Open Data Maturity Report 2022: Countries’ perspectives on open data
quality
Publication Date/Time
2023-03-31T11:20:00+00:00
Country
Europe
Sharing experiences on open data quality across countries
In December 2022, the eight annual Open Data Maturity (ODM) report
[https://data.europa.eu/en/publications/open-data-maturity/2022] was
published with 35 participating countries across Europe (EU27 Member
States, EFTA countries and candidate countries). The report aims to
provide a better understanding of the level of open data maturity in
these European countries, capture their progress over time, find areas
for improvement, and benchmark countries´ performance against each
other. 

This data story is the second of a series of data stories focused on
the ODM report. While the goal of the first data story
[https://data.europa.eu/en/publications/datastories/assessing-open-data-developments-across-europe-discover-open-data-maturity]was
to announce the publication of the report and present its general
results, this second data story and those to follow will deep dive
into the dimensions of the methodology with real, inspirational
examples from specific countries.  

This data story will zoom in on the quality dimension and feature
three countries that scored highly and further improved their
performance in the ODM quality dimension in 2022.  In this context,
Czechia, Slovenia and Ukraine, (Figure 1) were interviewed as
representing interesting use cases for broader inspiration and
boosting cross-learning at European level.  
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/2.quality4-02.png]
_Figure 1: 2022 ODM ranking for the quality dimension with focus on
the score of Czechia, Slovenia and Ukraine _

THE QUALITY DIMENSION IN DETAIL 

The ODM methodology has been evolving from its first publication in
2015 to accommodate the changes and trends of the European data
strategy
[https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/europe-fit-digital-age/european-data-strategy_en].
In 2018, the methodology
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/method-paper_insights-report_n7_2022_0.pdf]
grew from two dimensions (readiness and maturity) to four dimensions:
policy, impact, quality and portal. While a key index of performance
in the early years of the Public Sector Information
[https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/FR/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32013L0037]
(PSI) Directive used to be the quantity of data, the quality dimension
was added to the ODM in 2018 and became fundamental pillar of the ODM
framework. 

Since then, the report collects information on the quality of open
data from the participating countries through a questionnaire sent to
national public administrations. The questions on the open data
quality dimension gather information on the steps taken to ensure that
the metadata is collected from sources across the country and made
available in an up-to-date format and, when possible, with default
access to the data. Additionally, the dimension shows the state of
play  of the deployment of the published data as well as the metadata
compliance with specifications, in particular the DCAT-AP
[https://data.europa.eu/en/publications/datastories/linking-data-data-catalogue-vocabulary-application-profile]
profile, i.e., the application profile for data portals in Europe.  

In 2022, the EU Member States’ average maturity score on the quality
dimension is 77%, while the average for the 35 participating countries
lies on around 72%. This latter represents a slight decrease compared
to 2021, when the average quality score for the 35 participating
countries was 73%. The authors of the report estimate that this
decrease could be attributed to countries publishing a higher number
of datasets, for example to prepare for the Implementing Regulation on
high value datasets
[https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32023R0138],
but without proper attribution or quality checks. In fact, as
explained in more detail in the next section, the two indicators that
experience a drop in scoring are ‘(meta)data currency and
completeness’ and ‘monitoring and measures’. Figure 2 highlights
how countries have scored in the quality dimension in 2022. 
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/2.quality4-01.png]
_Figure 2: ODM quality scores in 2022 for all 35 participating
countries _

ZOOMING IN THE QUALITY INDICATORS 

The quality dimension is divided in four indicators. 

 	*
(Meta)data currency and completeness 

This first indicator focuses on the degree to which countries have a
systematic approach to ensure that (meta)data is up to date. According
to the Open Data Directive,
[https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32019L1024]EU
Member States should make datasets freely available, in
machine-readable format and through APIs. Moreover, following the
publication of the Implementing Regulation on high-value datasets
[https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32023R0138],
the EU Member States are required by June 2024 to publish high-value
datasets – as defined in the regulation - in machine-readable
formats via APIs and, where indicated, also as a bulk download.
Meeting these requirements while ensuring interoperability alongside
the available datasets from other countries is however still a work in
progress. This could explain why there has been a decrease of 6% (from
74% to 68%) points in the overall score for this indicator. 

To ensure that (meta)data is up to date and compliant with the above
requirements, countries such as Czechia – as reported by Lenka
Kováčová (Minister Counsellor at the Ministry of Interior of
Czechia) - have published clearly defined APIs for DCAT-AP-CZ, which
are compliant and used for local open data catalogues. Another example
is the Ukrainian open data portal, which launched a software to
undertake automatic  checks (using the API) on the completeness and
correctness of metadata. At the stage of connecting and synchronising
information systems, the availability of the necessary metadata in the
dataset is checked and if they are missing, the data provider receives
an error message. 

 	*
Monitoring and measures 

This second indicator looks at the support, guidelines, and tools
available to help publish high-quality metadata and select the best
licence type. It focuses on the level of maturity based on a country's
effort spent promoting the standardisation of licences. In the scope
of the 35 participating countries, this dimension experienced a
decrease of 5% (from 84% to 79%) points. This decrease may be due to
challenges on data licensing and the fact that this information is not
yet up to standard.   

Nevertheless, countries are making notable efforts to improve metadata
quality. For example, in Czechia metadata quality measurements are
displayed on the National Open Data Portal
[https://data.gov.cz/english/] and downloadable as CSV files.
Moreover, the metrics that are used to measure quality are included in
the SPARQL endpoint of the portal and are part of the user interface
for each individual metadata item in the portal. Furthermore, a
dashboard to check metadata quality
[https://oha01.mvcr.gov.cz/kibana/app/dashboards#/view/43389e30-3335-11ec-aeb4-71177d02ba9a?_g=(filters:!(),refreshInterval:(pause:!t,value:0),time:(from:now-1d%2Fd,to:now-1d%2Fd))]
is available for the (meta)data publishers and users of the portal to
better understand potential deficiencies. Another example is the
Slovenian open data portal, which can provide support to all data
publishers if they need help converting xls to open formats
[https://podatki.gov.si/node/33/attachment/newest]. Furthermore, the
Slovenian data portal developed the Administration Academy
[https://www.gov.si/en/state-authorities/ministries/ministry-of-public-administration/about-the-ministry/directorate-of-quality/administration-academy/]
to upskill on how to ensure data quality and 5-start open data scheme,
[https://5stardata.info/en/] which is available for all data
providers. 

 

 	*
DCAT-AP compliance 

The third indicator of the ODM quality dimension focuses on DCAT-AP
compliance and the reasons for using it. To encourage data
interoperability and discovery, the European Commission developed and
promotes the use of DCAT-AP which is a W3C standard design across
countries. There has been an increase of DCAT-AP compliance of 6%
(from 69% to 75%) across the EU Member States. This could be traced
back to technical adaptations, more available information on licences
and standards at national level, and further assistance provided to
data providers of the national portals. Data.europa.eu has been
providing guidance on these technical adaptations.   

Ukraine’s national portal
[https://diia.data.gov.ua/info-center/dcat]supports DCAT-AP standards,
and data providers are supplied with requirements
[https://data.gov.ua/uploads/files/2021-06-29-135404.275118-.pdf] on
data harvesting. Another example of how countries can support DCAT-AP
compliance is in Czechia, where the national open data portal team has
published a SPARQL-based filtering tool to go through DCAT-AP
compliant records. Here, those who are not compliant do not make it
into the National Open Data Catalogue. 

 	*
Deployment quality and linked data 

The indicator ‘deployment quality and linked data’ measures, with
the use of Universal Resource Identifiers, the quality of data
deployment by measuring the amount of machine-readable, structured
data made available under an open license. In 2022, there has been a
high focus on improving metadata quality. The  increase from 64% to
66% in participating countries follows the general trend in the last
years.  

‘One of the most important components in terms of improving the
quality of the datasets is the direct training of data providers to
work with open data’, says Mykhailo Kornieiev, head of the open data
expert group at the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
Their web portal collects materials and useful information for
everyone who wants to master this sphere. To support this portal,
their open data team constantly conducts face-to-face trainings for
representatives of central and local authorities. Czechia has a
dashboard on their Open Data Portal [https://data.gov.cz/english/],
showing the quality of open data deployment over time. Their national
open data team monitors the quality improvements, discusses them
within the open data working group and describes the quality status in
the year-on-year comparison in their annual reports on the state of
open data. To ensure the reliability of data, in Slovenia all datasets
must first be approved by editors before they are published on the
portal. Also, these editors periodically check all datasets and rate
them by the 5-star open data scheme. 

Figure 3 shows the developments in all three interviewed countries –
Czechia, Slovenia and Ukraine – from 2020 to 2021. Excluding
currency and completeness, a steady improvement can be seen in all
quality indicators throughout the years. 
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/2.quality4-03.png]
_Figure 3: ODM quality indicators overtime in 35 countries _

CONCLUSION 

Overall, the results for the quality dimension over time clearly show
the tendency of participating countries to go beyond considering the
quantity of open data made available to focus more and more on the
quality of the data published. Yet, between 2021 and 2022, the quality
score of the 35 participating countries shows only a partial
advancement, maintaining ample room for further improvements. The
authors of the report estimate that this decrease within the indicator
‘(meta)data currency and completeness’ could be attributed to an
increased focus on ensuring the interoperability of high-value
datasets alongside the available datasets from other countries. Within
the indicator ‘monitoring and measures’, a possible explanation
for the decrease is the increase in volume of datasets and sources
whose license information is not yet up to standard. On the other
hand, the increase in the indicator ‘DCAT-AP compliance’ may be
due to enhanced technical maturity and available information on
licences and standards at national level, as well as the assistance
supplied to the data providers of the national portals. Finally, the
high focus on improving metadata quality and the increase within the
indicator of ‘deployment quality and linked data’ follows a
general trend of the last years.  

The team of data.europa.eu believes that sharing experiences on open
data quality across countries is the first step for the 35
participating countries to keep on learning and improving their
performance in the ODM quality dimension. This is why on 18 April
2023, data.europa academy will organise its second ODM webinar on the
topic of ‘Open Data Maturity 2022: Diving deeper in the quality
dimension’
[https://dataeuropaacademy.clickmeeting.com/open-data-maturity-2022-diving-deeper-into-the-quality-dimension/register?_gl=1*5guwny*_ga*NDk0MjM3MDI5LjE2Nzg5NzQ5MTA.*_ga_K7H94QHX99*MTY3ODk3NDkxMC4xLjEuMTY3ODk3NzQwOC4yNS4wLjA.&_ga=2.210657813.1846149711.1678974910-494237029.1678974910&_gac=1.61466334.1678974910.CjwKCAjw_MqgBhAGEiwAnYOAejVKEP66UsgWOHNqN2qJCD7sVfaVXEkEXovkRzQrfKtcedTl4mGGgxoCkAoQAvD_BwE].
The webinar will host speakers from national open data portals to
exchange their views on ODM and quality of open data. If you also want
to engage in the discussion, do not miss the webinar and register
here!
[https://dataeuropaacademy.clickmeeting.com/open-data-maturity-2022-diving-deeper-into-the-quality-dimension/register?_gl=1*5guwny*_ga*NDk0MjM3MDI5LjE2Nzg5NzQ5MTA.*_ga_K7H94QHX99*MTY3ODk3NDkxMC4xLjEuMTY3ODk3NzQwOC4yNS4wLjA.&_ga=2.210657813.1846149711.1678974910-494237029.1678974910&_gac=1.61466334.1678974910.CjwKCAjw_MqgBhAGEiwAnYOAejVKEP66UsgWOHNqN2qJCD7sVfaVXEkEXovkRzQrfKtcedTl4mGGgxoCkAoQAvD_BwE] 

Interested to learn more about open data quality? Read the ODM report
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/landscaping_insight_report_n8_2022.pdf]
for more insights into the 2022 assessment, explore our interactive
ODM dashboard
[https://data.europa.eu/en/publications/open-data-maturity/2022], and
the related courses on data.europa academy
[https://data.europa.eu/en/academy]. And if you are interested in the
other ODM dimensions, stay tuned for the next data stories related to
this topic.  

To stay up to date on all open data matters, subscribe to our
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