Looking back at EU Open Data Days 2021: ‘From open data to data
visualisation’
 

Last November, the Publications Office of the European Union
[https://op.europa.eu/en/home] organised the EU Open Data Days
[https://op.europa.eu/en/web/euopendatadays/home]. Over the three days
(23 – 25 November 2021), the event showed the benefits of open data
to more than 2300 EU public sector representatives, citizens and
businesses under the main theme: ‘_SHAPE OUR FUTURE WITH OPEN
DATA_’.

Over 70 speakers from across the world took the floor in six thematic
sessions [https://op.europa.eu/en/web/euopendatadays/programme]. Each
of these sessions provided an overview of innovative techniques and
best practices used in both the private and public sector. Moreover,
they offered the participants valuable insights into open data and
data visualisation techniques and practices. 

In a series of news pieces, we have recapped each of the thematic
sessions of the EU Open Data Days, which included:

 	* ‘Creating open data ecosystems
[https://data.europa.eu/en/news/looking-back-eu-open-data-days-2021-creating-open-data-ecosystems]’
 	* ‘Data for people
[https://data.europa.eu/en/news/looking-back-eu-open-data-days-2021-data-people]’
 	* ‘Facilitating data re-use
[https://data.europa.eu/en/news/looking-back-eu-open-data-days-2021-facilitating-data-re-use]’

The fourth thematic session was titled ‘From open data to data
visualisation’ and linked open data and data visualisation together,
with a focus on the importance of openness in building a powerful data
visualisation. 

The first session was titled ‘Empowering citizens to turn open data
into compelling insights
[https://op.europa.eu/en/web/euopendatadays/24-november-2021/#empowering-citizens-to-turn-open-data-into-compelling-insights]’
by Benjamin Wiederkehr, the founder and director of Interactive Things
[https://www.interactivethings.com/]. In this session, Benjamin shared
learnings from building a data visualisation platform
[https://visualize.admin.ch/en] that was commissioned and co-created
by the Swiss federal administration to support citizens through linked
open data. He also shared learnings from underlying design principles,
the impact of participatory development methods, and the benefits of
using user-centric open data services. 

The second session was titled ‘Knowledge, data, storytelling and
bias?
[https://op.europa.eu/en/web/euopendatadays/24-november-2021/#knowledge-data-storytelling-and-bias]’
by Jose Berengueres, a Professor of Design Thinking at the University
of United Arab Emirates [https://www.uaeu.ac.ae/en/]. In this session,
Jose demonstrated how to distinguish data from knowledge, different
types of misinformation strategies, the types of bias that can affect
a visual, and the relationship between data, narratives, and stories. 

The third session was titled ‘Visualising public finance data –
key of governmental transparency
[https://op.europa.eu/en/web/euopendatadays/24-november-2021/#visualising-public-finance-data-key-of-governmental-transparency]’
by Bernhard Krabina, a Team coordinator for European Governance and
Urban Policy at the Centre for Public Administration Research
[https://www.kdz.eu/en] in Vienna, Austria. In this session, Bernhard
discussed how data visualisation can help people understand complex
open data such as public spending data. Moreover, he showcased the
platform Open Spending Austria [https://www.offenerhaushalt.at/], a
portal that provides a visualisation of the spending data from more
than 1 200 municipalities across Austria and acts as an open data hub.


The fourth session was titled ‘Why we need more data art
[https://op.europa.eu/en/web/euopendatadays/24-november-2021/#why-we-need-more-data-art]’
by Matthias Stahl, the Deputy Head of the Graphics and Interactive
department at Der Spiegel [https://www.spiegel.de/international/]. In
this session, Matthias spoke about  the importance of data
visualisation and how, when done correctly and with thought for your
audience, it can convey emotions.  

To learn more about the above presentations, visit the EU Open Data
Days [https://op.europa.eu/en/web/euopendatadays] website, where you
can find official press release materials as well as recordings of all
contributions.

 

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Publication Date/Time
2022-08-19T08:30:00+00:00
Explore four initiatives highlighting the link between open data and
data visualisation