OpenParlData.ch
OpenParlData.ch provides free access to harmonised data from Swiss parliaments. As part of the project, we are investigating how we can operate the data infrastructure in a way that is sustainable and serves the public interest.
Factsheet
- Schools involved Business School
- Institute(s) Institute for Public Sector Transformation
- Strategic thematic field Thematic field "Sustainable Development"
- Funding organisation Others
- Duration (planned) 15.09.2025 - 22.12.2026
- Head of project Florin Hasler
- Project staff Florin Hasler
- Keywords Open data, data rooms, parliaments, politics, democracy, governance
Situation
Whether as a citizen, journalist, politician, civil servant, scientist, in companies or civil society organisations – currently, it is only possible to follow a specific political issue at different federal levels or a political matter throughout the entire policy cycle with a great deal of effort or expense. The reason: Swiss parliaments publish their data in different formats, structures and qualities that are not harmonised, interoperable or linked. There is no free or inexpensive way to obtain data from multiple parliaments in a structured manner. This makes it difficult for the above-mentioned actors to access and (re)use parliamentary data and data on political affairs, creating unnecessary barriers to our democracy. The provision of high-quality data entails costs that must be covered. From a democratic perspective, however, the data must be accessible to all stakeholders free of charge. This results in a free rider problem in terms of financing, comparable to (other) open source software (OSS) projects. The project therefore faces the challenge of determining how and by which organisation an open data infrastructure can be operated in a sustainable, democratic, reliable and efficient manner.
Course of action
The project focuses on the question of how we can operate an (open) data infrastructure in a way that is sustainable and serves the common good: - Governance: How can we manage it democratically and in a value-based manner? - Business model: How can we operate it efficiently and finance it sustainably? - What can we learn from this? What synergies exist? (including ‘data room politics’)
