Open Data Best Practices in Europe
Publication Date/Time
2020-06-09T14:00:03+00:00
Country
Europe
Learning from the top performing countries in terms of open data
maturity from 2019
OPEN DATA MATURITY IN EUROPE

The European Data Portal [https://www.europeandataportal.eu/en] (EDP)
conducts an annual benchmark assessment of the current state of open
data in the European Union [https://europa.eu/] countries and Europe
in general. The latest Open Data Maturity Report (2019)
[/sites/default/files/open_data_maturity_report_2019.pdf] covered the
Member States and the EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway
and Switzerland), assessing the countries along four dimensions:

	* OPEN DATA POLICY: development of specific policies and strategies
to foster open data practice.
	* OPEN DATA PORTAL: functions that enable users to interact with open
data via the national portal.
	* OPEN DATA IMPACT: activities to monitor and measure open data
re-use and impact created.
	* OPEN DATA QUALITY: measures to ensure a systematic high-level
quality of data and metadata.

ANALYTICAL REPORT 16: OPEN DATA BEST PRACTICES IN EUROPE

On May 2020, the EDP published an analytical report titled “Open
data best practices in Europe
[https://www.europeandataportal.eu/sites/default/files/report/20200518_AR16_ODM%20Top%20Performing%20Countries_V1.1_FINAL.pdf]”.
The report provides readers with an overview of best practices
implemented by top performing countries – Cyprus, France and Ireland
– of the 2019 assessment. Insights for the report are gathered from
in-depth interviews with representatives of the national open data
teams as well as their original responses to the extensive
questionnaire filled out for the 2019 Open Data Maturity assessment.
At the time of writing the report, Spain was unavailable to contribute
to the research.

The practices covered in the report can be transferred to other
national and local contexts. This way, countries with a lower level of
open data maturity can learn from top performers’ practices,
insights and advice. By sharing this knowledge, access to open data
can be improved, quality of open data publication safeguarded and the
impact of open data increased across Europe.

Some of the key insights and recommendations described in the report
are:

_Open Data Policy_

	* Set up a dedicated open data policy, legislation and strategy.
	* Develop an implementation plan to make the strategy actionable and
responsibilities are clear.
	* Set up a network of open data liaison officers and maintain close
contact with them.

_Open Data Portal_

	* Include features that go beyond merely enabling users to find
datasets.
	* Focus on interaction between data publishers and re-users through
discussion forums, dataset-specific feedback systems, and rating
systems.
	* Provide showcases and examples of open data re-use cases.

_Open Data Impact_

	* Monitor and analyse the re-use of open data.
	* Make sure the right datasets are available at the right time, e.g.,
considering topics that are currently in the news and giving related
datasets more prominence.
	* Interact with re-users to understand their needs via open data
events.

_Open Data Quality_

	* Provide manuals and technical guidelines that address frequently
asked questions.
	* Actively train data publishers (if suitable in your local setting).
	* Integrate all measures, guides and training possibilities in one
platform on the portal.

OPEN DATA BEST PRACTICES WEBINAR

On 2 June, the EDP team hosted a webinar on the open data best
practices of these top performing countries
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pK9GO4T_uc]. During the webinar, the
primary author of the analytical report – Laura van Knippenberg –
spoke with representatives from Cyprus, France, and Ireland about
their activities and experiences. The speakers were:

	* Dimitris Michail – data.gov.cy (Cyprus)
	* Mathilde Hoang – Etalab (France)
	* Rhoda Kerins – data.gov.ie (Ireland)

In this webinar, speakers looked back at last year’s open data
maturity assessment. After providing a brief update on their work in
the respective national open data teams, the representatives joined in
a discussion around their best practices and experiences. This
provided more detailed insights and by discussing together and
comparing several aspects along the different countries, other
countries or interested parties are enabled learn from them and
improve their own open data practices.

Thank you to our participants and guest speakers Dimitris Michail,
Mathilde Hoang and Rhoda Kerins for joining the EDP’s webinar
“Open data best practices in Europe: Cyprus, France and Ireland
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pK9GO4T_uc]”. To learn more, read
the full analytical report Open data best practices in Europe:
Learning from Cyprus, France, and Ireland
[/sites/default/files/analytical_report_16_top-performing-countries.pdf]
on the EDP.

Interested in finding out more about the top performers or how your
country performed in the Open Data Maturity 2019 assessment? Visit our
open data maturity dashboard [/en/dashboard#2019] and read the Open
Data Maturity Report 2019
[/sites/default/files/open_data_maturity_report_2019.pdf]!

Share your experiences and ideas regarding the top performing
countries’ open data best practices and follow us on Twitter
[http://twitter.com/EU_DataPortal] or LinkedIn
[https://www.linkedin.com/company/publications-office-of-the-european-union/].
