Open Government

Last month, the Wikimedia Foundation — which is responsible for the Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikimedia and other Wiki* projects — launched its renewed Public Policy website. On the site, the foundation presents five policy areas that it says are most important for its mission and projects: access, censorship, copyright, intermediary protection, and privacy. These enable the Wikimedia community to push for policies to allow people around the world to access, create, share, and remix free knowledge.

UK citizens feel frustrated, ambivalent and anxious before and during voting in General Election, while after voting they mostly feel proud, according to a qualitative study conducted by the UK Government Digital Service (GDS) the day after the General Elections last May. There is plenty of room for improvement in education about the electoral process, in the process itself, and in voter experience, the study concludes.

The Vienna Municipal Department of Land Surveying, MA 41, has made all of its geodata available for free. This data includes multi-purpose (surface) maps, orthophotos, terrain models, structure models, and surface models, all part of the Geodata Infrastructure.

The UK and the USA have agreed to step up collaboration on digital technologies between the two countries. They will work together on improving digital public services, opening up government data, and teaching young people how to program and other digital skills. This intensified partnership was announced two weeks ago by British Prime Minister David Cameron after a meeting with US President Barack Obama.