Merkel: Open Data Law in 2017 for the "raw material of the future"

Still at the end of 2016 the Ministry of Internal Affairs wants to publish key factors for an Open Data Law. These key factors should be converted to a legal text and passed to the Bundestag (German parliament) in the coming year - an ambitioned goal as Open Knowledge Foundation Germany recently published in a blog. The law is supposed to promote the opening of the federal administration.

This is - generally speaking - a good approach, however, again: Germany is only in the midfield of the European countries in respect to the implementation. 

The extension of responsibilities for only formally privately organized companies which are 100 percent in the ownership of the government, and are performing responsibilites of the public administration is not settled. This is the case e.g. for Deutsche Bahn AG (German Railway), all the transport associations but also urban transport associations. Also companies of the energy and water supply are among those companies. This is the reason why it is important to extend the effects of the law from corporate enterprises on the companies, which are ruled by them. 

This would be the way for the public to benefit from open timetable and real-time data of the public transport. 

More to the demands in respect to the law in the view of Open Knowledge Foundation Germany in its blog "Rohstoff der Zukunft" (raw material of the future): What comes with the Open Data Law? „Rohstoff der Zukunft“: Was bringt das Open-Data-Gesetz?