The cabinet has the ambition to make as much as possiblegovernment data available as open data. In addition, the government gives priority to high value data sets. These data sets are high value for society, such as the Basic Register of Addresses Buildings and the cadastral map. When making data available, priority is given to the disclosure of these data sets. In 2016, data.overheid.nl, in collaboration with municipalities, the Digital Cities Agenda and VNG / KING, drew up a Municipal High Value List. This list is a starting point for municipalities to start opening data sets.
The provinces also came to a Provincial High Value list in 2019.
Whether a data set is “high value” is determined by the extent to which the data contributes to:
- Transparency
- Legal duty
- Cost reduction
- Target audience
- Potential for reuse
For instance
The G8 Open Data Charter has designated the following fourteen data categories as “high value”. This list gives an indication of potential high value datasets and helps data owners to focus on unlocking the most relevant and valuable datasets.
| Companies | Company/business register |
| Crime and Justice | Crime statistics, safety |
| Earth observation | Meteorological/weather, agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting |
| Education | List of schools; performance of schools, digital skills |
| Energy and Environment | Pollution levels, energy consumption |
| Finance and contracts | Transaction spend, contracts let, call for tender, future tenders, local budget, national budget (planned and spent) |
| Geospatial | Topography, postcodes, national maps, local maps |
| Global Development | Aid, food security, extractives, land |
| Government Accountability and Democracy | Government contact points, election results, legislation and statutes, salaries (pay scales), hospitality/gifts |
| Health | Prescription data, performance data |
| Science and Research | Genome data, research and educational activity, experiment results |
| Statistics | National Statistics, Census, infrastructure, wealth, skills |
| Social mobility and welfare | Housing, health insurance and unemployment benefits |
| Transport and Infrastructure | Public transport timetables, access points broadband penetration |
High Value?
High value datasets are highlighted on data.overheid.nl. Data sets that meet the following criteria are marked as “high value” on our portal:
- The data is regarded as high value by a department in the data inventory and is made accessible with high priority
- The data appears in the municipal high value list.
The following lists are an inspiration for compiling the national high value lists:
- The Open Data Barometer
- Various other (international) benchmarks in which the open data effort of national governments is monitored.
Data visualisations with open data.
View a compilation of all data visualisations based on open data that were shown on the VPRO in the recent broadcasts of the Netherlands from Above program.
