BBVA API Market
The Mexican government defines the Open Data in its transparency portal as “Groups of public data available from the Federal Government which, by applicable provisions, are not considered as reserved or confidential and are accessible to individuals to be reused as desired”.
The answer, thanks to the OKFN, can be seen in this chart
This shows that Mexico has a good score as regards the availability of the national budget, election results, availability of national statistics and maps covering the entire territory. However, it fails in the category of availability of information on public transportation, zip codes, government expense reports, company registries and national legislation and regulations. The overall result is a fail grade, although it nearly passes.
However, it should be highlighted that in recent years the government has made very significant efforts and achieved a series of key milestones to understand the present and future of Open Data in Mexico:
20-09-2011: Mexico joined the Alliance for Open Government. The purpose of this initiative was to obtain specific commitments from the participating governments.
End of 2012: The Mexican government’s commitment to open data was considered obtained, given the progress made up to that time and the firm commitment to continue along the same lines
24-08-2013: The first unconference was held on open data and urban mobility in the Laboratory for the City of Mexico D.F., organized by OpenDataMX, within the framework of the ConectaDF initiative. Several challenges were posed with regard to urban mobility and the use of open data, to be solved by development teams.
2014-10-27: The Mexican government increased its commitment to transparency by establishing a series of milestones to be met between 2014 and 2016. Some of these are already in progress and will be evaluated on 27-10-2014
In sum, although there is much more work to be done with regard to open data in Mexico, we can conclude that the government institutions are making a significant effort to increase the release of ever-more accurate open data for the consumption of its citizens.
Interesting links
Public data portal of the Mexican government
MXAbierto. Open data task force in Mexico
OKFN report on the status of open data in Mexico
OpenData Mexico. Area for collaboration on open data in Mexico
OpenData Monterrey. Annual event on open data in Monterrey
Catalog of open data in Mexico
OpenData Institute post on open data in Mexico
Web page of Mexico’s adhesion to the Alliance for Open Government
Latin American platform for the exchange of information on the Alliance for Open Government
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In a connected world, APIs are the glue that keeps all the parts that form our day-to-day lives in place. The same way the power of glue depends on the material it is used on and the knowledge of its properties, APIs are only as useful as their documentation allows for.
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