Data stories

Coronavirus and COVID-19 Coronaviruses are a specific subset of virus with a unique set of characteristics. COVID-19 is the name caused by a specific strain of the coronavirus and is the seventh identified coronavirus. It was first reported in December 2019 in Wuhan City, China. Since the first diagnosed case in China, COVID-19 has rapidly spread across the world. As of 16 March 2020, there have...

The European Union has made the decision to move away from the traditional economic model (take-make-consume-waste), which thrived during the industrial revolution, to the circular economic model in 2015. The circular economic model is based on the reuse of resources (e.g. products, materials), the regeneration of natural systems and to reduce waste and pollution. In other words, the circular...

The rural data gap and the digital divide The division between rural and urban areas is not new. Citizens in rural areas were one of the last places to receive good electricity and phone service in the early 1900s. The government then ensured these facilities as it considered electricity and phone services essential. Currently, many homes in rural areas struggle to get a stable and reliable...

European Data Portal v3.0 In March 2020, the European Data Portal (EDP) launched version 3.0 of the website. Several new features were introduced in this version update, including: A new user interface for easier navigation; A new enhanced EDP home page that better balances the editorial content and dataset focus / content; Ongoing harvesting of portal sources, including non-geo and geo portals...

Open Data Maturity in Europe The European Data Portal (EDP) conducts an annual benchmark assessment of the current state of open data in the European Union countries and Europe in general. The latest Open Data Maturity Report (2019) covered the Member States and the EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland), assessing the countries along four dimensions: Open Data Policy...

The European Data Portal (EDP) facilitated an online workshop on “ High value datasets: What are the lessons learned from INSPIRE?”. The online workshop started with an introduction to high value datasets (HVDs). We then moved on to an interactive part during which the 177 participants could contribute their thoughts and questions online. The Directive on open data and the re-use of public sector...

Sustainability of (Open) Data Portals Infrastructures reports On 6 July 2020, the European Data Portal (EDP) published a series of six reports (plus an executive summary and overview) around the sustainability of (open) data portal infrastructures. The reports tackle several dimensions of the topic, and are: 0: Summary Overview and Key Recommendations 1: Measuring Use and Impacts of Portals 2...

Open solar energy data Open energy data is one of the European Data Portal’s (EDP) most popular data domains due to its impact on the energy sector, for example. Within this data category, the EDP has a fair amount of open solar energy data. Solar energy is light and heat from the sun that can be harnessed and used for technologies such as solar heating, photovoltaics, solar thermal energy, solar...

Over the coming months, all six reports included in the ”Sustainability of (Open) Data Portals Infrastructure” will be summarized into featured highlights. This particular article will focus on the second report: “Developing Microeconomic Indicators Through Open Data Re-use”. This report discusses the importance of measuring the economic impact of open data, the use of microeconomic metrics, and...

The European Data Portal (EDP) recently conducted a user satisfaction survey and round of interviews to learn more about the user experience of the portal. The aim of the research was to gain insights into users’ needs and wishes of the portal to determine areas of improvement. In total, 16 users with varying backgrounds from different European countries participated. Survey responses In the...