Swiss Open Government Data Portal

During the recent Open Knowledge Conference in Geneva, the Swiss Federal Government announced the launch of a pilot release its new open data portal. The pilot project will initially run from September 2013 for at least six months, with a possibility of extension after the trial period ends. Working in conjunction with a number of public agencies, such as the Federal Office of Meteorology and  the Federal Office of Topography, the project aims to test the feasibility of providing a single interface to government data and to establish the foundation for a national Open Government Data Portal.

The currently available datasets are grouped into six main categories – population, education and science, legislation, policy, territory and environment, and management. All the data is available free of charge and may be downloaded as required. Download formats include .xls files, georeferenced TIF files, .pdf and .txt files.  The geographic datasets available include national borders, municipal and district boundaries, cantonal boundaries, and postcodes and place names.

Swiss Data Portal – post code areas

The pilot portal also provides a set of pre-built applications and visualizations for certain datasets.