Open Data Maturity Report 2022: Countries’ perspectives on their
open data impact
Publication Date/Time
2023-11-07T11:00:00+00:00
Country
Europe
Inspiring potential reusers and following up with them helps to
understand the impact of open data reuse
The report on open data maturity
[https://data.europa.eu/en/publications/open-data-maturity] (ODM)
provides an overview of the progress achieved by European countries as
they push forward to unlock the value of open data
[https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/impact-assessment-review-directive-200398ec-reuse-public-sector-information].
The concept of ODM in Europe is considered against four dimensions:
quality, portal, policy and impact.

This data story explores the IMPACT DIMENSION and is the fifth in a
series on the 2022 ODM report. The first data story
[https://data.europa.eu/en/publications/datastories/assessing-open-data-developments-across-europe-discover-open-data-maturity]
announced the report’s publication and presented the overall
results. The second data story
[https://data.europa.eu/en/publications/datastories/open-data-maturity-report-2022-countries-perspectives-open-data-quality]
discussed the quality dimension of the methodology, the third data
story
[https://data.europa.eu/en/publications/datastories/open-data-maturity-report-2022-countries-perspectives-their-open-data]
covered the portal dimension, and the fourth data story
[https://data.europa.eu/en/publications/datastories/open-data-maturity-report-2022-countries-perspectives-their-open-data-0]
explored the policy dimension.

There is no universal definition
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/report/Rethinking%20impact%20of%20open%20data.pdf]
of open data impact, particularly since open data can have an impact
on diverse domains. This lack of a universal definition sometimes
makes it difficult for countries to give evidence of the socioeconomic
impact of open data. Nonetheless, the data.europa.eu research team has
put effort into harmonising its their definition of open data impact
and researching this topic further. For example, its 2020 report on
the economic value of open data [https://data.europa.eu/en/node/7773]
investigated the value created by open data in Europe. The report
estimated that the open data market size in 2020 was EUR 184 billion
and forecasted the market to reach between EUR 199.51 and EUR 334.21
billion in 2025.

Despite the difficulty of finding a general definition, a consistent
element of impact is reusing open data for a beneficial purpose. The
impact can be analysed from economic, governmental, social and
environmental perspectives to demonstrate the value that reusing data
can bring to society. One example of such a method is the use case
observatory
[https://data.europa.eu/en/doc/use-case-observatory-3-year-monitoring-30-reuse-cases-understand-economic-governmental-social]
that is monitoring 30 reuse cases over 3 years to gain a longitudinal
understanding of the holistic impact created by exemplar open data
reuse cases. The ODM assessment also provides a periodic (on an annual
basis) measurement of open data impact through the impact dimension of
the methodology.

This data story features the perspectives of Hungary, the Netherlands
and Sweden (see Figure 1 for country scores). These three countries
share their experiences and knowledge to inspire others in the open
data community to improve on the impact dimension. The story first
provides an overview of the impact dimension. Then it presents the
successes and improvement points of the three featured countries,
analysing their common themes and differences. Lastly, it explores the
specific indicators of ‘strategic awareness’, ‘measuring
reuse’ and ‘created impact’ in more detail to highlight best
practices.
 
_FIGURE 1: Overview of the ODM impact dimension 2022 country scores_

THE IMPACT DIMENSION IN A NUTSHELL

Open data holds great potential value, and this value is unlocked when
the data is reused. The impact dimension of ODM assesses the
activities undertaken to monitor and measure open data reuse and the
impact created through this reuse. The dimension focuses on the extent
of implementation of impact mechanisms, the tools in place to
understand how open data is reused and real use cases in different
areas. Earlier editions of ODM measured impact primarily through
efforts to measure reuse. The ODM methodology was revised in 2022 to
better distinguish between measuring the reuse of open data and the
impact created through this reuse (see the ODM method paper
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/method-paper_insights-report_n7_2022_0.pdf]
for an elaborated discussion about the method revision).

The revised impact dimension now assesses several criteria grouped
into three indicators .

	* STRATEGIC AWARENESS. The extent to which mechanisms are in place to
foster and monitor open data reuse.
	* MEASURING REUSE. The extent to which tools are in place to
understand which and how datasets are reused.
	* CREATED IMPACT. The extent to which examples of reuse cases exist
to showcase the impact of open data in several areas (political,
social, environmental and economic).

Countries are scored based on a list of questions relating to each
indicator, which, when summed together, provide a total score for the
dimension. The impact dimension is the least mature dimension of the
ODM, having the lowest average score (71 %) among the four dimensions
evaluated in the ODM for the EU-27 (the other dimensions have an
average score between 77 % and 86 %). One reason for the impact
dimension scoring the lowest is that open data reuse is partly the
outcome of the other dimensions. In other words, a good open data
policy, a good portal, and good metadata quality encourage reuse. Of
course, focused efforts are needed to stimulate reuse, but maturity of
the other dimensions support this.  In addition, the impact dimension
underwent a major restructuring in terms of method. The restructuring
introduced additional measurements in the form of a new indicator,
measuring reuse. These additional requirements  lowered the average
score on this dimension compared to previous years. Nonetheless, the
average score for the EU-27 has increased significantly from the first
ODM in 2018 (50 %) to the 2022 ODM (71 %) (Figure 2).
 
_FIGURE 2: ODM portal scores in 2022 for all 35 participating
countries showing the 2018 and 2022 averages_

A COMMON STRATEGY FOR SUCCESS: CREATING AWARENESS OF OPEN DATA AND
FOLLOWING UP WITH REUSERS

The three featured countries, Hungary, the Netherlands and Sweden, all
have their own processes to measure the impact of open data. However,
two commonalities stand out. Firstly, the national portal is an
important tool to create awareness and gather examples of reuse cases.
Secondly, creating a strong community of reusers is an amplifying
force to spread awareness of open data and a way to learn how and what
reusers are creating with open data.

The HUNGARIAN open data team attribute the country’s performance on
the impact dimension to their proactive efforts in promoting greater
cooperation among various stakeholders and making use of data
analytics to understand users’ perceptions. The team have put effort
into collecting and analysing a significantly large volume of data and
information from the national portal regarding the impact of open data
across multiple sectors. In addition, Hungary has a new national open
data portal [https://kozadatportal.hu/] that was launched in December
2022. Having a portal should aid the promotion of public data reuse,
therefore contributing to an elevated understanding of the impact and
potential of open data among stakeholders in different sectors.

To continue to improve, the Hungarian team intend to further promote
the national portal, increasing awareness among stakeholders and
broader segments of society. At the same time, they plan to enhance
their method and systems for tracking the impact of open data.

The SWEDISH open data team also attribute some of their impact
dimension success to their national portal, which is used as a
platform to build a community around open data. The Swedish national
data strategy
[https://www.regeringen.se/informationsmaterial/2021/10/data--en-underutnyttjad-resurs-for-sverige/]
(2021) resulted in an assignment for the Agency of Digital Government
to strengthen the public sector data-sharing capabilities through the
portal on both the strategic level and the operational level . The
process towards the new national open data law (2022) also created
public awareness, which fuelled a growing interest in data sharing.

Nonetheless, the Swedish team have the ambition to improve
communication with both data providers and data consumers to better
understand what to do and why. A priority for the team is to improve
the process for gathering open data reuse cases and to show them on
the national portal in an inspiring way. The team also consider it
important to improve the feedback to politicians about the progress of
open data reuse and the related impacts to gain support for data
sharing and data use initiatives. Since reuse and impact require
access to data, part of the effort to improve on the impact dimension
is also aimed at making more data accessible for reuse.

The DUTCH open data team try to gain a holistic view of the impact of
open data by conducting interviews with reusers. The team recognise
that it is difficult to measure the impact that published data has,
because open data can be reused in so many different fields, all of
which will have different significance for the impact. The benefits
they identify with the interview approach is that they do not have to
define what impact is nor do they have to be experts in every field of
reuse.

To improve going forward, the team recognise that they must achieve a
balance between conducting interviews with reusers and documenting
activities and describing deliverables. In other words, the team must
find the best mixture of complementary methods to measure impact.

THE IMPACT DIMENSION IN DETAIL

In addition to their self-reflections on their overall performance on
the impact dimension, the three featured countries also share their
best practices for the three indicators that make up the impact
dimension. Figure 3 provides a detailed overview of the countries’
scores per impact indicator in 2022.
 
_FIGURE 3: ODM ranking on the three indicators of the impact dimension
in 2022 for all 35 participating countries_

1. STRATEGIC AWARENESS

The strategic awareness indicator targets the extent to which
countries define reuse and are prepared to measure it. The indicator
also aims to understand how countries define open data impact and have
methodologies in place to assess it. In other words, this indicator
covers the effort and resources that countries put into understanding
the impact of open data through monitoring mechanisms.

The open data team in HUNGARY reflect that the legal framework (Act No
LXIII of 2012 [https://net.jogtar.hu/jogszabaly?docid=a1200063.tv] and
Act No XCI of 2021
[https://net.jogtar.hu/jogszabaly?docid=a2100091.tv]) that governs the
reuse of public data in their country provides the impetus for
strategic engagement with stakeholders. This legislative foundation
has enabled a renewed push to promote strategic awareness across
institutions in the process of impact assessment and planning.
Specifically, this legislative foundation enabled the establishment of
the National Data Asset Management Agency, the remit of which includes
data reuse.

In SWEDEN, the open data team launched a community platform on the
national portal in 2021 for users to share their experiences,
knowledge and needs. This action has enabled strategic awareness about
open data to be ‘crowd-driven’, with the community contributing to
awareness at their respective workplaces and in various projects.
Another initiative by the Swedish Agency of Digital Government is a
train-the-trainer style data ambassador programme that educates public
sector employees to be educators on the topic of open data themselves.
This programme has created a network effect and a broad interest in
open data across various public organisations. A strong and engaging
community helps the open data team monitor the impact of open data.

In the NETHERLANDS, the open data team say they recognise that the
data landscape in their country is evolving. Consequently, they keep
asking themselves what they want to know about impact and how they can
get this information. Such questions enable the team to develop their
methods of measuring impact with the evolving data landscape.

2. MEASURING REUSE

The measuring reuse indicator evaluates the actions taken by countries
to measure reuse, including an overview of systematic ways of
gathering and classifying reuse cases. This indicator also
investigates the methods used by countries to identify datasets that
have been reused. Furthermore, it focuses on activities undertaken to
better understand the needs of reusers.

The HUNGARIAN national open data portal and its integration with
analytical tools help the open data team quantify reuse cases. These
analytics are complemented by stakeholder engagement to understand the
impact of reuse cases more deeply. Within the government, the Data
Asset Management Agency has an overall view of datasets regarding
their legal, policy and technical background, and contributes to
data-driven decision-making and reuse of data.

Similarly, the SWEDISH open data team use web statistics from the
national portal to get a sense of overall progress on reuse. This
overview is complemented by insights from the community. In addition,
Sweden has identified different types of reuse during the work done to
create the national guidelines for data sharing
[https://www.digg.se/kunskap-och-stod/oppna-och-delade-data/offentliga-aktorer/vagledning-for-att-tillgangliggora-information].
Their open data team aim to use these guidelines to classify
[https://www.digg.se/kunskap-och-stod/oppna-och-delade-data] and
monitor reuse cases.

Although the DUTCH open data team also monitor the reuse of datasets
on the portal, the focus of their approach is to conduct interviews
with reusers and publish these as impact stories. The team gather
stories by following up with reusers who request datasets through the
national portal, and through events or requests to be interviewed
submitted by reusers.

3. CREATED IMPACT

The created impact indicator evaluates the benefits generated by open
data and its reuse on government, society, the environment and the
economy. For each of these impact areas, the indicator gathers
existing data summarising the impact created by open data and specific
reuse case examples that illustrate open data reuse.

The HUNGARIAN open data team reflect that the process of gathering
insights from stakeholders across different sectors has enriched their
understanding of the varying impact brought about by open data. The
team can then use this understanding to review their activities in
line with the needs of reusers. For example, portal users showed a
strong interest in data about recycling. The team therefore collected
more insights and produced specific visualisations and analysis to
promote the value of open data.

The SWEDISH open data team also note the broad variety of open data
impacts in their country from both private citizens and the public
sector. In Sweden, there is high usage of geodata and transport data,
with several new digital services created for different types of
transport. For the team, a flagship reuse case is an application
resembling the _Pokémon Go_ game. The application
[https://www.biologg.se/] uses open data from the Swedish Species
Information Centre and enables users to identify plants and species in
nature. Additionally, the application encourages users to collect data
that is then fed back to the inventory database, creating an
interesting double impact through citizen-generated data.

The DUTCH open data team echo this view, noting that in many cases
reusers are proud of their usage of open data. Correctly processing
data or creating an application takes a lot of effort, and if a podium
is provided for their effort, they gladly take it. However, the team
do acknowledge the effort also required from their side to find good
impact stories and conduct interviews. But as awareness of their
impact stories grows, more people reach out to the team with their
reuse cases.

CONCLUSION

Open data can be used to create an impact on society. Overall, Europe
has shown strong development in the impact dimension of ODM since
2018. Nonetheless, there is still a gap in maturity between the impact
dimension and the other three dimensions of ODM. The experiences and
insights provided by Hungary, Sweden and the Netherlands can be a
source of new ideas and practices for other countries to continue
encouraging and monitoring the impact open data is creating.

For the featured countries this means leveraging their national portal
to have two-way communication with reusers. On the one hand, the
portal makes users aware of the potential reuses of open data. On the
other hand, reusers use the portal to showcase the impact of their
creations. Moreover, supporting activities that engage the community
creates a virtuous circle where more awareness of the value of open
data leads to more reusers who are proud to share their innovative
reuse cases, and in turn, there is more awareness of the value of open
data.

Interested in learning more about open data maturity? 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]. 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 Adél Krasznai (Hungary), Ulrika Domellöf Mattsson
(Sweden), Casper Gras (Netherlands) and Jasper Kars (Netherlands) for
their contributions to this data story on behalf of their national
open data teams. Figures created by Frederica Fragapane.
