The measurement of open data maturity in Europe
Publication Date/Time
2019-06-12T09:00:00+00:00
Country
Europe
Find out how the European Data Portal measures open data maturity
OPEN DATA MATURITY 

Open data has been identified as a fundamental resource for
governments, businesses and civil society. In 2015, we launched the
European Data Portal [http://www.europeandataportal.eu/] to improve
access to open data from European countries and to foster high-quality
public data publication at national, regional, and local level. Within
this scope, we have been conducting our annual landscaping exercise to
assess European countries' maturity in terms of open data. This
landscaping exercise offers a benchmark to assess what the state of
play of open data in Europe is, where European countries stand with
regard to open data, and what progress countries have made. The
results of these studies are summarised in yearly reports (2015
[/sites/default/files/edp_landscaping_insight_report_n1_-_final.pdf],
2016
[/sites/default/files/edp_landscaping_insight_report_n2_2016.pdf],
2017 [/sites/default/files/edp_landscaping_insight_report_n3_2017.pdf]
and 2018
[/sites/default/files/edp_landscaping_insight_report_n4_2018.pdf]). In
addition, the results are shown in the open data maturity dashboard
[/en/dashboard#2018], a tool that provides an easy and playful way to
compare countries' level of open data maturity.

 

A MATURE METHODOLOGY TO MEASURE OPEN DATA MATURITY 

When we started the annual open data landscaping exercise in 2015, the
open data maturity measurement was built on two key indicators: OPEN
DATA READINESS and PORTAL MATURITY. These indicators respectively
cover the policy developments at country level and the features of the
national open data portals. To better reflect the latest open data
developments taking place across Europe as well as at EU level, we
updated the methodology last year, in 2018. The revised measurement
sets a stronger focus on the reuse and impact of open data and its
quality by introducing two new indicators: OPEN DATA IMPACT and OPEN
DATA QUALITY. By capturing and measuring these two new indicators,
there is tangible evidence of the impact that can be derived through
open data and the benefits of increasing the quality of both metadata
and data. This year, in 2019, we further developed and improved the
questionnaire. The developments in the questionnaire reflect the
progress in the European countries, the developments at EU level -
such as the recast of the PSI Directive of 2013
[https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/european-legislation-reuse-public-sector-information]
- as well as national and EU priorities, such as the focus on
real-time access to dynamic data and enabling smarter cities and
countries.

 

OPEN DATA POLICY (previously Open Data Readiness)

The first dimension "Open Data Policy" focuses on the presence of
specific policies and strategies to foster open data at national
level. The dimension assesses countries' inclusive governance
structures that allow the participation of private and public-private
actors, as well as implementation measures that enable open data
initiatives at national, regional, and local levels. Furthermore, the
"Open Data Policy" dimension focuses on training schemes that enhance
the data literacy skills of the civil servants working with data as
well as harvesting mechanisms that foster the discoverability of all
open data available in a country.

 

OPEN DATA IMPACT 

The second dimension "Open Data Impact" assesses the level of
understanding of open data reuse among public sector bodies, the
activities performed to monitor the reuse, and the impact derived by
it. Beyond this first layer of "strategic awareness", the impact
dimension focusses on four areas of sectoral impact: political,
social, environmental, and economic. Within the political, social and
environmental areas, the "Open Data Impact" dimension examines
applications, products, services, and civil society initiatives and
the extent to which the reuse of open data is monitored. Within the
economic area, the "Open Data Impact" dimension examines studies that
demonstrate the micro and macro-economic value of open data, as well
as the efficiency gains derived for the public sector.

 

OPEN DATA PORTAL (previously Portal Maturity)

The third dimension "Open Data Portal" focuses on advanced portal
features that enable users to access open data and features that
enhance the interaction between publishers and re-users, e.g. via
forum and discussion boards. Additionally, the dimension assesses the
extent to which portal managers use analytics tools to better
understand their users' needs and behaviour and update the portals in
line with the insights gained from these analyses. Furthermore, the
dimension assesses the open data coverage across different domains, as
well as the approach and measures in place to ensure a portal's
sustainability.

 

OPEN DATA QUALITY 

The fourth dimension "Open Data Quality" focuses on the measures
adopted by portal managers to ensure the systematic harvesting of data
sources from across the country. The dimension assesses the monitoring
of compliance with the DCAT-AP metadata standard and the extent to
which data and metadata are up-to-date and complete. The "Open Data
Quality" dimension provides incentives for portal managers and policy
makers to adopt best practices, including linked data elements such as
universal Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI).

The four dimensions and their metrics are shown in the table below:
[https://data.europa.eu/sites/default/files/img/media/2019-06-12-opendata-maturity_metrics_0.jpg]
 

WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2019? 

In March 2019, we sent out the landscaping questionnaire to national
open data representatives from the European Union Member States
[https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/countries_en] and the EFTA
[https://www.efta.int/about-efta/the-efta-states] countries to assess
the countries' maturity on the four open data dimensions. After
analysing the data and evaluating the answers with the countries, the
Open Data Maturity Report 2019 will be published in November 2019! In
the meantime, you can take a look at the countries' performance
[/en/dashboard#tab-country-overview] from our previous open data
maturity studies or read the Open Data Maturity in Europe 2018 report
[/sites/default/files/edp_landscaping_insight_report_n4_2018.pdf]. We
also encourage you to share your thoughts and opinions on open data
maturity with us via mail [/en/feedback/form?type=4], Twitter
[http://twitter.com/EU_DataPortal], Facebook
[http://www.facebook.com/EuropeanDataPortal] or LinkedIn
[https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8428984].
