Enticing Local Governments to Produce FAIR Freedom of Information Act Dossiers

Abstract

Government transparency is central in a democratic society, and increasingly governments at all levels are required to publish records and data either proactively, or upon so-called Freedom of Information (FIA) requests. However, public bodies who are required by law to publish many of their documents turn out to have great difficulty to do so. And what they publish often is in a format that still breaches the requirements of the law, stipulating principles comparable to the FAIR data principles. Hence, this demo is addressing a timely problem: the FAIR publication of FIA dossiers, which is obligatory in The Netherlands since May 1st 2022.