Learn about the insights from the webinar ´Stories from the Use Case Observatory – Volume I’

The Use Case Observatory is a three-year-long research project by data.europa.eu. It aims at contributing to the portal’s broader goal to measure the economic, governmental, social and environmental impact of open data. To do so, the Use Case Observatory monitors 30 re-use cases of open data from 2022 to 2025, focusing on the services they offer, the data they use, and the impact they create over time.

On the occasion of the launch of the first of the three reports foreseen within this research project, the webinar ´Stories from the Use Case Observatory – Volume I’ was organised on 7 October 2022.

During the first part of the webinar, the facilitator provided an overview of the research project, its methodology, and outlined some insights of the 2022 publication. The participating re-use cases highlighted the many ways in which open data has an impact. For example, open data business models can support citizens in finding jobs close to them, as well as improving transparency of governments by showing how members of parliament operate. Nevertheless, the results of the first report underline how estimating the effects of open data is still a complex challenge. Why?

• For many re-use cases it remains unclear how to precisely measure their services’ impact. Therefore, few data are available, besides web statistics;
• Not all information to measure impact can be shared easily by the re-use cases (e.g., financial information);
• Development ambitions and impact growth still often depend on obtaining adequate funding to scale the re-use cases.

In the second part of the webinar, four re-use cases participating in the Use Case Observatory were given the floor to present their open-data-driven solutions.

• Guglielmo Celata, Founder, Vice President and Technological Officer of Openpolis, presented two use cases of how they increase people’s awareness and participation in democratic processes and decision-making. Through catchy visualisations, Open PNNR leverages data of the Italian Ministry of the Economy to show the latest developments in the implementation of the Italian Recovery and Resilience Plan. Centri d´Italia maps out data from the Italian Ministry of the Interior about reception centres for refugees and asylum seekers in Italy.
• Clara Bracklo, CEO of Integreat, explained how their solution helps reducing information poverty and allows 90 municipalities in Germany to facilitate the integration of migrants and refugees. By providing key information in a single open pool, Integreat is ´a good example of how with open source, on the one hand, and open data, on the other, sustainability and transparency can be ensured` beyond single municipal realisations.
• Jelle Kamsma, Head of Product at ANP, held a presentation on LocalFocus, ´a data-driven news service aimed towards smaller regional newsrooms`. LocalFocus collects and analyses datasets on a variety of topics, providing both regional and national newspapers in the Netherlands with the ability to transform raw data into visual stories, without the need for technical skills.
• Stéphane Gigandet, Founder of OpenFoodFacts, focused on how they created their ´digital public good`, a big open database on food and food products through which further tools were built to transform raw data into actionable knowledge for people. In fact, through the OpenFoodFacts app and further services enabled through it, consumers in France were able to take informed decisions about their nutrition, food manufacturers to make better products, and scientists to further speed up their research.

The webinar concluded with a Q&A session, during which speakers answered questions in relation to the open and non-open data they use, how they approach data in different languages, and what they think should be done to retrieve relevant open data for re-use more easily.

Curious to learn more about? Then watch the recording of the webinar and consult the speakers´ slides on the data.europa academy page dedicated to the Use Case Observatory´s webinars.

Here you will also find a draft of the first report, which will be officially published in mid-October.

Stay tuned!

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