In Open Data, we prefer simplicity and thus quite often apply KISS principle. You rarely see Open Data guy with specification 400 pages thick. But you can quite often encounter stuff like Open Definition, Creative Commons licenses (CC BY, CC0), REST API with JSON (instead of more complex SOAP and XML), etc.
It has its great advantages: We do not spend lots of time on many small things and thus get bigger stuff done instead.
On the other hand, it has loopholes: For example unwilling government clerk can exploit every omission in our simple specs so as to not release the data, or to release it but make it hard to use.
But not everything is lost. As the times goes, such stubborn clerk, even if clever, may run out of time. As the people loose patience, he might simply get replaced by more forthcoming clerk.
All hail the KISS principle. 
image by Jantusla
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