Recap on the “From Open Data Portals to Open Data-Ecosystems” webinar | data.europa.eu
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Recap on the “From Open Data Portals to Open Data-Ecosystems” webinar

Experiences and ideas on how to proceed from monitoring and analysing Open Data Portals

Last week, the EDP team was joined by Axel Polleres, a professor at the Wirtschaftuniversität Wien, for an episode of the Future of Open Data Portals webinar series.

Axel currently works on various topics regarding data management and ecosystems. At the moment, he and his team are focusing on developing machine-readable and decentralised standards for data publishing and processing in the context of semantic web and linked (open) data. Throughout the talk, he addressed the state-of-affairs in this field, stating that:

  • Common data and metadata formats are in place;
  • Ontologies are widely re-used (i.e. schemata);
  • Scalable methods for distributed processing and querying are available; and
  • Centre nodes are widely used to build knowledge around them (e.g. WikiData)

Though this is a good starting point for the creation of a data ecosystem, the lack of data links and the fact that the publication of best practices is not yet common remains a barrier. In addition, the uptake of open data is still fragmented and sectorial, yet it is a necessary step for open data portals to transition into open data ecosystems.

A proposed solution to this problem is the Open Data Portal Watch, designed by the WU Wien. The initiative is a tool for collecting and assessing metadata quality over time. By using knowledge graphs and linked data, this tool strengthens open data and forms a vital piece of the data ecosystem puzzle. Nevertheless, Axel stresses that going forward, open data portals, publishers and users need to also include closed data, mix top-down with bottom-up approaches, and work on a decentralised architecture to allow for these data streams.

Interested to learn more about open data ecosystems? Listen to the recording on the EDP YouTube channel. Looking for more open data related news and events? Visit the EDP news archive and events calendar and follow us on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.

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