch
FSO Media Service,
tel.: +41 58 463 60 13,
email: media@bfs.admin.ch
Publisher
The Federal Council
https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start.html
General Secretariat FDHA
http://www.edi.admin.ch
