Looking back at EU Open Data Days 2021: ‘Data for people’
 

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

Over 70 speakers from all over 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 the public sectors, offering
the participants valuable insights into open data and data
visualisation techniques and practices.

In a series of news pieces, we are recapping each of these thematic
sessions of the EU Open Data Days. The first article of the series
focused on the session _‘__Creating open data ecosystems_
[https://data.europa.eu/en/news/looking-back-eu-open-data-days-2021-creating-open-data-ecosystems]_’.
_

In this news piece, we will focus on the second thematic session:
´Data for people`. How can data be used at the benefit of citizens
and with a user-focused approach?

Through anonymised and aggregated user-density data from the Facebook
Data for Good programme, DAVID LUSSEAU (Professor of Marine
Sustainability at the Technical University of Denmark), assessed that
during lockdowns people spent more time in green spaces. Yet, only
some cities today provide spatial information and there is no regular
access to data or planning to maximise community´s benefits. In his
presentation ´THE VALUE OF NATURE – THE USE OF GREENSPACES DURING
SARS-COV-2 LOCKDOWNS
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZA_rebITK0&list=PLT5rARDev_rm6SCFP-AuJYHqjzIafAhn-&index=12]`,
Mr Lusseau encouraged to make more use of social media data and
provide more health, well-being, and infrastructure data at the
neighborhood level. 

A different city experience is the one of Espoo in Finland, presented
by MINNA JOENSUU (Deputy Research Director for the city of Espoo,
Finland) in her speech on ´BEST PRACTICES FROM 10 YEARS OF OPEN DATA
IN THE HELSINKI REGION
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT2oG9nXXvY&list=PLT5rARDev_rm6SCFP-AuJYHqjzIafAhn-&index=13]`.
Over 10 years, the Helsinki Region Infoshare (HRI), the most
innovative open-data service in Finland and international leader in
the field, has worked on enhancing data quality and built an active
community of open-data enthusiasts. Yet, according to Ms Joensuu, more
work still needs to be done to augment interoperability and automatise
the update of data.

In the presentation ´FROM A SUPPLY-DRIVEN TOWARDS A MORE
DEMAND-DRIVEN OPEN-DATA POLICY IN THE CITY OF GHENT
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_6Tk_Vks_A&list=PLT5rARDev_rm6SCFP-AuJYHqjzIafAhn-&index=13]`,
JORAN VAN DAELE (Open Data Manager for the city of Ghent, Belgium)
underlined how ´people use open data only when you start
communicating about it`. This means that if the community is not aware
of the existence of open data or of what open data is, its potential
will remain unused, and it will be difficult to convince policymakers
about the added value.

ANTONIO IBÁÑEZ PASCUAL (Head of Transparency and Information Reuse,
Governing Council of Castile and Leon, Spain) provided another example
of how data can be used at the benefit of citizens in the health
sector. His presentation ´TRANSPARENCY AND OPEN DATA IN THE SERVICE
OF HEALTH IN CASTILE AND LEON (SPAIN)`
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH_JFOON5Fc&list=PLT5rARDev_rm6SCFP-AuJYHqjzIafAhn-&index=15]
gave insights into the national dashboard
[https://analisis.datosabierto.jcyl.es/pages/coronavirus] launched by
the Governing Council of Castile and Leon to monitor the
epidemiological situation of COVID-19 in the region. The portal has
become the most visited site of the Governing Council of Castile and
Leon and its future ambitions are to create a data-drive culture, with
more visualisations and internal re-use. 

In the last presentation of the thematic session ´Data for people`,
AHMAD BARCLAY (Census data visualisation led, Office for National
Statistics, United Kingdom) explained how, together with his team, he
worked on ´MAKING CENSUS DATA OPEN, ACCESSIBLE, USEFUL AND ENGAGING
FOR REAL PEOPLE`.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNhceSG7cFM&list=PLT5rARDev_rm6SCFP-AuJYHqjzIafAhn-&index=16]
In particular, he showed four aspects that allowed the public to
easily navigate and comprehend the data of the 2021 census of England
and Wales [https://census.gov.uk/] and the insights embedded within
it. These aspects include exploratory tools, guided experiences,
semi-automated output, and games and quizzes to reach a wider
audience. 

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 releases, promotional materials, as well as
the recordings of all contributions!

 

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Publication Date/Time
2022-07-08T08:30:00+00:00
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