Penza, 13 November 2013. PenzaNews. The technical side of the issue regarding the transition of the state government websites of the Penza region to the open data format will be resolved in the first quarter of 2014. This was reported by the head of the department of the information of the Penza region Alexander Antonov during the press conference on Wednesday, November 13.

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He said that the idea of the open data format, which is widely spread in the world, was recognized in legislation in Russia in 2012.

“Open data is a beautiful name with a simple meaning hidden behind. It is the information posted on websites, including governmental, in such a way that it is not just visually available, but is also machine-sensible and thus can be easily spread around. There are two main points here: technical – to implement the formats on the site, and organizational – to define which data should be open,” Alexander Antonov said.

According to him, it is not reasonable to create a separate portal of open data in the Penza region as it is done in Moscow.

“Now in the portal of the Penza region government there is already the format of open data – the news RSS-feeds. In the first quarter of 2014 we will resolve the technical side of the issue so that we have other formats, for instance, XML, CVS, Excel – that is what can be read directly by different systems without human help,” the head of the department of the information of the Penza region remarked.

He also drew attention to the fact that the government bodies will be able to define the data they want to be open.

Explaining the main points of the format, Alexander Antovon gave an example of the lists of doctors in every hospital.

“To find the needed specialist one should visit sites of all the hospitals or simply go the portal with consolidated information. Our task is to gather information about the Penza region in one place,” he emphasized.