NZ Government adopts Creative Commons licences

Detail from NZ Walks interactive map (nzwalksinfo.co.nz)

The New Zealand Government has launched a new website to support NZGOAL (New Zealand Government Open Access Licensing) in collaboration with Creative Commons Aotearoa. It is described as an “open access and open licensing framework that promotes the release for re-use of non-personal copyright works and non-copyright material held by State Services agencies”. The value of making data available for reuse was illustrated by NZ Walks and Mashblock, two winning entries in the Mix and Mash: the great NZ remix and mashup competition in 2010. You can browse New Zealand open government data on the Government Datasets Online site. Other open data stories from government agencies around the world can be found here.