Visualizing Open Government: Case Study of the Canadian Recordkeeping Approach

This chapter highlights the necessity of raising societal awareness of what is available to citizens in terms of government information.

What is not known cannot be made known.

It provides an overview of the organizational structure and information resources context within government organizations as part of linked government data initiatives. It examines some practical approaches used in governments underpinning the persistence and discoverability of information and discusses prodisclosure schemes for government information as a means to facilitate the collection and dissemination of information following linked data principles. The chapter is supported by a case study from the Government of Canada’s implementation of recordkeeping. It provides best practices for an up-front assessment of information resources based on criteria of value that can facilitate the identification, collection and dissemination of government data in a linked form. Visualization techniques are presented as a means to encourage greater understanding of the context for disclosure of information resources of business value through linked government data and information tools and techniques explored in other chapters.