The term open data is used with reference to the practice of providing data or contents which anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute — subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and/or share-alike (http://opendefinition.org).
License
Data and analysis from the Italian National Institute of Statistics are licensed under a Creative Commons License – Attribution – 3.0: they can be copied, distributed, transmitted and freely adapted, even for commercial purposes, provided that the source is acknowledged.
Which data?
Istat is the public body which contributes most in term of dataset released: it is essentially the largest producer of open data in Italy, as also stated by dati.gov.it, a dedicated portal monitoring the state of open data in Italy
All Istat data disseminated through corporate data warehouse I.Stat can be downloaded in CSV format, simply managed and reused. In addition to providing human-readable release modes, Istat has prepared an “End Point” to allow the machine to machine use of data contained in the corporate data warehouse.
Open data activities
All aspects pertaining to open data and linked open data in Istat are coordinated by a working group, which acts as a reference point both within Istat and in relation with the other institutions and the Net.
Open data are also included in the multi-year project “Stat2015” which represents the overall framework of the methodological, technological, thematic and organizational innovations taken by the National Institute of Statistics in the period 2013-2015.
At the European level, Istat takes part in the Open Data Working Group and the Task Force on Strategic Project on common ESS policies for free access and re-use of data within Eurostat’s activities.
Finally, the Institute has long been present in conferences and initiatives related to open data. In 2012, for instance, it promoted AppsForItaly, the Italian competition on open data. It also participated in the working group of the Commission to coordinate the System of Public Connectivity of DigitPA, contributing to the drafting of the “Guidelines for semantic interoperability through Linked Open Data”.