Learnings from 365 days of Open Data
Publication Date/Time
2018-03-07T10:00:00+00:00
Learnings from 365 days of Open Data
In the last 12 months Open Data achieved more and more attention and
European countries were racing to the top in terms of Open Data
maturity. Numerous Open Data portals are being developed across Europe
and are increasingly backed up by national policies from governments
prioritising Open Data in their political agenda. This stronger focus
also opened a broader research perspective. Open Data is not only
about making public data available and accessible. The recent annual
Open Data Day stressed the wider development and the promising
potentials of Open Data for the EU, its citizens and cities. The
highlights from last year's learnings show the dedication at national
and local level to harness the social, political, and economic
benefits of Open Data. The value and potential of Open Data reach far
over the EU borders and span over sectors and fields. It tackles
present challenges that citizens, cities, and countries are facing and
reaches into the future to the sustainability of Open Data portals in
the decades to come.

RISING OPEN DATA MATURITY

 [https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/365-rising.png]
Figure 1 Open Data Maturity

 

The 2017 report on Open Data maturity supported the noticeable trend
towards higher awareness and dedication for Open Data. European
countries have been ranked in terms of Open Data readiness, assessing
the span of their Open Data policies, and in terms of Open Data portal
maturity. The results show that countries on average completed almost
three quarters of their journey towards Open Data maturity (figure 1).
The report concludes on a series of seven recommendations to guide
national governments towards developing a sustainable vision for their
Open Data transformation.

 	* Enhance your Open Data portal (1) and Sustain funding (2)
 	* Document the impact (3) and Interact with your users (4)
 	* Drive digital transformation (5), Explore privately held data (6),
and Offer real-time data (7)

These recommendations aim to help facilitating the social, economic,
and political benefits that Open Data holds in terms of cost savings,
social development, economic growth and innovation, and government
accountability and transparency.

THE BENEFITS OF OPEN DATA

The report Economic Benefit of Open Data
[/sites/default/files/analytical_report_n9_economic_benefits_of_open_data.pdf]
calculates a EUR 325 billion direct market size for the period
2016-2020 and 25.000 jobs in Open Data per year. Next to the direct
benefits, the intangible benefits underline the added value of Open
Data in different fields, e.g. with 16% decrease in energy usage,
7.000 lives saved, and 2.549 hours saved for finding parking spots,
due to quicker response, better communication, and more efficient
monitoring, measuring, and decision-making.

 [https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/365-benefits.png]
Figure 2 Open Data benefits

Open Data in connection with emerging technologies can improve the
quality of life in cities, not only in the big European metropolises.
The report Open Data and Cities 2
[/sites/default/files/edp_analytical_report_n6_-_open_data_in_cities_2_-_final-clean.pdf]
investigates eight medium sized cities and their approach to leverage
their Open Data. In connection with the rise of IoT, the possibilities
to connect urban infrastructure with the city's inhabitants and their
vehicles offer multiple advantages. Linking the gathered data from
various sensors with public open data, e.g. on traffic and local
public transport, efficiency and safety gains can be realised. More
than finding parking spots quicker, autonomous driving or accident
prevention can add true value to urban life, e.g. in Dublin, Florence,
Gdansk, Ghent, Helsinki, Lisbon, Thessaloniki and Vilnius.

FOCUS ON EU'S NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES

Outside of the EU, the expectations regarding the beneficial outcome
of making public information available are just as high. The benefits
of Open Data in the EU Neighbourhood
[/sites/default/files/edp_analytical_report_n7.pdf] on the political
and economic dimensions are highly welcomed, though there are several
barriers (figure 3), the most important one still being lack of
awareness. Tackling these barriers is not only advantageous for the
respective country but also for the EU and its Member States. By
fostering economic growth, societal development, and political
stability, security can be increased at the EU borders. Quality of
life, freedom, and safety can be enriched. In the future, Open Data
can enable sustainable partnerships between the EU and its neighbours.
This promises economic, social, and cultural benefits and supports the
EU in its endeavours to decrease inequality and disparities.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/365-barriers.png]
Figure 3 Open Data barriers

 

THE FUTURE OF OPEN DATA PORTALS

Making Open Data accessible on portals and raising awareness for its
benefits is the base of promising approaches within and outside of
Europe. For successful future Open Data Portals
[/sites/default/files/edp_analyticalreport_n8.pdf], the importance of
re-use of Open Data is highlighted. Many portals are supply-driven
following governmental guidelines in publishing data. To increase the
impact, portals have to examine the requirements of the demand side.
Ten strategies for portals were elaborated (figure 4) to understand
and shape the re-use of data and better understand portal users. Since
the target group becomes wider and more diverse, the task of analysing
users' needs will be increasingly vital and will play an important
role in helping establish more innovative products and services and
truly foster Open Data impact. The sustainability of Open Data portals
[/sites/default/files/edp_analyticalreport_n8.pdf] therefore is key,
just as new and successful ways of measuring their impact.
Quantifiable evidence on the impact helps to set an environment for a
sustainable financial future for Open Data portals. Using existing and
new approaches to get an understanding of the impact includes means of
automated ongoing analysis and includes insights, methods, and metrics
developed by the studies published so far.
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/365-future.png]
Figure 4 10 Strategies for Open Data portals

 

The European Data Portal (EDP) applied these findings when updating
the portal with a new dashboard, launching three new eLearning modules
in five languages, publishing an updated version of the Goldbook and
continuously striving to increase the numbers of data sets available.
Looking into the future, the EDP will share more content in more
languages making Open Data more approachable. The next challenge for
the upcoming years will be raising further awareness around and
measuring the impact of Open Data. Therefore, in the upcoming period
there will be further research conducted on Open Data re-use and a
stronger focus on the quality of data and Open Data impact. There will
be deep dives into the Open Data benefits, tackling the political,
social and environmental dimensions, as well as the economic benefits
on both macro- and microeconomic levels. The sustainability of Open
Data portals will be further researched to provide more 'best
practices' on innovative Open Data approaches and their
implementation.

All in all, we look back at a content-rich year of Open Data and a
great year ahead! We invite you to stay tuned and embark in the new
Open Data year together with the European Data Portal!
