ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCIES

Digital public administration

Digital public administration or e-government entails simplifying information, communication and transactional work flows and processes within and between state institutions, and between the administrative agencies and citizens or businesses, by using information and communication technologies.


More here: What does digital public administration mean?

The use of information and communication technologies (ICT), with the aim of increasing and improving the quality and efficiency of public administration services, is summed up under the general term e-government. 
 

Digitales Amt (Digital Office)

The office of the future: oesterreich.gv.at/the Digitales Amt (Digital Office) app 

Citizens can use the central online platform oesterreich.gv.at to find information at any time and wherever they are, on their desktops or mobile devices, and conduct their official transactions – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. More information here: Digitales Amt.

Open government

Open Government Data (OGD) 

This is used as an umbrella term for a range of concepts and visions for how the state and public administration services could be opened up. 

Open Government Data (OGD) describes those datasets which are not related to individuals and are not part of critical infrastructure and which can be made freely accessible in the interests of the general public, with no restrictions on their free use, distribution and reuse. Making them available in this way encourages the development of new products and services. 
 

The launch of the Austrian one-stop Open Government Data metaportal data.gv.at in 2012 was an important step forward in successfully implementing open government data in Austria. data.gv.at constitutes a central catalogue for open data in Austria, so that users can find the data they need via a single online entry point. Thousands of datasets have been published in accordance with the principles of open government data. On 24 February 2020, the OffeneVergaben.at (public procurement) application became the 500th application available online at data.gv.at.

Approximately 1200 people access the website every day.
 

The principles of open government data

Open government data is believed to have the potential to encourage long-term social, cultural, scientific and economic progress in many areas.

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1. Complete

Datasets published by the administrative agencies are as complete as possible. They reflect the entire scope of the available documentation on a particular topic. Metadata, which describes and explains the raw data, is also provided, along with formulae and explanations about the calculations behind the data. This enables users to understand the focus of the available information and to study each data element with as much associated detail as possible. Any data protection, security or access restrictions must be checked before publication. Personal data is always removed from the published material.

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2. From primary sources

The data is collected and published by the administrative agency where it originates. This is done with the maximum possible granularity and not in formats that have been aggregated or modified in some other way.

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3. Immediately available

Datasets that are published by the administrative agencies are made available to the public within an appropriate period and are as up-to-date as possible. They are published as soon as the data has been gathered and collated. Data which is available in real time can be downloaded directly via a programming interface (API).

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4. Easily accessible

Datasets that are published by the administrative agencies are as barrier-free and easy to access as possible. It is important to avoid both physical hurdles (such as the need to visit a particular office in person or a requirement to go through specific processes) and technical hurdles (such as only being able to access data by filling in input templates or using systems that require browser-based technologies such as Flash, JavaScript, cookies or Java applets).

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5. Machine-readable

Data is stored in established file formats that are easily machine-readable, to enable automated, structured processing. It is recommended that a range of file formats are used. If other factors require the use of formats that are not easily machine-readable, the data should also be made available in machine-friendly formats. Files should be accompanied by documentation about the format, and how it can be used in relation to the data.

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6. Free of discrimination

Everyone can access the data at any time without having to identify themselves or justify their actions.

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7. Based on open standards

Wherever possible, the formats in which the administrative agencies publish data are open standards over which no single legal entity has exclusive control. The public administration service aims to apply standards developed by committees or the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) or the conventions of the Austrian federal government, provinces, municipalities and local communities partnership (BLSG).

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8. Licensed

The administrative agencies publish open government data under the following licence: Creative Commons Name 3.0 Austria Licence (CC BY 3.0 AT). The administrative body must clarify any copyright, patent or trade-name issues in advance.

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9. Documented (for long-term use)

Information published by the administrative agencies must be documented with detailed meta data and remain available for a long time. Information that has been put online is assigned an appropriate version control number and it is permanently archived.

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10. Free to use

Because of the use of the Creative Commons Name 3.0 Austria Licence (CC BY 3.0), there are currently no plans to collect fees for using the data. If it does happen that unknown formats are included in the document and the quick format catalogue no longer corresponds to the original appearance, you can reset it to the quick format templates used in the document or template.