The role of public sector information in the European market for online content: a never‐ending story or a new beginning?

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to address the recent trends and developments relating to the re‐use of public sector information (PSI) and open government data.Design/methodology/approachIt starts from the European Commission's Digital Agenda, which stressed the importance of opening up access to content to promote the single market. While the 2003 PSI directive has contributed to this, barriers to the re‐use of PSI still remain, often based on a lack of awareness with public sector data holders and users. Some of these barriers are currently being challenged by the open government data (OGD) movement. While this movement has comparable objectives to the PSI directive, it is based on different arguments. This raises the question of how the two approaches relate.FindingsThe paper argues that the proponents of the re‐use of PSI and OGD should join forces to promote the availability of public sector data.Originality/valueIn this way, the public sector can be encouraged to rethink its information policy and move to a more coherent view on how data can be used to increase the benefits for the information society and the market for digital content.