Aidinfo Report

= Unlocking the potential of aid information =

A new platform for sharing aid information
We want your views to help build a platform for open and accessible aid information.

The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) aims to improve the availability and accessibility of aid information by designing common standards for publication of info about aid. It’s is not about creating another database on aid activities, but creating a platform that will enable existing databases – and potential new services – to access this aid information and create compelling application providing more detailed, timely, and accessible information about aid.

The idea of openness is crucial to creating this platform and achieving transparency. Information must be openly available with as few restrictions in how the information is accessed and used as possible. To this end, we need to design a technical architecture that enables information to be published and accessed in an open way.

Consultation documents
There are two documents available of open consultation:


 * An International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) consultation note setting the IATI context, outlining the type of information the standard will cover and the main requirements the providers and users of aid information have from an IATI platform
 * Commentable version
 * PDF version|&do=get
 * A technical consultation paper Unlocking the potential of aid information which looks at some issues around how this will be implemented licensing, data formats and the technical architecture
 * Commentable version
 * PDF version|&do=get

We would like your views on...
The IATI consultation note:


 * 1) Who are the target users of an IATI platform and what are their requirements?
 * 2) What are the requirements of an aid information platform from a information provider perspective?

The Unlocking the potential of aid information paper:


 * 1) What is the best way to make aid information available, open and easy to find?
 * 2) What other aspects should we consider?

Finally, any advice on where existing standards could be used or built on is very welcome, as are examples of similar initiatives that we could learn lessons from.

How to submit comments
There are three ways to submit comments:


 * 1) Add your comments to the relevant parts of the documents. It is very useful to have remarks that can feed into specific textual revisions or amendments for future versions of the report.
 * 2) * International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) consultation note - commentable version
 * 3) * Unlocking the potential of aid information - commentable version
 * 4) Submit your comments for discussion on the open development mailing list.
 * 5) Email your comments to info at okfn dot org.

The deadline for comments is 1200 GMT on Sunday 1st November 2009.