closer to brussels, no 14 open data

Bliej Brukseli 1

CLOSER TO BRUSSELS#14E-MAGAZINE - Maopolska Region Brussels Office

Open DataThe Big DaTa OppOrTuniTy

fOr gOvernmenTs

inTerneT cOnTriBuTes TO a BeTTer funcTiOning

DemOcracy

Open DaTa is The Oil Of The new ecOnOmies

mODel Open DaTa neeDs The suppOrT Of a sTrOng leaDer

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cOnTacT

maopolska region Brussels Officerue de luxembourg 3, 1000 Brussels, Belgium

[email protected]: +32 484 100 604

Design

parastudiowww.parastudio.pl

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1 Open DaTa By anD fOr eurOpes regiOns

2 The Big DaTa OppOrTuniTy fOr gOvernmenT

3 inTerneT cOnTriBuTes TO a BeTTer funcTiOning DemOcracy

4 Open sOurce civic app DevelOpmenT anD susTainaBiliTy is The fuTure

5 puTTing Open innOvaTiOn pOlicy inTO pracTice

6 mODel Open DaTa neeDs The suppOrT Of a sTrOng leaDer

7 maOpOlska wins Over Brussels

8 QuesTiO iuris

9 sTaTemenT On Open DaTa

| florian marienfeld

| chris yiu

| interview withra Thun

| katalin gallyas

|Ohyoon kwon

| interview withalek Tarkowski

| high level conference

| eurOciTies

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ladies and gentlemen,

we are all aware that icT can be a powerful tool that can push forward economies and stimulate development. But icT Technologies also have a different dimension they can also be extraordinarily attractive and inspiring to people that have no specific link with the iT or the telecommunications sector. it has indeed become increasingly difficult to find a person who does not use a mobile phone or a computer. in fact, according to a study carried out by the mobile marketing association, there are more mobile phones than toothbrushes worldwide. This fact may be astonishing for some, but it only reflects the huge power of icT and the way advanced technologies have become an integrated part of our daily lives.

The Open Data phenomenon that is, the publication and sharing of data- is becoming increasingly attractive for both private companies and public institutions. however, discussion about this topic is still very much needed in order to allow for a better understanding of the potential that lies behind this phenomenon. indeed, while Open Data is


becoming a world-wide phenomenon, many aspects of it have yet to be discovered.

i have the pleasure to recommend the latest issue of the e-magazine closer to Brussels which will provide us with explanations about the phenomenon of Open Data and why it has been gaining so many followers. This publication will also help us to find out what has already been achieved in this field in poland and maopolska and what are the challenges currently facing the public administration. you will also have the opportunity to read about the fuel of contemporary economies, that is, the different ways to process and re-use published data.

i am glad to invite you to read our latest issue of the e-magazine,

marek sOwa

presiDenT Of The maOpOlska regiOn

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Open Data by and for europes Regions

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Open Government Data is a recent trend that is based on a very intuitiveassumption: The public authorities have a great amount of valuable information - why dont they put it on the Internet so that everyone can use it? Lets have a look at the motivation and key elements of open data as well as at the resulting chances and challenges for Europes regions.

flOrian marienfelD

florian marienfeld is a software engi-neer who started focusing on Open Data in 2011. he is co-author of the Open Data studies for both Berlin and germany and developed various portals including daten.berlin.de, go-vData.de, the Open cities data portals and netzdaten-berlin.de. he has been carrying out a lot of work with every-ones favorite OD tool ckan including several extensions, the german me-tadata schema ogd-metadata and various workshops. his specialty is harvesting, i.e. aggregating metadata from smaller to larger regions. he sha-res his thoughts on open-data.fokus.fraunhofer.de.


There are three main driving forces behind this movement. The first is innovation: Imagine everyone from freelancers to major corporations had access to all data about public streets and bu-ildings, opening hours of public institutions, and land use plans. Possibilities to re-use these datasets in small and handy apps or as parts of larger service bundles are only limited by the deve-lopers imagination. Transparency is the second key motivation: Open data allows citizens and NGOs to actually inspect what is going on inside governments and make reliable comparisons and analyses for particular contexts. Last but not least we have efficiency of the administration itself: in any major organization, it is hard for one department to know what the others are do-ing. This holds applies especially to governmental departments. Hence, publishing as much as possible by default has shown to improve intra-government communication.

Broadly speaking, there is already a great amount of public sec-tor information on the web. However, open data experts like Fraunhofer FOKUS or the Open Knowledge Foundation conti-nuously emphasize the importance of three key factors that need

Possibilities to re-use these data-sets in small and handy apps or as parts of larger service bundles are only limited by the developers imagination.

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to be in place in order to achieve the desired outcomes. Factor one is machine readability: only if data is available in an inte-roperable format can it be fed into some program. PDF reports typically do not meet this criterion, since extracting the raw data out of these reports is an expensive manual piece of work.Factor two is free licensing. This means not only the absence of direct costs but rather internationally recognized terms of use like the Creative Commons or Open Data Commons licenses, which are granted for all purposes without the need for a requ-est. The third of the most challenging factors is the ease of access. Normally a developer or journalist has to research into the por-tals of various institutions; open data, instead, is presented in a central portal rather than hidden in the depths of numerous web sites.

For Europes regions, open data offers a number of opportuni-ties. In contrast to many other similar initiatives, e.g. INSPIRE, it is neither a strict top-down nor bottom-up approach. On the contrary, every region can embrace the open data idea at its own pace and possibilities. This leads to both cooperation and com-

Normally a developer or journalist has to research into the portals of various institutions; open data, instead, is presented in a central portal rather than hidden in the depths of numerous web sites.


petition in the race for more and better open data portals (See http://data.opencities.net, http://publicdata.eu, http://daten.berlin.de, http://www.govdata.de).And this seems to be a better path, at least for the current phase, than national or local legislation. Opening data makes regions more attractive in terms of potential for innovation and also al-lows for a transparent comparison of regions according to com-mon indicators. Moreover, it enables their local infrastructure to be integrated in cross-regional applications and services.

For the near future, we expect above all two developments: more and more governmental data sets will be made available and shared in increasingly interconnected portals. Perhaps even more notably, we will see an even stronger commercial interest in open data. Companies are providing more and more services based on open data and they also begin to see the benefits of a culture of transparency, as it has been the case with the Berlin electrical grid operator Stromnetz Berlin (http://netzdaten-berlin.de).

Opening data makes regions more attractive in terms of poten-tial for innovation and also allows for a transparent comparison of regions according to common indicators.


further reading:http://open-data.fokus.fraunhofer.dehttp://epsiplatform.eu

For the near future, we expect above all two developments: more and more governmental data sets will be made available and shared in increasingly inter-connected portals.


the big data opportunity for government


The modern world generates a staggering quan-tity of data, and the business of government is no exception. in the uk, vast quantities of data are amassed in the course of running public se-rvices from managing welfare payments and the national health service, through to issuing passports and driving licences. regardless of the stance a government chooses on openness and transparency, an abundance of data and compu-ting power gives the public sector new ways to organise, learn and innovate.

chris yiuchris yiu is head of the Digital govern-ment unit at the uk think tank policy exchange, and author of its report The Big Data Opportunity. he has been researching and writing extensively about the topics of open data and big data, the digital economy, and government digital services and is currently focusing his research on digital enterprise, broadband policy, and technology-enabled public sector reform. he is a regular commentator on digital policy, speaking at conferences and writing for print and online media. chris is also a member of the uk governmen-ts Data strategy Board and has spent the past decade working at the heart of public policy and business strategy. in government he held a number of positions, including advising on tax and financial services policy at hm Treasury, and on economic and foreign policy at the prime ministers strategy unit. in business, he served a range of uk and international clients as a management consultant at mckinsey & company.


The opportunity for public service transformation is real. Data technologies open up the potential to avoid duplication, learn what works well and less well, personalise activities, solve com-plex problems, and foster innovation. For citizens, this can save time and make interacting with government a much smoother experience. This runs across the whole spectrum from pre--populating forms rather than asking for the same information twice, through to personalising welfare to help people access the support they need.

There is also significant scope to save money. The UK govern-ments annual budget is around 700 billion, so even incremen-tal improvements in productivity can add up to big savings. We already know that fraud in the public sector costs the UK aro-und 21 billion a year, a further 10 billion is lost to errors, and 7-8 billion lost in uncollected debts. And we know that the tax gap the difference between theoretical tax liabilities and what people actually pay is around 35 billion. So there is clearly potential to make progress.

Data technologies open up the potential to avoid duplication, learn what works well and less well, personalise activities, solve complex problems, and foster innovation.


Of course, data and analytics technologies alone are not a silver bullet for transforming the public sector. Underlying data and statistical issues like quality, standards and bias still need to be recognised and addressed, and we need an open and constructive conversation about legislative and practical barriers around data sharing and linking.

Governments must have people with the capability to conduct and interpret data in order to make analytics working intelligen-tly. The potential expertise of these people should cover a range of disciplines from computer science and quantitative methods, to the ability to tell stories and visualize complex relationships. And this is only partly about cutting-edge technical skills. Just as important if not more so is ensuring that public sector le-aders and staff are literate in the scientific method and confident combining data with judgment. Governments will also need the courage to pursue this agenda with strong ethics and integrity. The same technology that holds so much potential also makes it possible to put intense pressure on civil liberties. Both governments and businesses are exposed

Both governments and businesses are exposed to tensions when attempts to extract value from data collide with individuals wishes not to be tracked, monitored or singled out.


to tensions when attempts to extract value from data collide with individuals wishes not to be tracked, monitored or singled out.Our research delivered two main recommendations for the UK government to consider.

First, to kick-start this agenda set up an Advanced Analytics Team at the heart of government, with responsibility for iden-tifying big data opportunities and helping the public sector to unlock them be they in central departments, local authorities or elsewhere. The team should take a lean, agile approach this is emphatically not about starting with a large, lengthy IT pro-gramme. It should also have the job of spreading awareness, understanding and demand for data and analysis in the public sector. If successful, data science should be formalised as a pro-fessional grouping inside government, alongside existing tracks for economists, statisticians and operational and social resear-chers.Second, adopt (or possibly even legislate) a Code for Responsi-ble Analytics, to help people in the public sector adhere to the

Governments must have people with the ca-pability to conduct, interpret and consume the outputs of data and analytics work intelligen-tly.


highest ethical standards in data use. Important elements of such a code might include being transparent about what data and analytics capabilities are being accumulated and why; respecting the spirit of the right to privacy; and committing to review big data initiatives in a lab environment before implementation. The prize at stake from making better use of data in government is immense. We need to accelerate practical, radical efforts to capture it, whilst being mindful, always, that we do not sacrifice our integrity along the way.


The prize at stake from making better use of data in government is immense. We need to accele-rate practical, radical efforts to capture it, whilst being mindful, always, that we do not sacrifice our integrity along the way.


Internet contributes to a better functioning democracy interview with ra Thun


ra maria grfin vOn Thun unD hOhensTeinshe is a member of the european parliament (european peoples party group). prior to taking up this post she was head of the represen-tation of the european commission in poland (2005 - 2009). since 2009 european parliament election, member of the civic platform (platfor-ma Obywatelska). in european parliament, she works in the committee on the internal market and consumer protection and, as a substitute, in the committee on culture and education. she is also a member of the Delegation for relations with israel, Delegation to the ufm parliamentary assembly and Delegation for relations with the palestinian legislative council. in november 2011, voted The mep of the year in the ca-tegory internal market and consumers affairs during the mep awards gala of The parliament magazine. in 2012 voted 2011 person of the year in malopolska by the readers of the gazeta krakowska and one of the five most influential women of malopolska in 2011.

Magorzata Ratajska-Grandin: Open Data is more than just a technical solution or a digital tool, it is a model used in public space, based on values such as transparency, openness, efficiency and availability, it also streng-thens the cooperation and participation, thus the foundation of civil socie-ty. Is Poland and, on a broader scale, Europe, ready for its widespread use?

Ra Grfin von Thun und Hohenstein: Open data is a con-cept which assumes that some data should be available to all and should not be copyrighted, patented or have to face other limits regarding its processing and publishing. Poland and Europe are only in a learning phase as far as the philosophy of openness is concerned. This would not be possible without the Internet and the ability to automatically process large amounts of data. We are talking about using the internet to build a better functioning democracy in which cooperation and participation play a great role.


next to fighting the economic crisis for more than four years already, europe is also experiencing a serious crisis concerning the loss of confidence in governments. in this difficult climate, new generations come into adulthood, including the so-called Digital natives, born and raised in the era of e-mails and widespread internet access, in a time in which mobile phones have in fact become so important that they can almost be considered like another limb. how can we interest these young people in their regions, in the development of cities, or communities? how do we convince them that the actions of the local government have a direct impact on their quality of life?

Nowadays, Europe faces some serious problems, but lets not forget that we have withstood many crises already, so I believe we will be fine this time as well. Young people largely live on the internet, so if the government or politicians want to get their opinions, the internet is where they should look for them. If I want to hear the views of my voters I will also ask them via Facebook or Twitter. It is the most efficient way. I think that the government should act in a similar way.


There are thousands of web applications around the world, enabling citizens to communicate with authorities at local and central levels, such as the action fix my street, launched in the uk, and now available in many european cities as well. This tool allows residents of a certain district to take a picture of a hole in the pavement in front of their home by using their mobile phone, and subsequently to send it to the municipal authorities, and thereby to monitor the progress of the undertaken repairs. however, in poland such initiatives are rare. how would you explain that?

We see such initiatives appear in Poland as well. I remember the project city space (prze-strzenmiasta.pl), which targeted the removal of graffiti from public buildings which were of-fensive to minorities. Often, of an anti-Semitic nature. People could take pictures of such graf-fitis, upload them on a website, and someone would monitor it regularly and report to the municipal police who subse-quently enforced the removal of the unsightly and offensive graffiti. The cityscape changes through such joint action. Fix my street also seems to have

its equivalent, its called lets fix it (naprawmyto.pl). There is also a project called open sights (otwartezabytki.pl), which is about creating a database of Po-lish monuments through a com-mon effort. In June this year, the European Parliament adopted a Directive on the re-use of public sector information. Many of its provisions are already implemen-ted into the Polish legislation. And in this case, we are among the best in the EU, in having a good legal environment.


in the upcoming weeks, maopolska is going to publish a new website providing information which is collected and created by the government

at the regional and local level. The tool will meet all modern require-ments for this kind of technology, and it is certainly a step forward

towards the creation of a modern environment and a response to the needs of citizens. But how can we engage citizens so that they can

benefit from this kind of technology, and how can we encourage innova-tive businesses to develop applications based on them?

This needs to be done through the media, but also by schools, universities, on the internet. Im sure that the entrepreneurs themselves will be interested as soon as the data will be pro-vided in a form that will allow further processing. There is no need to encourage them speci-fically. You just need to provide them the information. The best way to do this is through vario-us professional organizations.

who should be responsible for the education of citizens, in order to increase public awareness activities at the local or central level?

to reach out to citizens.

how to define the mission of go-vernments, should it be limited to investments in so-called hard in-frastructures or should authorities be responsible for the creation and delivery of content?

It should be dealt with by schools, ministries, governments, media, non-governmental organizations. In fact, by all of them. Without a concerted effort it will be difficult


I would not make a division into infrastructure and content only. I would rather refer to in-frastructure and skills. It wont be enough to stock schools or libraries with laptops and high--speed internet if there wont be any trained school teachers with an educational program for the youth. The Digital School program clearly exem-plifies this problem. We also need programs that will encourage older people to use the Internet. There is a coalition called maturity in the network, which does a lot of good work already. We have

guidance counselors from the Polish Digital program who help building digital skills. Concerning the content, it is of course also necessary to have digital textbooks. We need a range of public services availa-ble online, so that the Poles will be able to use its full potential. In this regard, public institu-tions still have a lot of work to do, although it should also be noted that a lot is being done already.


Open Source civic app development

and sustainability is the future

capturing the value of working through commonst


kaTalin gallyaskatalin gallyas is an Open innovation policy advisor for the city of amster-dam, economic Development section.for the last 3 years, she has been acti-vely engaged in policy making about Open innovation, a completely new city program. she is currently coordinating 3 eu innovation projects (code4eu, Open cities, city sDk) in amsterdam to show the added value of Open Data, Open source app Development and working with commons and smart toolkits in cities. passionate about inno-vation, app industry, city governance renewal, katalin is responsible for the eu and local policy lobby in icT and innovation field and engaged in setting up a civic innovators network as well as an innovation hub between cities, inno-vation labs, hackers and start ups.

city governance is challenged by abrupt chan-ges, budget cuts, and reorganisations. in 2013, it is a restless, continuously evolving context, exposed to many contradictions. On the one hand city governance is starting to lack enough internal capacities to enter into the technical in-novation market, as it lacks in both insight on what is cutting edge application and in resources to build them and share them among other cities. On the second hand, city governance is more risk averse than ever, and urban redesign is also expe-riencing many roadblocks to plan and implement new designs and costly plans. citizens, thanks to their constant connectivity and growing number of membership to so many emerging platforms, are creating a new demand for interactive, feed-back oriented and transparent citizen services.


Citizens are opting freely about who they want to share cars, food and neighbourhood with, and who they want to be con-nected with. More than ever the city is going to be determined by its ability to play the role of interface, as citizens are impa-tient and want to get instant answers from their city hall when they report an issue related to public spaces (i.e. issue tracking, broken lamps, pedestrian roads or trash cans that have not been emptied). This contradiction between the cities diminishing capacities to innovate and the abruptly growing demand from citizens for digitalization creates a previously unknown techno-logical gap and backlog in cities.

Amsterdam has put Open Data and Open Innovation in the fore-front when it comes to innovation.


Amsterdam (Economic Affairs) has chosen to participate in several IT-driven open innovation EU programs to contribu-te to the local decision making process with continuous range of examples and business cases. Moreover, the participation in these EU ICT-driven projects has enabled the city to gain a qu-icker access to the most innovative technologies and learn about the advantages to open up governmental datasets or arrange hackathons.

More specifically, we have been working on three projects, and it is truly inspiring to see how far we have got since their launch.

This contradiction between the cities dimini-shing capacities to innovate and the abruptly growing demand from citizens for digitalization creates a previously unknown technological gap and backlog in cities.


1) Open cities:This project accentuates the value of Open Innovation for cities, it aims at showing city authorities how to work with platforms, deal with challenges and source ideas from outside to foster innovation. Open Data is a crucial part in the project, espe-cially when it comes to arrange competitions or generate novel app concepts that are using open data from city authorities. See also: http://opencities.hackathome.com

2) code4europe:Code4Europe promotes the idea of temporarily working with Change Agent App Developers that have a better understan-ding of civic challenges and advanced coding tools. The trend we see is that it is not the development of a new app that is the most exciting part, but rather the speed of sharing, exchanging existing codes via Github or Commons (Civic Commons in the States, European Commons in the EU) between cities. The Code4EU project has 10 international developer fellows wor-king in 6 EU cities to prove this method of innovation.

3) city service Development Tool:Project City Service Development Tool shows how the development of a harmonized back end system between cities can help to leverage the interoperability concept. http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/visualisation. For example, we show developers how to release multimodal transport data through APIs. With City SDK, we are already focusing on the second gene-ration of open data , an enriched version with a social layer, real time data as well as crowd-sourced personal data. For instance, the Waag Society is building a multimodal transport app that-


shows how important is the combination of real time transport data with crowd-sourced travellers information.

In the last years, the city of Amsterdam has released more than 200 datasets and we have been organising 2 hackathons to promote the use of these datasets by app developers. Through Open Cities, we have made an App challenge during which cutting edge apps, such as Blindsquare from Helsinki, were rewarded. This proves how useful it is to combine real time public traffic light information with sound system adapted to people with visual impairments, as it can help them to move around cities independently and safely. The development of public toilets in Amsterdam, for example, has been accompanied by the creation of Peezy app, which is accessible to all and aims at helping tourists to easily find a clean toilet during their visits of the city.

Waternet (Water Services Department) has also built an app where the boat traffic on the canals can be measured, allowing the users to generate a new layer of data about their transport while enhancing the safety and predictability of the traffic.


Finally, open data can also have a strong educational impact. For instance, the Rijskmuseum has released large parts of their col-lection as open data and app developers have created a very use-ful educative app that enables a face recognition of the portrayed person on the museums paintings.

Through all these cases, Amsterdam has put Open Data and Open Innovation in the forefront when it comes to innovation. Of course, this is motivated by the underlying hope that we can generate new business models and contribute to the new genera-tion of civic app development. Each city has a big responsibility when it comes to opening up data and serve citizens better. This can happen in an environment in which the city hall -as a data provider also responsible for civic challenges- collaborates with app developers, innovation agencies, researchers and other pro-minent cities. In my opinion, the main task for the cities autho-rities is to listen well, to be present and to experiment with new models of collaboration like we do in Code4EU, to get acquain-ted with Github and make use of existing smart tools from other cities.

This can happen in an environment in which the city hall -as a data provider also responsible for civic challenges- collaborates with app develo-pers, innovation agencies, researchers and other prominent cities.


Open Data program should be an integral part of the new strategic choices of Economic De-partments in cities, because open data is the oil of the new economies.

To conclude, Open Data program should be an integral part of the new strategic choices of Economic Departments in cities, be-cause open data is the oil of the new economies, it creates jobs for the newer generations and makes it possible to build better services for ever connected citizens.


putting open innovation policy into practice


since january 2013, i have had the fascinating oppor-tunity to be involved in the code for europe fellowship programme, hired as a concept designer/business de-veloper by the economic affairs section of the city of amsterdam. Teamed up with two committed software deve-loper fellows, i have been working within the communities and host organisations in amsterdam to address local pro-blems by harnessing the potential of open source technolo-gies. in this article, i take the opportunity to reflect on my day-to-day work in amsterdam; how change makers, joining as outsiders, are turning the citys open innovation policy into a practice owned by citizens and civil servants.

OhyOOn kwOn Ohyoon kwon is working in amsterdam as a fellow at the code for europe project. in the role of a concept designer/business developer, his mission with two other fellows is to co-design longlasting products while enabling civil se-rvants and citizens to have a sense of ownership on products code for europe has developed for and with them. next to his c4eu-fellowship, he is active as a so-cial innovator cofounding a social venture called homeless sms. There, he is developing a social messaging service, working with young homeless people and organisations in eindhoven. Ohyoon was born and grew up in seoul, south korea. since 2009, he has been based in europe and graduated cum laude in the masters in De-sign for interaction at Delft university of Techno-logy, being awarded best graduate of his faculty.


Three local challenges in amsterdam:

Code for Europe has selected three distinguishable local chal-lenges through organising a pitching competition with enthusi-astic civil servants. The three winners received as a reward the opportunity to run a project with the fellows for nine months. The topics reflect the agenda of local authorities as well as per-sonal aspirations of the individual civil servants.

East council: Social Accommodations

Anne-Jan Zieleman at East council proposed a challenge aligned with the strong bottom-up community movements in an area called Indische Buurt. This neighbourhood and its 25.000 inhabitants have more than 200 active citizen initiatives to their credit. These mini-citizen organisations demand accessible space for performing a variety of cultural, ecological and educational activities. East council asked the fellows to come up with a solu-tion to manage the supplies and demands of social accommoda-tion (accessible public spaces in their neighbourhoods).


West council: Frontline Staff

Many neighbourhoods in the west district have been suffering from trouble-making youngsters (overlasting hanggroep), com-mitting nuisances and street crimes. Over the years, the city authority has lost the control over this problem. In 2011, the west council implemented a programme called buurtpraktijk team (neighbourhood practice team) that politically enabled frontline staff from different organisations to closely work together, while overriding the walls that traditionally divide organisations. After a year, the team has obtained positive outcomes, although they have faced problems when it came to sharing information. As the existing organisation information systems do not support the practice sufficiently, the fellows were asked to create a system improving the communication between frontline staff from dif-ferent organisations. The challenge was proposed by Eelke Jager and Rene de Jong at West council.


South council: Spreading out Tourists

Amsterdam has more than 1.6 million international and local tourists annually. However, they tend to be concentrated in the central area and do not visit further than the central canal belt. The city of Amsterdam perceived this as a significant missed opportunity. Elvira Osmanovic, at South district council, has proposed up the challenge to spread out tourists to areas be-yond the centre.

The approaches

The given challenges briefly illustrate contexts around the prob-lems, however they do not define what exactly fellows have to deliver at the end of the project. Therefore, throughout the pro-ject, civil servants and fellows have been developing the way to work and interact with each other towards possible solutions. The three civil servants play the role of runners, prompting us fellows where to go and whom we need to meet in order to con-tinue the project. They open doors to engage with organisations and communities. This set up enables us to establish networks composed of civil servants and citizens who are motivated to address the challenge. On the other hand, fellows nudge them to think and act outside of conventional practice.

Preview of three apps responding the challenges

By now, the project reached half of its total duration of nine months. We came up with concepts for each challenge and are developing three products:

This set up enables us to esta-blish networks composed of civil servants and citizens who are motivated to address the chal-lenge. On the other hand, fellows nudge them to think and act outside of conventional practice.


Take-a-hike is an iPhone application offering a novel way to navigate through a city in a playful way, searching hidden treasures and check-in points; the SamenSpel concept is a communication tool sup-porting the collaborative practice between professionals from different organisations working on improving the qual-ity of Amsterdams neighbourhoods; SamenApp is a web tool that allows citizens to reserve different public spaces in their neighbourhood and to learn about people, events and local organisations at a one-stop-shop.

Each challenge has generated several interesting questions for the team and involved civil servants.

In the Frontline staff challenge, one of the needs of the staff that we have identified was that the system should handle and share private information about problem-making youngsters. Their wish is based on the new legislation agreed between the organi-sations, which allows frontline staff to share the citizens informa-tion concerned. This project motivated several civil servants, such as privacy coordinators and information managers, to interpret the agreements and translate them, with the help of SamenSpel, into a practical guide for product development.

In the Social Accommodation challenge, through which we closely cooperate with the local community, the sustainability of the product turned out as a bottleneck to test the application and implement the outcome in the community. Further development

Each challenge has generated several interesting questions for the team and involved civil servants.


and ongoing maintenance are important assets for the use of the SamenApp in the community after the period of the fellowship programme. Making use of open data is an important objective of the Code for Europe fellowship. The Take-a-hike app is conceived to be able to derive location information from existing tourism infor-mation data sets. However, we realise that the majority of tourist data in Amsterdam concerns attractions located in the centre of the city, which does not support the goal of the challenge. There-fore the application includes a back-end tool allowing admin us-ers to register additional location information for users, exceed-ing what is available today.

Firstly, the programme motivates civil servants and citizens to engage and put abstract policies and political agenda into actions. Secondly, local projects have become the cata-lyst for the creation of new connections and network across unconnected organisations and different functional roles. Lastly, the programme creates an environment ideal for experiments, pushing ordinary civil servants and citizens to think and act differently from their current daily practice.


possibilities for change agents

Although the Code for Europe fellowship has just begun its first pilot year, I am convinced about the possibilities that the work of fellows can bring to local authorities and communities. Firstly, the programme motivates civil servants and citizens to engage and put abstract policies and political agenda into ac-tions. Secondly, local projects have become the catalyst for the creation of new connections and network across unconnected organisations and different functional roles. Lastly, the pro-gramme creates an environment ideal for experiments, pushing ordinary civil servants and citizens to think and act differently from their current daily practice.

Ohyoon kwoncode for europe fellow in amsterdam


Waag Society andOpen Data

What is the impact of the developing Internet and emerging technologies on our society? This is the main question that Waag Societys Future Internet Lab researches. Waag Society is an institute for art, science and technolo-gy. The organisation develops creative technology for social innovation, conducts research, develops concepts, pilots and prototypes and acts as an in-termediate between the arts, science and the media.Waag Society wants to keep technology accessible and safe, and share information in order to allow everybody to partici-pate in this changing society on their own terms. Most of the efforts in this field curren-tly deal with open data. Suzan-ne Heerschop, project manager at Waag Society: We try to stimulate the public sector to

open access to data, and others to re-use this data. We do this through organizing app con-tests, for instance, but also by building technical platforms and interfaces to facilitate development of applications. An example of such a platform is CitySDK, a service develop-ment kit that enables develo-pers to built applications based on Open Mobility Data.Next to this, the organization stimulates developers to turn their idea into business. We show investors the ocean of viable concepts that arise from the Open Data contests that we organize, explains Suzanne. For those concepts that have a realistic chance on the market, and for the developers that are eager and motivated to turn their idea into reality, we are working on a European Busi-ness Lounge. This lounge will

be developed within the pro-ject Apps for Europe and the main goal is creating successful Open Data startups. The Busi-ness Lounge can be seen as an add-on for the existing Open Data contests and hackathons.

Participation, innovation and engaged citizens are important for cities. And they are the main factors within the project Code for Europe, on which Waag Society is working toge-ther with the department for Economic Affairs of the mu-nicipality of Amsterdam. After a public pitch session in which civil servants pitched their most important civic challenge to an audience and a jury, three challenges were selected. Next, three fellows were selected to take up these challenges and come up with solutions. In


this process, they can count on support from the municipality, coaching by Waag Society and inspiration from the internatio-nal Code for Europe network. This network allows the fellows to work together international-ly, to share code on a platform that is currently created and to get inspired and learn from each other. Because everything is open source and freely ava-ilable, other European cities can also use the information and code for their challenges. The fact that Code for Euro-pe is made possible through funding within the Competiti-veness and Innovation Frame-work Programme (CIP), shows that this form of innovation is highly supported by the Euro-pean Union.In Amsterdam, thirty people applied for a position as a fel-low, most of them from outside

the Netherlands. Because the fellows are working directly with the people from the mu-nicipality, they can test their ideas and create support for their solutions. In September, Amsterdam will host the Code for Europe summit to present the results and open the network to all. What we already notice, is that both citizens and civil servants are very involved, because we tac-kle issues that are relevant to them. Furthermore, civil se-rvants are inspired to work in a different manner and they are already asking us for in-spiration and help with this, says Heerschop. In September well start looking for new challenges in Amsterdam. And we want even more European cities to join the Code for Europe movement. So that they can have specialists and

an entire network focus on the challenges they face.

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Axelle Ponthus, Maopolska Representation Office in Brussels: Until September 2013 Poland was faced by an infringement procedure triggered by the European Commission because it was thought that Poland had not fully implemented the PSI Directive (Directive on the re-use of public sector information, see Questio Iuris). How did the Centrum Cyfrowe work with the government during that period and how did it deal with this issue? Has there been an evolution in the attitude of the government towards the OD model and its use during the last few years?

Alek Tarkowski: Starting with the Directive, we were involved not so much as an institution but more personally due to the fact that I and my colleague Igor Ostrowski were part of the so called Board of Strategic Advisors to the

Prime Minister. What hap-pened with the Directive is that indeed the Commission believed that Poland had not implemented the Directive on time. Poland for a while ar-gued that it had actually been implementing it... I dont think

alek TarkOwskialek Tarkowski (1977) is the director of centrum cyfrowe projekt polska, a polish think-and-do-tank building tools and methodologies for using digital technologies to increase civic engagement and openness of institutions. he is the coordina-tor of creative commons poland and a member of the coun-cil of information, an advisory body to the polish ministry of administration and Digital affairs, and of the administrative council of communia, an international association supporting the digital public domain. Between 2007-2011, he acted as a member of the Board of strategic advisors to the prime minister of poland, responsible for matters related to the development of digital society. he co-founded the Opengov project, which initiated in poland the debate on the open government model with the publication of the roadmap for Open government in poland and is the co-author of the report poland 2030. alek holds an ma and phD in sociology.


that was true but ultimately, although late, the bill that was created was, in my opinion, quite good partially because it drew on the experience of other countries. It introduced quite strong rules for open re-use, such as the absence of fees other than the cost of prepar-ing, which is even less than the marginal cost. We now have a legislation that allows for open data, we have long term policy documents that have re-ally straightforward yet strong recommendations for making public data available, but the problem is the implementation of the legislation. Of course,

A.T.: I would not say that the challenges come more from the local level: I think that probably any level of adminis-tration has a problem with this model because it is the oppo-site to the way they have been functioning until now. Institu-tions have been supposed to keep control of their data. So for example, we have been told, when requesting data, that the idea of data being made available would not gain the

the fact that we have a new bill does not solve practical problems: no-one really un-derstands, especially the in-stitutions, how re-use works and data is not being made available. But this is not the fault of the regulation. This triggers stronger pressure on regional and local levels be-cause they are the ones that have the legal framework necessary for the implemen-tation and, in theory, they do not need to wait for data to be released at the national level. But there is not much happening yet.

A.P.: would you then say that the main challenges, when it comes to re-using data, are more coming from local authorities?


trust [of citizens author]. Those very basic fears sug-gest that there is some greater challenge when it comes to making data available. I re-ally think its an issue of lead-ership, at any level. You just need someone with enough power and charisma to really start believing in this model - maybe not as a perfect model, but as something that can be tested or done. And without that I dont think it can be achieved. I dont think mid-level officials have enough power to do this because they face a lot of opposition: if you work for a municipality ,

in one specific office, and you need to convince people deal-ing with transportation, pub-lic services, and education, I dont think this will work.In the meantime, civil soci-ety and businesses are doing what they can. You do have companies that try to create applications, transport appli-cations for instance. They face challenges, they have to pay licenses. The rules are un-equal: one company can get a license and the other not, so the competition is broken. You can have a situation in which a city refuses to make data available so the data

works only in some cities,... and stories like that. And the same with NGOs, there are many stories of them facing difficulties in gaining access to data.

a.p.: so how does your centre deal with these different groups? what is your approach?

I really think its an issue of leadership, at any level. You just need someone with enough power and charisma to really start believing in this model - maybe not as a perfect model, but as something that can be tested or done.

A.T.: Our newest approach is that we put a lot more think-ing to go into designing the solution because often the open data model takes some very simple solutions and says Lets take data presented on a map and it will be useful. And


after almost three years work-ing on this, our feeling is that we need to understand a lot more what people and groups need and figure out what tool will really be helpful and use-ful. This design approach is in my opinion the right way to work with open data applica-tion.

a.p.: when it comes to society, how would you assess polish societys awareness on the possibilities related to open-date re-use and how can we increase this awareness?

A.T.: I think there is a very

small group that has a very advanced understanding on this issue but outside of this group the understanding is low. I think this issue is mainly due to a mutual lack of trust between citizens and institutions. This is a challenge we should try to overcome and I think that Open Data-based projects are a very good way to overcome this mentality and prove that things can work differently. How-ever, you first need to get them started. This is why we need leadership.

a.p.: as we saw during the conference Build your smart

community, a lot of the most efficient approaches are tak-ing place at the local/regional level. could you give exam-ples of such innovative initia-tives in poland?

A.T.: I would say that in gen-eral Poland is a country that can really be proud of the ideas that come out of it, with pro-jects like Sejmometr, which is a parliamentary platform, and Prawo wiedzie which also tracks parliamentary data. We also have a project that tracks budgets and platform where we work with data on heritage and monuments.


But the projects are usually not local. About two years ago, the city of Poznan did release some data-set but the set is very small and they dont seem to have a strategy on how to make anything happen with this data. So that was a good example for about half a year, but afterwards not much hap-pened.

It is easier to use data gath-ered at the local level because it is closer to peoples needs. The data you can make avail-able at national level is very abstract, we tested this with budget data and it turns out that not too many people were

interested... No doubt that this sort of data should be trans-parent, as it is important that the government shows data on public spending, but the truth is that you cannot build anything really interesting for citizens with it.

In a city, it is completely different. People care about the quality of schools, hospitals and the roads they drive on, or whether their waste is collect-ed. You can find thousands of issues. I think that is why we should focus on municipalities. A lot of them are now think-ing in terms of innovation and have their own innova-

tion strategies, and Open Data should be seen as an element of cities approach to what is innovative today.

A.P.: has it been possible to benefit from the exchange of competences/best practices on the issue of Open Data with foreign regions and cit-ies? A.T.: I do not think that it is happening yet, to be honest. It is true that it should be quite easy, because all this knowl-edge is shared and not hidden. The tools required to make use of this knowledge have already


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been built, therefore you dont have to pay millions to have them built, only tens of thou-sands to have them installed. The main challenge lays in human capital, when you have people who know what to do and want to work with these tools.

A.P.: which cases of open data re-use do you find the most useful/appealing and would like to see implemented in poland? which social groups would benefit the most from re-use?

A.T.: It is a hard question because there is so many kinds of data that you can find you can basically find data relevant

for everyone. In principle, any-one can benefit and it is hard to say what sort is the most useful. There are types that are described by everyone as having the greatest potential, things like geographic, mete-orological or transport data.. This data can be used for the creation of big solutions. What I like about the examples in Amsterdam or Berlin is that they are very small: you take a part of town and try to iden-tify the problem in this part of town. They might not be the best solutions or the most pressing problem but I like the idea that you can also deal with small issues.


There are types that are described by everyone as having the greatest potential, things like geo-graphic, meteorological or transport data.. This data can be used for the creation of big solu-tions.


Maopolska wins over Brussels:

Build your smart commu-

nity: Open Data for cities

and regions high level conference co-Organ-ised by the maopolska region and google Brussels


On the 26th of june 2013, googles Brussels head offices provided the setting for the conference Build your smart community: Open Data for cities and regions, organized at the occasion of the maopolska innovation festival. The event is part of the long-term strategy of the maopolska representation in Brussels, the aim of which is to promote the image of maopolska as a region with a large potential for innovation and invest-ment in the strategic sector of new technologies - one of the priorities of the regional innovation strategy for the 2013-2020 period.

as the initiator and main organiser of the conference, the maopolska region Office in Brussels was able to make the most of the contacts it has established at the european level and invite representatives of leading european cen-tres in the area of Open Data in order to participate in the debate and share their experience and knowledge on the topic.


The large audience gathered in Googles modern Brussels offices was introduced to the topic of Open Data by Alek Tarkowski, di-rector of the Centrum Cyfrowe in Warsaw and co-author of the report Road Map to Open Government in Poland.

Following the opening speech delivered by Antoine Aubert, host of the conference and director of Google Brussels, Jacek Krupa, a member of the administrative board of the Maopolska Region, briefly presented the regions new platform for public data sharing which is expected to be inaugurated in August this year. It should be noted that this platform will be the second ini-tiative of this type in Poland, and one of a few in Europe.

The next intervention was that of MEP Ra Thun, who un-derlined that in this age of changes, cities and regions which want to remain attractive for both citizens and entrepreneurs must ensure the effectiveness of local administration while offe-ring flexible responses to a rapidly changing reality. In order to face those challenges, the public sector in Europe must undergo changes, long term transformations that require a greater open-ness of the administration, cooperation with various actors from outside the system, and above all, transparency in its activities.

During the first presentation, Katalin Galyas, strategic adviser on innovation for the City of Amsterdam, emphasized that the key to remain at the forefront of Europes leading regional centers is to make public data available in a way that would be accessible and comprehensible for a varied audience. Am-sterdam, which together with Berlin stands among Europes

In this age of changes, cities and regions which want to remain attractive for both citizens and entrepreneurs must ensure the effectiveness of local administration while offering flexible responses to a rapidly changing reality.


leaders in the development of modern and open administrative practices, has been pursuing such a policy for the last 3 years. European projects, financed by the CIP Programme Compe-titiveness and Innovation Framework Programme - have been an important incentive for innovative changes in the city.The city intends to keep expanding its activities in this area, and opportunities for such expansion are expected to be fostered by the new European program Horizon 2020, which will be inau-gurated during a conference in Vilnius in November.

Later, Ohyoon Kwon, the youngest of the panel participants and a fellow for the Code for Europe project and co-developer of Open Data-based apps, currently implemented by Amsterdam- explained that there is no boundary to the possibilities generated by the sharing of data, other than the human imagination.

Florian Marienfeld, author of rapports on Open Data for both the German Federal Government and the City of Berlin, po-inted out that public bodies should take into account the huge

The key to remain at the fo-refront of Europes leading regional centers is to make public data available in a way that would be accessible and comprehensible for a varied audience.


benefits for citizens and firms that can result from making public data accessible, but also the challenges that have to be tackled in order to create smart cities and communities.

The issue of the openness and access of data was addressed by Leo Exter, the creator and animator of the crowd-sourcing plat-forms Westartup and Digital Health. According to him, only large resources of data can enable the business sector, especially start ups, to create new commercial models and ways to coope-rate with partners which should allow for the achievement of economic and social benefits at various levels.

The second part of the conference consisted of a debate between the experts, actively led by Alek Tarkowski. Every participants agreed on the fact that data is the basis for the world economy and therefore the possibilities to access and re-use it will keep increasing. Data sharing and the possibility to develop an infini-te number of apps therefore represent a chance to foster econo-mic development and facilitate our daily lives.


The conference Build your Smart Community: Open Data for Cities and Regions was one of the many activities of the Ma-opolska Representation in Brussels aimed at building an image of the region based on the new technologies sector, one of the so-called smart specializations of the Maopolska region. It should be noted that presenting the activities of the Maopolska region in the area of open data on a European forum, alongside European leaders in that field - such as Amsterdam and Berlin -, undoubtedly strengthened our position and generated added--value for the event. Finally, it is worth pointing out that the theme of the conference also fits in the larger political context of the revision of the Directive on the Re-Use of Public Data. http://www.malopolska.pl/Przedsiebiorca/Wydarzenia/Strony/Aktualnosc.aspx?pid=5834

The speakers presentations can be found on the website of our conference: www.malopolskaregion.eu/conference

Data is the basis for the world economy and therefore the possibilities to access and re-use it will keep increasing.


author: magorzata ratajska-grandin & renata jasioek, representation of

maopolska in Brussels


Source: Speech of Jacek Krupa -Member of the Administrative Board of the Maopolska Region- delivered during the conference in Brussels, on the 26th of June.

API mechanisms downloadable XML files of each article and list of articles set of widgets innovative ways of presenting the public information and a new technological platform, which would coordina-te and manage of the content.

The Maopolska Region can see the opportunities and advanta-ges brought by open data. That is why we are currently finalizing the revolutionary change of our main web-portal and tool for access to public data. This will allow for data to become more open and easily accessible. In this way, the new Public Infor-mation Bulletin for public administration units in Maopolska is going to be launched in August this year. This portal aims at ensuring the access to public information, allowing for the re--use of information and supporting the development of open data-based solutions. Let me add that we are leaders in this area in Poland. The new Public Information Bulletin shall offer new tools allowing for public information re-use:

Some open data solutions have already been implemented by the Region. For example, air pollution geo-information, or the Of-ficial Electronic Journal of the Maopolska Region have already been provided with downloadable XML files.Those were the first steps, and obviously, we are not European leaders in the area of open data. However, we are aware of its po-tential and we are willing to learn from the best.


Questio Iuris

the Revision of the pSI

Directive: Why was it

necessary and which

changes did it bring?


Questio Iuris

The 2003/98/WE Directive, also known as the PSI Di-rective concerns the re-use of public sector information. Public sector institutions with-hold information that is gene-rally thought to be valuable for citizens and, as such, should be made accessible - according to the democratic principles of openness and transparency.

During the last decade, this information has also come to be seen as having a certain eco-nomic value as it has the po-tential to become the basis for the development of innovative business opportunities. For this reason, EU institutions have

taken up the task to ensure gre-ater access to the data detained by national, regional and local authorities across its members states and encourage the re-use of this information by citizens and entrepreneurs.

The entry in action in De-cember 2003 of the directive on the re-use of Public Sector Information marked the cre-ation of a EU-wide framework legislating on the availability of government data for re-use by civil society and private sector actors. The implementation of such legislation should foster the transparency of govern-mental activities at every level

This information has also come to be seen as having a certain economic value as it has the po-tential to become the basis for the development of innovative business opportunities.


while allowing for fairer com-petition between businesses, overall ensuring the develop-ment of an economic environ-ment favorable for innovation, especially in the third sector (through the development of apps for example).

By May 2008, the directive had been implemented in every EU member states. Subsequent reviews of the directive and its implementation in each EU--state pointed out the overall increase in the re-use of PSI, but also underlined shortco-mings in the actual imple-mentation of the measure. In several countries, especially

among the newest EU mem-bers, significant barriers to the public access and re-use of government data remained to be overcome. Moreover, several states faced prosecution for failing to implement the direc-tive according to the 1st July of 2005, the deadline fixed by the directive.

The directive has been un-der revision since 2011. In June 2013, the European Parliament adopted a new version of the text. The new legislation aims at increasing the scope of data concerned by the directive (with the inclusion of data withheld by libraries, archives

and museums), limiting the fee demanded for PS data-access to marginal costs, and ensuring that all data are available in a format that can be read by machines.

autor: axelle ponthus

SOURCE: http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/legal-ruleshttp://epsiplatform.eu/


i. extracts from the Directive

Whereas:

(5) One of the principal aims of the establishment of an inter-nal market is the creation of conditions conducive to the de-velopment of Community-wi-de services. Public sector infor-mation is an important primary material for digital content products and services and will become an even more impor-tant content resource with the development of wireless con-tent services. Broad cross-bor-der geographical coverage will also be essential in this context. Wider possibilities of re-using public sector information sho-

uld inter alia allow European companies to exploit its poten-tial and contribute to economic growth and job creation.

(16) Making public all ge-nerally available documents held by the public sector - con-cerning not only the political process but also the legal and administrative process - is a fundamental instrument for extending the right to know-ledge, which is a basic principle of democracy. This objective is applicable to institutions at every level, be it local, national or international.

article 3: general principle Member States shall ensure

that, where the re-use of do-cuments held by public sector bodies is allowed, these docu-ments shall be re-usable for commercial or non-commer-cial purposes in accordance with the conditions set out in chapters III iIV. [...]

article 4: requirements ap-plicable to the processing of requests for re-use

Public sector bodies shall, through electronic means


where possible and appro-priate, process requests for re-use and shall make the document available for re--use to the applicant or, if a license is needed, finalise the license offer to the applicant within a reasonable time that is consistent with the time--frames laid down for the processing of requests for access to documents.[...]

article 5: available formats

Public sector bodies shall make their documents ava-ilable in any pre-existing format or language, through

electronic means where po-ssible and appropriate. [...]

article 6: principles gover-ning charging

Where charges are made, the total income from supply-ing and allowing re-use of documents shall not exceed the cost of collection, pro-duction, reproduction and dissemination, together with a reasonable return on inve-stment.

article 7: Transparency

Any applicable conditions

and standard charges for the re-use of documents held by public sector bodies shall be pre-established and pu-blished, through electronic means where possible and appropriate.

article 9 : practical arrange-ments

Member States shall ensure that practical arrangements are in place that facilitate the search for documents availa-ble for re-use, such as assets lists, accessible preferably online, of main documents, and portal sites that are


linked to decentralised assets lists.

article 10: non-discrimina-tion

Any applicable conditions for the re-use of documents shall be non-discriminatory for comparable categories of re-use. [...]

article 11: prohibition of exclusive arrangements

The re-use of documents shall be open to all potential actors in the market, even if one or more market players

already exploit added-value products based on these do-cuments. Contracts or other arrangements between the public sector bodies holding the documents and third parties shall not grant exclu-sive rights [...]

FUll tExt IN ENGlISH

iv. illustration - graphshttp://epsiplatform.eu/content/eu-

ropean-psi-scoreboard)


Overall PSI performance per EU member-states


Performance EU Member-states in PSI re-use


eUROCItIeS

Statement on Open Data


eUROCItIeS

information is of course a powerful resource. responding to the opportunities and challenges of open data requires innovative and creative thinking, using new solutions and existing resources.

The data that local authorities collect is an extremely va-luable resource. city governments, together with different stakeholders, are increasingly tapping into this to deliver new services, improve liveability, stimulate business and engage and empower citizens.

Open data can be used as leverage to stimulate the transition to modern (local) government fit for the continu-ous digitisation of our society.

The opening of private sector data also has great poten-tial for added social and economic value. however, for the purpose of this statement we concentrate on public sector data.


BeneFItS OF Open Data

Open data for economic growthOpening up public sector data and making use of available resources can unlock the benefits from untapped economic opportunities. The 2011 European Commission communication on open data states that opening and re-using public sector information can potentially create economic gains of up to 40 billion annually in the EU.

TransparencyLocal authorities are actively pursuing open data strategies to increase transparency, and collaborate with citizens and the private sector in developing services from this data. Citizens


are increasingly internet citizens, who expect city services to be available online. Re-using public sector data can lead to the development of improved, more efficient online public services, whilst increasing transparency by providing more information to citizens and developing more open forms of government.

Quick responses to rapidly evolving problemsLocal authorities can use their data to provide (real time) in-formation to address issues from traffic congestion to peak load electricity management. Other services such as reporting tools can allow citizens to report local problems to the council just by locating them on maps. Not only are decisions made and solu-tions found more quickly; this approach also drives citizen parti-cipation.

citizen engagementOpen data can also stimulate behavioural change and citizen engagement as it relates to issues such as: citizens energy use; housing energy efficiency; real time public transport informa-tion; and easy access to online information (regarding every-thing from public bike rental to cultural events). Hosting hacka-thons and open data days promotes co-creation and user-driven innovation.

improved city administrationsMerging data and information digitally leads to improved col-laboration between city departments and more efficient internal information sharing. This can also lead to improved e- govern-ment services being developed by public administrations.


addressing societal challenges One of the key benefits of making data available on open plat-forms is its potential to address societal challenges, for example: encourage and develop digital inclusion enhance the sustainability of healthcare systems improve sustainable mobility (e.g. real time public transport

information, traffic flows) develop new services to measure and cut GHG emissions

and change energy behaviour and increase energy efficiency increase government transparency and build citizen trust activate and strengthen quadruple helix co-creation (research,

government, industry, civil society)

smart citiesOpen data can play an important role in the European Com-missions Smart Cities and Communities Initiative. It can be used to develop smart technologies integrating data from the ICT, energy and mobility sectors. For a city to be truly smart, it must have smart citizens and with open data, they have the ca-pacity to take the initiative, to do it for themselves, to innovate and to co-create.


CHaLLenGeS In OpenInG anD

Re-USInG pUBLIC SeCtOR Data

financialWorking with open data requires careful planning, and city go-vernments need to allocate a budget that guarantees the success of their endeavours. Costs associated with re-use may be mar-ginal in most cases, and with the potential gain in efficiency it could prove to be a zero-cost operation. But for some processes, such as building open data platforms that enable API data rele-ase, linked data or server extensions, additional costs exist. Given the current economic climate, this can be a considerable barrier for many local authorities.

administrativeCity administrations need to develop organisational approaches aimed at disclosure and access to data involving all departments, developing common criteria for data disclosure and possibly the creation of dedicated data management teams. Developing an internal open data strategy can be challenging in terms of reor-ganising city administrations to alter existing management pro-cesses, legacy (existing IT departments, protective software) and purchase structures.

privacyData protection issues can often be used as a barrier to publishing data. It is vital that data is aggregated to the correct level before publication and that the privacy of the individual is protected.


Data formatTo maximise the useability of the data it should be made ava-ilable in open, non-proprietary and easily processable, machine readable formats. Local authorities should use internationally accepted semantic ontologies and link the data to other open data formats. This requires new skillsets in the administration. Releasing data in human readable format will also maximise its reach and effect. Publishing mechanisms and portals for open data should aim to make data accessible and support its pro-cessing. It should not focus on creating data repositories (sto-rage), unless the local authority sees added value in this.

Data qualityData should not only be published in machine-processable for-mats. Disclosing meta-level information, such as their manage-ment process and validity period, is also valuable. There is a need to identify institutional audit mechanisms that guarantee the quality of data and the protection of sensitive information. An efficient feedback mechanism for open data users is also advisa-ble.

accountabilityThere must be a clear licence covering re-use of the data. Es-tablishing a clear licence between the licensor (in this case the local authority) and the licensees (those using and developing services from the data) will address concerns about liability. Permissions and service level agreements need to be respected and protected in re-use licences.


legalThe revised EU Directive on re-use of public sector informa-tion provides a good framework for minimum harmonisation of national practices and regulations on the re-use of public sector data, consistent with the relevant access regime. Whilst the revised Directive can help remove some of the barriers to the growth of the open data market it must be ensured that EU level action does not result in excessive administrative and cost burdens for local authorities.

ReCOMMenDatIOnS tO CItIeS

For city authorities developing an open data strategy, it is im-portant to: have the correct internal organisational structure have well trained staff to ensure quality and privacy of data

published publish data in an open machine readable format, and make

it available on a well organised open data portal aim to engage citizens and build trust support citizen engagement with, for example, local hacka-

thons and data demonstrations


ReCOMMenDatIOnS On eU

LeGISLatIOn anD FUnDInG

Further harmonising re-use rules across the EU will lead to in-creased data sharing and improved service delivery from availa-ble data. Our comments on the revised Directive on the re-use of public sector information and other areas for future focus are: Public sector bodies that generate a substantial part of their

operating costs from public service tasks should be allowed to charge over the marginal costs of production.

Data should only have to be made available in machine-re-adable form and together with metadata where it is feasible and appropriate to do so.

A European standard licence model would be helpful to align the different licencing models and to maximise the potential of using datasets originating from different data--owners.

The Connecting Europe Facility should provide funding for open data infrastructure and processing, and take account of the needs of local government.

Horizon 2020 funding should address the development of innovative open data projects, with a focus on open data for smart cities.


ReCOMMenDatIOnS tO MeMBeR StateS

Member states should engage with local governments in the implementation of the revised EU Directive on the re-use of public sector information.Member states should consult with local open data experts when developing any open data and open government strate-gies.There is also room for more national coordination on open data. Municipalities often have to drive the development of open data themselves, but lack the resources to do so. National open data coordination strategies and platforms could offer better va-lue, quality and quantity.

ReCOMMenDatIOnS tO pRIVate SeCtOR

In order to support urban development and governance, the re-use of data can further be enhanced through privately owned companies opening up their data to the government (and without such privately owned data becoming publicly available).

closer to brussels, no 14 open data

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open data phenomenon

phenomenon of open data

brussels6open data

new economiesmodel open

brussels8open government

open innovation policy

emagazine closer

europes regions closer