On the first of July, the Polish Access to Public Data Bill (2001) came into force. The bill obliges up to 10 thousands of public sector institutions (including local government, political parties, public schools, etc...) to put public information (such as information about property, structure, authorities, procedures, etc...) on special web sites. Each institution is obliged to create a separate website for this purpose, separated from their home page (if they have such). The root of all web sites is The Public Data Bulletin (a collection of hyperlinks).

The new legislation creates a lot of problems for most officials. The responsible people often don't know how to create a website and if they do, regulations seem very heavy. The law requires for example using two servers (a main one and a back-up server that automatically takes over when the main server malfunctions) and making a daily back-up of all public data.

There are only about four million internet users in Poland. Though online provision of public information seems to be a proper course of action, enforcement of the Bill seems excessive in a country where the IT infrastructure is only starting to develop.

The Public Data Bulletin (in Polish)
http://www.bip.gov.pl/

There is an article about The Public Data Bulletin (in Polish)
http://www.vagla.pl/skrypts/bip_warunki.htm

Polish - English translation service
http://www.translate.pl/

(Contribution by Piotr VaGla Waglowski, Internet Society Poland)