Objectives and Principles

Objectives and Principles#

In accordance with the Data Space Support Center’s (DSSC) Blueprint v2.0, we define the thematic scope, objectives and principles of the data infrastructure:

Thematic Scope#

Our infrastructure focuses on harmonized (open) data on legislative processes produced by Swiss parliaments and other actors (executive branches, researchers etc.). It currently includes public data[1] provided by 78 parliaments. Private legislative data can be included at a later stage (cf. Data Space).

Objectives#

The data infrastructure’s objective is to improve 1) democracy (transparency, accountability, and participation), 2) performance (efficiency and data quality), and 3) innovation in Swiss politics i.e. Swiss legislative processes through data exchange and use:

  1. Democracy (transparency, accountability, and participation): We make data from Swiss parliaments accessible and (directly or indirectly) usable for researchers, journalists, civil society organizations and the public. Their observations and analyses will make the Swiss political process more transparent. Political actors and processes will be more accountable and gain democratic legitimacy. We will directly or indirectly (through tools) enable people and organizations to more effectively engage in political processes and advocate for their interests. All of this will help to strengthen Swiss democracy.

  2. Performance: Our initiative should improve the performance of the Swiss legislative information system: make data provision and use more efficient through standardized APIs, improve data quality through standards, higher exposure and feedback loops and improve coordination and collaboration between actors.

  3. Innovation: Our data infrastructure should enable the creation of new services and business models. Providers of council information systems receive data standards for political proceedings, which make it easier to scale their offerings and, where applicable, reduce lock-in effects, thereby fostering competition and innovation. (Potential) providers of political monitoring and civic tech tools can integrate legislative data more easily and cost-effectively and focus on innovative applications and features.

In accordance with the DSSC’s Starter Kit for Data Space Designers our data infrastructure business-case pattern can be foremost classified as “Greater Common Good”: “Public and private sector share data for a greater common, societal goal (e.g., climate protection).” Extending it into a legislative data space would add the business-case pattern of “Cost Sharing”: “Data space participants share their data to meet shared requirements (e.g., compliance, process efficiency, transparency). Every member saves money and time by sharing the burden.”.

Principles#

The following principles are the result from a stakeholder workshop and have been inspired by the Code of Conduct for operating trustworthy data spaces based on digital self-determination and the Swiss Data Ecosystem’s principles:

Transparency and Openness#

Transparency enables trust.

This infrastructure is developed in the open. Decisions are made and communicated openly. Stakeholders and interested parties are regularly and proactively informed about upcoming changes and developments. Information on the characteristics, quality, terms of usage and provenance of our data (products) is easily accessible (cf. data as a product).

The data infrastructure’s code is open source. We provide the unenriched data we collect from parliaments via their websites or via APIs (“core data”) as open data. Additional data and services may be offered for a fee.

Public Interest/Common Good#

This infrastructure should benefit the many, not the few. It should be human-centered, fair to participants and non-participants, accessible, digitally self-determined[2], privacy-preserving[2], secure and should not cause harm.

Participation#

This infrastructure should directly or indirectly enable people and organizations to more effectively engage in political processes.

The infrastructure is built collaboratively. Participation in the initiative should be open to anyone sharing our values and adhering to our principles[4], rules and guidelines. Stakeholders or their representatives shall be involved in decisions on the data infrastructure. Participation (decision-making as well as data provision and usage itself) must take into account asymmetrical power and resource distributions among stakeholders.

Participants who violate rules should face sanctions that increase in severity for repeat offenses.[5] Mechanisms and arenas are in place to fairly and efficiently (rapidly, low cost) resolve conflicts between participants[5].

Efficiency, Quality and Reliability#

We will make the data provision and use of Swiss legislative data more efficient through standardized APIs.

Generally, we provide information from Swiss parliaments’ websites as is, correcting obvious errors and harmonizing them according to standards[3]. We have measures in place to improve data quality. We and our users can feedback errors directly to parliaments (as well as our users to us) to contribute to higher data quality. We continuously monitor data and service (API) quality involving data providers and being accountable to data users[5].

Our initiative promotes the once-only principle and interoperability adhering to Swiss and international good practices and standards and cooperating with like-minded initiatives in Switzerland and abroad. We strive for decentralization by enabling Swiss parliaments (and their providers) and other actors to provide harmonized (open) data via APIs by developing and promoting standards and enabling parliaments and their providers. This will allow us to gradually phase out our crawlers.

Sustainability#

Our data infrastructure should be environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. All profit must be reinvested and cannot be extracted (non-profit).

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