(this page is part of my 2011 report on “Open Data: Emerging trends, issues and best practices”. Please follow that link to reach the Introduction and Table of Content, but don’t forget to also check the notes for readers! of the initial report of the same project, “Open Data, Open Society”)

One of the most common activities for Open Data activists in this moment is the creation of country-wide catalogs of all data sources, to facilitate individuation and correlation of independent data sets. Normally, all initiatives of this type are announced on the Open Knowledge Foundation blog and/or its data hub CKAN. Another relevant development is the publication of an Open Data Manual that “can be used by anyone but is especially designed for those seeking to open up data, since it discusses why to go open, what open is, and the how to ‘Open’ Data." Activists in several European countries have already published local versions of the manual, or equivalent documents. On this background, several interesting issues, some of which were anticipated in the Open Data, Open Society report, are coming in full light. They are presented, one at a time, in the following sections of this chapter.