The following post is by Claudio Artusio who works for LAPSI, the European Network on Legal Aspects of Public Sector Information.
There is still 3 weeks left to apply to the 3rd LAPSI Award on the most user-friendly design of a PSI portal in the EU (http://www.lapsi-project.eu/news/award3).
PSI (acronym for Public Sector Information) can be defined as the wide range of information that public sector bodies collect, produce, reproduce and disseminate in many areas of activity while accomplishing their institutional tasks. PSI may include (among others) social, economic, geographical, cadastral, weather, tourist, and business information.
The technological progress we experience every day in the modern digital age has drastically modified the procedures and broadened the opportunities for any citizen to reach and access information. In such a context, making information generated and collected by public sector entities available and re-usable is crucial; not only it provides citizens with a reliable knowledge regarding Government and public sector bodies activities, it also represents the initial material for public or private undertakings to come up with new added-value services and supply them to citizens.
Since PSI availability is crucial for fostering re-use initiatives, the very purpose of the Award is to support any initiative which can be beneficial to PSI re-use policies for moving forward.
The Award is open to public sector bodies, businesses and citizens who designed or manage a PSI portal in the EU.
A panel of experts will evaluate the submitted projects with regard to the user-friendly design of the portal; the originality and the layout appeal of the portal; the efficacy of the portal in facilitating the access of the PSI; the efficacy of the portal in fostering the awareness on legal aspects of PSI (such as competition, data protection and privacy, intellectual property rights).
The Award has received the support of Infocamere (http://www.infocamere.it/) and as a result, the most user-friendly design of a PSI portal will be rewarded with a prize of 1,000 Euros.
Application must be submitted in English by 23rd of December 2011 (16:00 hrs CET).
The winner of the 3rd LAPSI Award will be announced during the second day of the Public Conference that will take place in Bruxelles, on 23rd and 24th January 2012.
The Call for applications is available at: http://www.lapsi-project.eu/call2
The Submission form is available at: http://www.lapsi-project.eu/form2
Sam is a data trainer and wrangler at Open Knowledge. He Tweets from @Noel_Mas
