Open Content Guide
This is a support document to guide open-content digital projects to submit an application for digital public good recognition by the DPGA.
📚Please note that the DPGA only accepts applications from open content collections, it does not accept individual pieces of content. Some examples of acceptable content are:
Collections of learning materials or resources.
Collections of publications or academic papers.
E-learning open content that addresses various topics.
Collection of books, guides, manuals, etc.
Other collections of content like data visualizations/ aggregators, blog posts, infographics, audiovisuals, images, audio, and other forms of digital content.
Digital public goods must be designed and developed to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A good way to provide evidence of this is:
State a clear couple of sentences that explain the relationship between your content and the selected SDG(s) pointing to the specific targets you help accomplish.
Provide any link(s) of a blog post, media post, or public communication (organization mission statement or similar) that talks about any social, public, or relevant contribution to society. It is not necessary that these mention SDGs as long as it relates to the previous explanation.
📌 You can use this SDG tracker tool to get an idea of the targets, initiatives, and data around each SDGs
📌 The SDG Academy provides free, open educational resources from the world’s leading experts on the sustainable development goals.
<Project name> helps advance SDG4: Quality Education, as a freely accessible content platform, it provides access to quality lessons in X number of countries, around <topics> in alignment with target 4.6: Universal literacy and numeracy and target 4.1: Free primary and secondary education. The digital content is published under Creative Commons Licenses CC BY SA 4.0 and can be copied and repurposed by all education stakeholders.
Collaboration with X local government to advance education - www.link-to-the-article.com
For open content collections, the use of a Creative Commons license is required. A good way to provide evidence of this is:
Clearly state the license used in the content description, in the footer, or have an easy-to-find licensing section on your website.
Have a unique URL, section, or place where content is listed. All content should be open and accessible without the requirement to create an account or log in.
You can have private or closed content on the same platform as long as it is clearly separated from the content you are submitting for DPG recognition and this should be easy to differentiate for final users.
All content published under <project name> is licensed under (CC-BY-4.0) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 and can be copied and repurposed, as well as remixed and shared.
Ownership of content and assets that the digital solution produces must be clearly defined and documented. A good way to provide evidence of this is:
State who owns the intellectual property of the content (organization, publisher, project, etc).
Provide a link to any copyright section in your website, terms of use, or trademark documents that mention the ownership of this content.
<Project name> is owned by organisation <name>. Evidence of this can be found at <link>
Digital public goods with elements or assets within the content that create more restrictions than the original license must indicate them. A good way to indicate this is:
Clearly reference and attribute any external assets or sources used within your content.
If your content collection consists of fully owned assets and IP you do not need to provide any additional evidence.
For content collections, this should include all relevant/compatible apps, software, or hardware required to access the content collection, and instructions regarding how to use it. A good way to provide evidence of this is:
Provide a link to any user guide, the section that tells users how to access the content.
Provide a link where you state any technical requirements to access the content.
📌 This is a good top open source static document generator.
In order to access <project name> content you require one of the following: - Supported web browsers: Google Chrome (latest version), Edge (for Windows 10+), Firefox (latest version), Safari (latest version). - Mobile apps: Android 10 or above (Download the latest version from the Google Play Store or Amazon Appstore), iOS 12.0 or above (Download the latest version from the App Store)
Digital public goods must have the possibility of extracting content from the system in a non-proprietary format. A good way to provide evidence of this is:
State the mechanisms on which content can be downloaded or exported. Most contents served through a web browser or PDF already provides this automatically.
📌 List of non-proprietary file formats.
📌 Open API Specifications
Content can be directly exported and/ or downloaded into the following open formats: PDF, HTML & PNG.
Digital public goods must be designed and developed to comply with applicable privacy laws. A good way to provide evidence of this is:
Provide a link to your project/organisation's privacy policy.
State any privacy laws you comply with.
📌 Data Protection and Privacy Legislation Worldwide.
📌 Privacy policy generator and example.
<Project name> complies with laws like the GDPR, CCPA, CalOPPA, and U.S. Federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. You can also access our privacy policy at www.project-website.org/privacy
Digital public goods must be designed and developed to align with relevant standards, best practices, and/or principles. A good way to provide evidence of this is to state all relevant data, technology or related best practices/ open standards
📌 List of resources and best practices for open content.
📌 HINT:
For best practices regarding open source software solutions, particularly for organisations involved in in developing and maintaining software and policy together, please refer to The Standard For Public Code
<Project name> adhere to W3C Accessibility Standards, WCAG 2.1 standards and follows the Guidelines for Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Education.
Digital public goods must be designed to anticipate, prevent, and do no harm by design. A good way to provide evidence of this is:
Provide any links relevant to user terms and conditions, privacy policy, code of conduct or similar.
State clearly how your content was designed to take into consideration the use of PII data, usage by underage users, illegal content, etc.
📌 Definition for personal data (PII data).
These are reference docs for specific purposes:
Child Protection guidelines
Mobile Security Testing guidelines
Data protection impact assessment guidelines + template
9.a) Data Privacy & Security
📝 Example: “You can also access our privacy policy at www.project-website.org/privacy, code of conduct at www.project-website.org/code-of-conduct, and terms of use at www.project-website.org/terms-of-use.“
9.b) Inappropriate & Illegal Content
📝 Example: “All <project name> content is added by the editorial team, with final control by the publisher. Editorial review is done on multiple levels, always involving a minimum of two editors two ensure content quality. The permitted content type is shown in the Terms of Use - www.project.org/terms”
9.c) Protection from Harassment
Content usually does not allow interaction between users, in most cases, it is not necessary to provide additional evidence. Interaction within a digital platform or software is not taken into account.
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