The Generalitat de Catalunya, the political body in charge of the independent community of Catalonia, has made two eBooks (PDF) available that deal with open data, transparency and open governance, and some key principles of Open Government. Those documents are part of an Open Government series, hosted on the website of the organisation.

Entitled Obertura i reutilització de dades públiques (Opening and re-using public data), the first eBook was written by Martin Alvarez Espinar, who is responsible for the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C, in charge of defining web standards) office in Spain.

Amongst other things, the document explains how the return on investment of opening and re-using data can be assessed. ‘Defining the real economical gain of an open data initiative is a common issue for all the organisations,’ the author wrote. Performance, the impact on governance and citizens’ involvement through transparency are mentioned as criteria.

Among the advantages of opening and re-using public data, the document listed growth in the economy and employment, innovation and strengthening democracy. Open data can also provide citizens with a higher level of autonomy, increasing their trust in government, reinforcing cooperation and increasing effectiveness in accountability.

The document also defined the life cycle of an open data project and explored the legal framework.

The second eBook, entitled La publicitat activa en la llei de transparència, accés a la informació i bon govern: possibilitats i insuficiències (Publicity on active transparency law, access to information and good governance: opportunities and weaknesses), was written by Manuel Villoria, professor at the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid.

The publication analysed the 2009 national law dealing with transparency in information access and governance. It explainswhat is and what is not covered by the law, and what the consequences could be of the articles contained in the law.