Open Data Policy

Open Data Policies and Legislations:

To achieve the principle of transparency and enable individuals to access a wide base of governmental data, the Kingdom launched the Open Data Regulations and Legislations’ Guide.

The Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA), the entity responsible for regulating data in the Kingdom, developed National Data Governance Interim Regulations to determine policies and systems needed for:

Classifying data.
Sharing data.
Maintaining data privacy and freedom.

And other Open Data legislations.

Open Data Policies:

Open Data Policies determine the legal basis and obligations for all public data and information produced by public entities.

Open data policies also determine the roles and responsibilities of:

The Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA), and its affiliated entities, (the National Data Management Office and the National Information Center).
Government entities’ obligations to process, define, publish, maintain, and monitor Open Data.

1. Open Data Principles:

1.1 Data Availability is The Basis: Ensuring the availability of Monsha'at’s data for everyone unless they are protected data.

1.2 Open Format and Automatic Readability: Open Data is available in automatic-readable formats to be processed automatically and saved in varied file formats such as (CSV, XLS, JSON, XML, or Excel).

1.3 Data Freshness: The latest version of data is published regularly to the public.

1.4 Inclusivity of The Data: Open Data should be inclusive, reflect registered data, and include as many publishable details as possible.

Metadata that describes and explains Open Data should also be included.

1.5 Equality and Non-discrimination: Open Data must be available to everyone, with no need for registration or identity verification.

1.6 Free of charge: Open Data is available to everyone for free.

1.7 Open Data Licensure in the Kingdom: Open Data is subjected to a license that defines the legal basis and terms for its use and users' obligations.

The use of open data indicates acceptance of the license terms.

1.8 Developing the governance model and inclusiveness: Open Data enables inclusive access and participation, enhances the transparency and accountability of Monsha'at and supports the decision-making process and service delivery.

1.9 Comprehensive development and innovation: An effective role in promoting the reuse of Open Data and providing supporting resources and expertise is required.

Monsha'at must collaborate with the relevant parties to empower innovators in the Open Data field and involve everyone to participate in enhancing the Open Data impact.

2. General rules for open data:

2.1 Open Data Planning: This refers to:

Defining Open Data indicators and goals.
Developing and documenting the Open Data life cycle required processes.
Reviewing and updating the data plan periodically.
Submitting the annual report to the National Data Management Office on the open data plan and its progress.
Creating training courses & campaigns to raise awareness of how Open Data is important.

2.2 Open Data Identification: This refers to:

The identification and estimation of all public data (assessing the value of public data to identify open datasets) and their priority for publication.
Registering and publishing metadata for open datasets.
Analyzing whether combining several datasets will lead to upgrading the data classification to "restricted".

2.3 Open Data Publication: Monsha’at’s Open Data must be published on one or both of its websites and the National Open Data Portal.

Data must be published in unified, automatically readable, and non-proprietary standard formats, such as (RDF, XML, JSON, and CSV), and it must be provided in several formats whenever possible.

2.4 Open Data Update:

This refers to:

Update it regularly according to the mechanism defined in the metadata.
Review it continuously to ensure that it meets the specified regulatory requirements.
Update the metadata regularly.
Document the data sources and maintain the version history of the dataset.
Publish them with quality constraints identification and document them in the metadata.