Dr.Adelheid Burgi-Schmelz
Special Advisor to the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs
Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs
Switzerland

Biography
Adelheid Burgi-Schmelz is a Senior Advisor to the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs. In 2013, she completed a study on the economic impact of open government data for Switzerland. Earlier, Adelheid Burgi-Schmelz was a Director at the International Monetary Fund and before that the Director General of the Swiss Federal Statistical Office. In the private sector, she has worked at Ascom Corporation and Schindler Corporation, both in Switzerland, and at Bell Communications Research in the United States. Adelheid Burgi-Schmelz holds master and PhD degrees from the University of Berne, from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and from the University of Bonn.

Abstract
Open Data in Switzerland

Since 2011, the topic of Open Data and Open Government Data (OGD) has gained a lot of momentum in Switzerland. Several requests regarding OGD were filed in Parliament. In 2012, the comprehensive OGD Study Switzerland was published.

At the same time, the Swiss Federal Archives, along with the Federal Office of Topography (swisstopo), the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss), and the Federal Statistical Office started to set up an OGD pilot portal .

In this context, the author prepared a report on the economic impact of OGD in Switzerland including on the federal budget. To this end, a survey was conducted across Swiss federal offices, out of which quite a few publish geospatial data. The report concluded that, from an economic perspective, Switzerland would benefit from OGD.

In September 2013, the Swiss government decided to develop a national OGD strategy in 2014. Its implementation should start subsequently.

The paper will cover insights gained from the report and the survey of Swiss federal offices including the offices with geospatial data. Among them, the Swiss Federal Office of Topography (swisstopo) has been spear heading efforts to open its ?treasure chest? of data. The paper will showcase examples of open geospatial data sets for Switzerland and refer to online tutorials, e.g. for the use of API. More broadly, the paper will provide information on how the Swiss government is moving forward with OGD on a national level.