Open Data Maturity Report 2022: Countries’ perspectives on their
open data portals
Publication Date/Time
2023-07-12T09:30:00+00:00
Country
Global
Creating a good experience for users and data publishers is key to a
good open data portal
INTRODUCTION

The Open Data Maturity (ODM) report
[https://data.europa.eu/en/publications/open-data-maturity] provides
an overview of the progress achieved by European countries as they
push forward in creating the necessary conditions to make the most of
open data. The concept of open data maturity in Europe is considered
against four dimensions: quality, portal, policy, and impact. 

Open data portals are platforms that facilitate data access and reuse.
These portals are the gateways for users to turn data into action.
Improving the user experience on these portals is therefore key to
encouraging data reuse and unlocking the potential of open data. This
data story explains the PORTAL DIMENSION (Figure 1) and is the third
in a series on the 2022 ODM report. The first data
[https://data.europa.eu/en/publications/datastories/assessing-open-data-developments-across-europe-discover-open-data-maturity]
story in the series presented the overall results and the second
[https://data.europa.eu/en/publications/datastories/open-data-maturity-report-2022-countries-perspectives-open-data-quality]
data story discussed the quality dimension of the methodology.

To elaborate on the portal dimension, this data story features the
perspectives of Cyprus, Denmark, and France. These three countries
share interesting best practices and reflections on their performance
in the portal dimension. First, the portal dimension is explained in
overview. Then, the successes and improvement points as reflected by
the featured countries are shared. Finally, each of four indicators,
namely portal features, portal usage, data provision, and portal
sustainability, are considered for their best practices. 
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/5.portal2-01.png]
_FIGURE 1: Overview of the ODM portal dimension 2022 country scores_

THE PORTAL DIMENSION IN A NUTSHELL

Open data portals
[https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/open-data-portals]
are key for Europe’s data strategy because they are the facilitators
for accessing and reusing open data: they make data easier to find.
These portals also help encourage cross-border use of reusable data in
Europe. These portals are intended as single, coherent central
gateways to find and access a rich variety of national data that links
to the original sources. In this regard, national open data portals
also serve the purpose of bringing together datasets from regional and
local entities.

The portal dimension of the ODM assesses the maturity of these
national open data portals. The dimension assesses several criteria
grouped into four indicators:

 	* PORTAL FEATURES: the functions that enable users to access open
data through national portals and the features that facilitate the
interaction between publishers and reusers, 
 	* PORTAL USAGE: the use of web analytics to understand user needs
and behaviours, 
 	* DATA PROVISION: the open data coverage of the portal, and 
 	* PORTAL SUSTAINABILITY: measures taken to promote the portal to its
target audience.

Countries are scored on a list of questions relating to each
indicator, which summed together provides a total score for the
dimension (full details of the scoring are found in the ODM method
paper
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/method-paper_insights-report_n7_2022_0.pdf]).
Although the portal dimension is the second-highest scoring dimension
of the 2022 ODM, the average score for EU27 countries (at 83%) is
unchanged from the previous year (Figure 2). However, this is a
20-percentage point increase from the score in 2018 (63%),
demonstrating a significant improvement over the long term on this
dimension.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/Fig1June_0.png]
_FIGURE 2: ODM portal scores in 2022 for all 35 participating
countries showing the 2018, 2021, and 2022 averages_

A COMMON STRATEGY FOR SUCCESS: USERS AS A CENTREPIECE OF OPEN DATA
PORTALS 

Although the three countries reflect a good performance on the portal
dimension with diverse strategies, they all come to the same
conclusion: focusing on the user experience. 

FRANCE (data.gouv.fr [http://data.gouv.fr]) achieves a good experience
for users by having a team “committed to continually improving”.
Specifically, the team has made significant progress in improving the
technical design (that is, reducing technical debt
[https://www.gartner.com/en/information-technology/glossary/technical-debt])
of the portal, which allows them to focus more on improving user
experience and developing new features. The team works in an agile
manner, which enables them to adapt quickly to changing user needs and
preferences. For future improvements, one idea the team has is the use
of interactive maps, providing a more intuitive way of exploring and
analysing spatial data. It is also possible to overlay different types
of data on the same map, such as demographic data or environmental
data, to allow for more complex analysis. Another future idea is to
create personalised experiences for users according to their usage.
Examples of such features include personalised recommendations,
customised dashboards, or user-specific notifications. 

We have also to bear in mind that data publishers are also portal
users. The experience of data publishers could also be enhanced
through additional tools and resources that help them publish and
manage their datasets more efficiently. In this regard, the French
open data team sees developing a more user-friendly interface that
makes uploading and publishing datasets easier as a future point for
improvement. Another is to provide more guidance and support to data
publishers through tutorials, documentation, or a help desk.

The CYPRUS open data team similarly ensures high performance on the
portal dimension by treating the data.gov.cy [https://data.gov.cy/]
portal as a “constantly evolving project”. Through feedback
surveys and daily interaction with users, together with best practices
exchanged with other countries and organisations, they gather ideas on
best practices that turn into development plans for the portal. In
practice, there are two development cycles. First, an annual (in some
cases bi-annual) development cycle for smaller to medium-scale
improvements to functionality and features. Second, a 5-year major
development cycle which includes major improvements and upgrades that
may involve new website design, theming, software, or platform
changes, and so on. 

In the scope of data publishers, they reflect on how they could reduce
the burden associated with the publication of data by increasing the
automated harvesting of peripheral data portals and data sources.
Another improvement they are considering is adding more features that
will make the interaction between users and publishers easier, such as
discussion forums within the portal environment.

In the case of DENMARK, they have a decentralised open data portal
system comprising specialised portals that collect, store, distribute
and interact with users within their own fields. Although this
decentralised approach brings benefits to data users and providers, it
also presents challenges in how to find relevant data. To improve the
user experience, Denmark decided to create a national data portal in
2022, Datavejviser [https://datavejviser.dk/], therefore complementing
domain-specific portals. By using several key pieces of metadata from
domain-specific providers, the national data portal enables users to
identify and evaluate datasets relevant to them, guiding them to
domain-specific sites.

But the Danish portal also has plans for the future based on user
feedback. They highlighted three areas of improvement in their work to
add more and better metadata to its catalogue. One feature that users
request is the ability to combine datasets from different domains.
Better metadata is only a partial solution to this request, but a
first step will be to highlight how available data is already
combinable. The second area for improvement is better labelling of
data quality. To address this, the open data team is investigating the
best way to implement a common language for data quality on the portal
in a way that is interoperable in a European context. The third area
of improvement is easing the burden of metadata requests on their data
providers by reusing as much metadata as possible that providers are
already sharing for other purposes. At present, the team is looking
into mappings between the DCAT standard
[https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/dcat-ap] for metadata and
other standards such as the one required by the INSPIRE directive
[https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX%3A32007L0002].

THE PORTAL DIMENSION IN DETAIL 

In addition to their self-reflections on their overall performance on
the portal dimension, the three featured countries also share their
best practices for the four indicators of the portal dimension. Figure
3 provides a detailed overview of countries’ scores per portal
indicator in 2022.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/5.portal3.png]
_FIGURE 3: ODM ranking on the four indicators of the portal dimension
in 2022 for all 35 participating countries. _

 	* PORTAL FEATURES

The portal features indicator evaluates the functionalities provided
on national open data portals. These functionalities include the
ability to search for and request datasets and the presence of
features that promote transparency, interaction, and open data reuse.

The national open data portals that tend to perform well on this
indicator typically provide users with features that go beyond simply
finding datasets. This is the explicit aim of the CYPRUS national
portal. Beyond enabling users to search for data, Cyprus’ portal
serves four additional functions. These additional functions include
(1) showcasing use cases and open data impact, (2) enabling users to
request datasets (>95% of data requests are submitted through their
portal), (3) providing information and education on open data issues
in Cyprus and the EU (editorial section), and (4) providing support to
both publishers and re-users.

The FRENCH open data team has also implemented advanced features. The
specific aims of France’s portal are improving data discoverability,
data quality, and data understanding. This includes providing
editorial content, such as blog articles and newsletters, that guide
users towards the most relevant datasets. Another advanced feature is
a tool, explore.data.gouv.fr [https://explore.data.gouv.fr/], that
allows users to explore tabular datasets, helping them gain insights
into data and better understand its context. Finally, the team also
uses metadata quality as a feature. Datasets are labelled with a
metadata quality score. This score helps re-users find relevant
datasets. It also has the additional impact of incentivising data
publishers to improve data quality.

On the other hand, the DANISH national portal assessed the Danish
distribution landscape and discovered that many of the recommended,
advanced portal features are already available at the websites to
which the national portal leads its users. Therefore, the national
portal was designed to be a guide to these domain-specific sites. The
Danish team focuses their efforts on the quality of the metadata
entering their database since the reliability of metadata is one of
the most important user demands. Furthermore, many of their ideas for
future functionalities require high-quality metadata to work properly.

 	* PORTAL USAGE

The portal usage indicator evaluates the extent to which portal
providers monitor and analyse user behaviour on their portal. This
includes the collection of user analytics, monitoring the number and
location of portal visitors, understanding the popularity of
categories of content, and monitoring application programming
interfaces (APIs). These are essential elements to understand the
behaviour of users. 

The CYPRUS open data team attributes its high visitor numbers
partially to the substantial communication work it has undertaken to
actively promote the national portal. This promotional work includes
hosting events, conferences, and workshops as well as using social and
mainstream media. The FRENCH open data team uses portal usage
statistics and surveys to define users’ profiles, behaviours and
needs. They then direct user groups to relevant reuses and services.
The DANISH open data team collect data on user behaviour through
Matomo to ensure that the data is not shared with third parties. The
team uses this data, as well as written and verbal feedback and
questions from users, to prioritise future metadata acquisition and
improvements.

 	* DATA PROVISION

The data provision indicator evaluates the extent to which data
publishers contribute to national open data portals and what actions
are taken to foster their contribution. The three featured countries
offer a variety of best practices that reflect their national
contexts. 

In CYPRUS, most public service bodies under the central government
contribute data to the national portal. This is achieved through a law
that obliges that specific data produced by public service bodies,
municipalities, and legal entities be made available through the
national open data portal. Through its 2023-2027 Open Data Strategy
[https://www.data.gov.cy/sites/default/files/%CE%91%CE%94%CE%94%20-%20%CE%A3%CF%84%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%84%CE%B7%CE%B3%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%AE%20%CE%91%CE%BD%CE%BF%CE%B9%CE%BA%CF%84%CF%8E%CE%BD%20%CE%94%CE%B5%CE%B4%CE%BF%CE%BC%CE%AD%CE%BD%CF%89%CE%BD%202023-2027.pdf],
Cyprus also aims to gradually enrich its national portal with selected
data from non-governmental organisations. They emphasise data from
organisations and companies that are active in the fields of
sustainable mobility and green development, as well as data that can
contribute to smarter and cleaner cities and a better quality of life.


The DANISH national portal only publishes descriptions of data from
the data providers coming from the public sector. The catalogue is
expanded continuously through the onboarding of additional data
providers. When choosing which data providers to onboard, user demand
and present political priorities are used to evaluate their
importance. Furthermore, the reliability of metadata is a high
priority for the Danish open data team. They want to ensure that the
metadata they publish is an accurate and up-to-date representation of
the data from data providers. To achieve this, the Danish portal
develops integrations that enable the automatic harvesting of metadata
from reliable data providers. Therefore, the portal needs to have
clear agreements with data providers on expectations concerning the
maintenance of metadata.

Alternatively, the FRENCH data portal is an open collaborative
platform where anyone can publish and access data. This has resulted
in a diverse range of users that contribute to and benefit from data.
In this context, the French open data team performs daily curation
work that prevents inappropriate content from appearing on the portal.

 	* PORTAL SUSTAINABILITY

The portal sustainability indicator evaluates the strategies to ensure
the long-term sustainability of the portal. This indicator also
assesses the measures in place to ensure that the portal caters to the
needs and brings added value to its main audience.

For the DANISH open data team, the key to long-term sustainability is
the creation and management of standardised and interoperable
metadata. For this to happen, the open data team recognises that they
must provide technical solutions and practical guidance that fit data
providers’ needs, such as how to best interpret and implement
DCAT-AP
[https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/collection/semantic-interoperability-community-semic/solution/dcat-application-profile-data-portals-europe/release/11].
The team also advocates the importance of prioritising metadata from
the start whenever the public sector launches new investments in data.

Funding is also a key consideration for the operational and technical
sustainability of national portals. In CYPRUS, the country’s Open
Data Strategy includes the national portal as one of its four pillars.
This strategy grants a long-term funding agreement for the
development, hosting, and maintenance of the national portal. Funding
strategies and securing the required budgets in the medium term are
the responsibility of the open data team and the Public Administration
and Personnel Department. To secure financial sustainability, the open
data team periodically commissions impact studies to collect evidence
that support the business case for funding the project.

Thinking in terms of a business case, the FRENCH open data team
underline that their national portal is recognised as an impactful
product with a well-defined team. This strongly supports the
sustainability of the portal and has granted the open data team more
autonomy over the product development and strategic direction of the
portal. The open data team believes this will likely result in even
more improvements and innovations in the future.

CONCLUSION

Overall, most participating countries in the ODM have worked over the
years to make their national portals functional and engaging for users
and data publishers. The experiences and insights provided by Cyprus,
Denmark, and France can be a source of new ideas and practices for
other countries to continue enhancing their national portals, as
relevant to their national contexts. 

For the featured countries this especially means focusing on the user
experience. Importantly, both data users and data publishers are users
of national portals. Successful portals cater to the needs of both
these groups to encourage the demand and supply side of data sharing.
Top portals go beyond basic functionality to enhance the ways data
users can discover, access, and use open data. For data publishes, a
good portal provides a reduced burden in the publication process.
Beyond the technical functionalities of portals, communication is key.
Top performing portals consider user feedback and provide ways for
users and publishers to interact. 

Data.europa.eu supports the sharing of experiences among national open
data providers to enable countries to keep learning and improving
their open data maturity. The data.europa academy is hosting a
webinar on the portal dimension on 14 July 2023. The webinar will host
speakers from national open data portals to exchange their views on
ODM and portals for open data. Register here
[https://dataeuropaacademy.clickmeeting.com/open-data-maturity-2022-diving-deeper-into-the-portal-dimension/register?_gl=1*1kvcsn4*_ga*NjgzMzEzMzU4LjE2Nzk0NzE2Nzk.*_ga_K7H94QHX99*MTY4NzI0OTk4OC4xNjIuMS4xNjg3MjUwMDAzLjQ1LjAuMA..&_ga=2.244814021.1790350334.1687249989-683313358.1679471679&_gac=1.219722219.1683793446.Cj0KCQjwpPKiBhDvARIsACn-gzB0rShLfVXllw9yUOxoMWWGFNDUvyLfM-febR6pPkY-pIZKvOQkX8saAiEREALw_wcB]
for the webinar.

Interested to learn more about open data? Read the ODM report
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/landscaping_insight_report_n8_2022.pdf]
for more insights into the 2022 assessment, view our interactive ODM
dashboard
[https://data.europa.eu/en/publications/open-data-maturity/2022], and
explore the related courses on the data.europa academy
[https://data.europa.eu/en/academy]. And if you are interested in the
other ODM dimensions, stay tuned for the next instalment in this
series. Keep up to date by subscribing to our newsletter
[https://data.europa.eu/en/newsletter] and following data.europa.eu on
social media.

Many thanks to Dimitris Michail (Cyprus), Christian Nicolai Larsen
(Denmark), and Thanh Ha Le (France) for their contributions to this
data story on behalf of their national open data teams.
