Open Data Team

Governments produce, maintain, and manage vast amount of high political, economic, and social valued data. If we add the scope and extent of government activities to this issue, we find that in governments, very valuable information is produced and maintained at public expense. Naturally, some of this information is and should remain in the hands of the government solely based on the three requirements of “national security”, “trade secrets”, and “privacy”; but not all of them have this limitation. However, in the current situation, only a few people who have access to this information within governments can use it. If access disability is added to the inability of the same few to use the information, it will result that optimistically, only a small portion of valuable government data is used and its value is demonstrated.

The development of collective and technological features of the Internet has created new opportunities for the creation of new open data policies. Based on this capacity, if national resources can be made public, significant social developments will take place that will provide an opportunity to meet many of today’s challenges. This public data will provide a high capacity for public participation and inter-agency cooperation, and will lead to a revision of the missions and orientations of public and private institutions.

The Open Data Team of Transparency for Iran, relying on a team of experts and elite researchers, has created an open data discourse in the field of governance during its short period of activity. Among the activities of this team is the implementation and specialized consultation in dozens of large-scale national projects in the field of open data, which has played a significant role in creating an open data culture in the country’s institutions.