Generally accepted data usage principles for an organisation is the FAIR model - which requires that data is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable, in order to maximise the use of data, and the investment in data, within the organisation.
Findable: The first step in (re)using data sets is to find them. Metadata and data should be easy to find for both humans and computers. Machine-readable metadata are essential for automatic discovery of datasets and services. In order to support this, a municipality-wide data catalogue that contains information about data, i.e. the metadata, needs to be established. The metadata includes information relevant to the findability and utilisation of the associated data, such as where the data can be found, a persistent data identifier, information about the content of the data and any restrictions on the utilisation of the data.
Accessible: Once the user finds the required data, she/he/they need to know how they can be accessed, possibly including authentication and authorisation. This means that the municipality needs to establish within data management data classification that can guide any user, internal or external, on how to access the data.
Interoperable: The data usually needs to be integrated with other data. In addition, the data needs to interoperate with applications or workflows for analysis, storage, and processing. This means there need to be commonly agreed upon identifiers, concepts, and ontologies for all data within the municipality.
Reusable: The ultimate goal of FAIR is to optimise the reuse of data. To achieve this, metadata and data should be well-described so that they can be replicated and/or combined in different settings. In all data activities, the municipality should invest in the reusability of data. This means building the capabilities within the organisation to be able to ensure that data that is accessed or created within the organisation has the legal and technical parameters to facilitate its reuse.