Identify what you already publish

The problem

As organisations determine what should be published through the PSI Directive, information already published represent a good candidate for datasets to be published as open data. However, organisations may encounter challenges due to a lack of knowledge of what information is already published or be faced with so much amount of information might be too large to be catalogued manually. An inventory of already published information helps organisations to understand what information they provide and what assets they can make more re-usable.

The solution

CKAN: CKAN provides a cataloguing solution for implementing this best practice. It is mentioned specifically in the best practices.

Create a public, comprehensive list of all information holdings, Open Data Policy Guidelines, Sunlight Foundation: This guideline advocates for the creation of an inventory of already available information, in line with the Share PSI best practice.

How to open up data, Open Data Handbook: The section of Open Knowledge International’s Open Data Handbook intended for governments emphasizes the value of publishing data holdings and mentions CKAN.