On January 12, 2023, not only did the historic parliament building open its doors, but the new web portal also went online – as a digital parliament at www.parlament.gv.at with an intuitive structure and modern design.

In the course of this, the Open Data offering was significantly expanded:

Licensing update

Licensed data is offered under CC BY 4.0 instead of CC BY 3.0 AT. For a listing of all licensed datasets, visit https://www.parlament.gv.at/recherchieren/open-data/daten-und-lizenz/index.html and https://www.data.gv.at/auftritte/parlament.

Structured data in JSON format

All detail pages (for example, about items, people, or sessions) are available in JSON format through the URL addition “?json=true”. All information published on these pages is thus available in a structured way.

In addition, the result lists of the filter searches (e.g. at https://www.parlament.gv.at/recherchieren/gegenstaende/) were supplemented with further data. For the results of independent applications, the date of receipt and the IDs of the submitting persons are also displayed.

Easy access

The new JSON API builds on the filter searches of the graphical web interface. This offers several advantages:

• Filter searches for desired items & co can be configured on the website (free text and structured search). By means of “Export” under the search mask, the results can be exported as JSON or RSS feed.
• The required data of a POST request (URI and Body) for the desired results are also displayed in the export menu. This allows API calls to be made directly.

Better documentation

Visit https://www.parlament.gv.at/recherchieren/open-data/daten-und-lizenz/index.html for a detailed technical and content description of the API and all licensed datasets.

Cooperation with the University of Vienna

The path from obtaining data to analysis and visualization is illustrated by application examples(https://www.parlament.gv.at/recherchieren/open-data/showcases/) created in collaboration with the Institute of Government and the Visualization and Data Analysis research group. This practical guide will make it easier for interested parties to get started working with the data offering. The initial showcases can also be found in the application directory on data.gv.at:

• Which legislative initiatives are successful?
• Is speaking time divided equally between men and women?
• How is the composition of the National Council changing?

Retrospect and outlook

The crowdsourcing process launched in April 2021 has provided important input for the further development of Parliament’s Open Data offering. Many thanks to all participants! The results can be found at Open Parliament – Open Data (https://www.parlament.gv.at/dokument/unterlagen/Offenes_Parlament-Offene_Daten.pdf).

Many things – such as data provision via JSON or updating the license – were already implemented with the GoLive of the new website. However, the open data offering will continue to be expanded regularly in the future as part of the “Digital Parliament” project.

For questions and suggestions, please contact the Parliament at ogd@parlament.gv.at!