Open government data, the case of Polish public sector

This paper presents the idea of open government data along with the benefits and threats resulting from using open data. We describe the results of our research study on availability of the open data on the example of Poland with particular emphasis on Central Repository for Public Information (CRPI). The comparison of CRPI in Poland and other countries has been discussed. The review of accessible public information has been made with particular focus on data formats. Data formats are an important aspect of open data as they facilitate or impede the reuse of data. The insights from our participant observation in the projects of computerization of public administration are also presented. Although the Open Government Data (OGD) movement can provide a number of benefits, recent study has shown that in Poland it has not achieved its full potential yet.