Wednesday 25 November 2015
- Coffee, Registration and Networking
Get your badge, get a coffee, work out how you're going to spend the next two days.
- Welcome & Opening Plenary
Auditorium 1 (0.035) [scribe: Emma, Reinars] [notes]
- Welcome from Fraunhofer FOKUS Director: Prof. Dr. Manfred Hauswirth
- Workshop Introduction: Phil Archer, W3C
The European Data Portal - Opening up Europe's Public Data, Wendy Carrara, Capgemini [paper] [slides]
The launch of the European Data Portal is one of the key steps the European Commission is taking to support the access to public data. The strategic objective of the European Data Portal project is to address the accessibility and the value of Open (Government) Data. Open Data refers to the information collected, produced or paid for by the public bodies (also referred to as PSI) and made freely available for re-use for any purpose. November 16th 2015 is the release date for the Beta version of the European Data Portal. It harvests the metadata of PSI available on public data portals across European countries. Portals can be national, regional, local or domain specific. They cover the EU Member States, EEA, countries involved in the EU's neighbourhood policy and Switzerland, 39 countries in total.
- European Interoperability: The ISA Core Vocabularies, Athanasios Karalopoulos, European Commission [slides]
The Impact of Open Data in Public Sector, Heli Koski, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy [paper] [slides]
Various countries have implemented the open (government) data strategy aiming at providing wide access to government data in machine-readable format such that it can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone. Reported ex ante evaluations have estimated that the potential benefits of opening up public data resources are substantial. Very little is known about the underlying economic and organisational mechanisms and implications of open data use at the organisational level or at the level of economy as a whole. To my best knowledge, there is no reported comprehensive country-level ex-post impact assessment of opening up government data. Currently, Finland is among the leading countries in opening up the government data, and it has also a chance to be among the most advanced ones in the impact assessment of open data. The impacts of opening up government data can be divided to economic impacts and to other social impacts. The prerequisite for this is a careful development of the monitoring and evaluation model for opening up government data as well as a systematic gathering of data for the impact assessment. Furthermore, the usability and usefulness of different public data resources for consumers, firms and public sector organisations can be assessed via the users’ own evaluations. In addition, it is important to assess appropriate means to disseminate and promote efficient utilisation of information on the best practices of open data re-use in different organisations.
Come To My Session! Don't know which parallel session to go to after the break? Each facilitator will have 60 seconds to describe his/her session.
- Coffee
- Parallel Sessions A
European Data Portal Track
Auditorium 1 (0.035)
The EDP: A Technical View
Facilitators: Wendy Carrara (Capgemini), Yury Glikman, Benjamin Dittwald, Simon Dutkowski (Fraunhofer FOKUS), Marc Kleemann, Udo Einspanier(con terra) [slides] [notes]
The session will begin with a quick demo and tour of the new European Data Portal's features, including how to start an open data journey, how to ensure your metadata can be harvested by the portal, and a full suite of eLearning modules addressing open data. The developers will demonstrate the portal components, present the technical details and the lessons learned from its realisation.
The portal is the first official Open Data portal implementing the new DCAT Application Profile (DCAT-AP) specification. Harvesting metadata from heterogeneous open data portals of 28 EU and other 11 European countries and mapping it to DCAT-AP is one of the key tasks in the European Data Portal project. The project team will present the developed for this purpose tool and will provide insights in the harvesting process and its requirements to the source data portals.
GeoDCAT-AP is an extension of DCAT-AP for geospatial metadata encompassing the important INSPIRE and ISO 19115 standards. It is important to note that GeoDCAT-AP is not meant to replace these well-established standards, but provides an additional RDF-syntax binding and therefore a common way to transform the vast amount of existing geospatial metadata in Europe into a DCAT-AP compliant form. This enables integration of this metadata into the Linked Open Data world and general data portals including the EDP. For harvesting geo portals, an adapter was developed that implements the GeoDCAT-AP bindings. The adapter uses common protocols like CSW or OpenSearch Geo to harvest metadata from geo portals across Europe. Currently the beta version of the European Data Portal harvests 35 geo portals from 30 different European states. During implementation of the GeoDCAT-AP bindings, several issues were identified when mapping geospatial metadata to DCAT-AP. Most of these issues are caused by the fact that INSPIRE/ISO metadata is usually self-contained, while RDF-based data uses URIs to reference other, sometimes external, resources. But there are also other problems, e.g. it is not clear how to specify that a geospatial dataset can be accessed by a standardized geo service interface like WMS or WFS. Solving these problems would have to start with fixing deficiencies in the current guidelines for creating INSPIRE and ISO metadata.
Location Track
Room 0.019
The Importance of Location
Facilitators: Athina Trakas (OGC) & Arnulf Christl (Megaspatial) Scribe: Stuart Lester [notes]
Location is an integral part of public information. We typically know it in the form of maps but location data has a lot more potential than "just" maps. Location information puts data into a spatial context (what is where!). Interestingly, location information in many cases is the only link between two completely independent datasets. Linking two datasets through location information allows the discovery of otherwise completely opaque relations. The problem is that location information is fuzzy, often badly maintained and not an integral part of most alphanumeric data models.
The session aims to highlight the importance and potential of location data. It also describes the technical parameters in a nutshell and how the OGC and W3C cooperate to improve core vocabularies.
Share-PSI Track
Auditorium 2 (Room 0.036)
Impact and Interoperability in Finland
Facilitator: Mikael Vakkari, Anne Kauhanen-Simanainen, Margit Suurhasko, Ministry of Finance. Scribe: Ira Alanko [notes]
This session includes the paper: From open data to the innovative utilisation of information - The final report of the Finnish Open Data Programme 2013–2015 [paper]
The session will begin with a report on the impact of the Finnish Open Data Programme 2013–2015, launched in the spring of 2013 in order to accelerate and coordinate the opening of public sector data resources. This will be followed by a look at four specific actions.
The public sector has at its disposal extensive data resources which could generate significant financial and social benefits if used more efficiently. Some major data resources have been made available, such as terrain and weather data, traffic and vehicle data, statistics, financial data, and cultural resources.
The Open Data Programme was based on extensive cooperation between ministries, government agencies and institutions, local government, research institutes and developer communities. Programme outputs include an open data and interoperability portal, Avoindata.fi, and an open data development environment, JulkICTLab. So as to harmonise the terms of use, the public administration recommendation JHS 189 ’Licence for use of open data’ was prepared. The Finnish Open Data Programme has contributed as organiser and partner to several open data events and functions. International cooperation includes participation in the EU’s Share PSI project.
The preliminary assessment prepared during the programme suggests that research into the impacts of open data is just beginning. Systematic follow-up and improved methodologies will be needed in the future.
This publication proposes further pathways for moving from the opening of data resources to data utilisation and data competence enhancement. All open data policies should be part of a more comprehensive data policy, the principles of digitalisation, and the data infrastructure.
Four specific actions are relevant to the Open Data Programme:
- Finnish Act on Information Management Governance in Public Administration
- National Metadata Service & Interoperability Guidelines (e.g. enterprise architecture etc.)
- FINTO The Finnish National Ontology Service.
- Finlex (Finnish Legislative) Data Bank as a Linked Data Pilot.
- Parallel Session A Reports
Auditorium 1 (0.035)
Brief (3 minute) summaries from each session, focusing on three questions:
- What X is the thing that should be done to publish or reuse PSI?
- Why does X facilitate the publication or reuse of PSI?
- How can one achieve X and how can you measure or test it?
And the best practices discussed.
- Lunch
- Parallel Sessions B
Auditorium 1 (0.035)
Come To My Session! Don't know which parallel session to go to after the break? Each facilitator will have 60 seconds in the main hall to describe his/her session.
European Data Portal Track
Auditorium 1 (Room 0.035)
The Role of the Portal
Facilitators: Wendy Carrara (Capgemini), Bernhard Krabina, Georg Hittmair. [slides] Scribe: Daniel [notes]
A portal is more than a catalogue of datasets. It can be a multi-functional platform, a place where potential re-users can request datasets, a place where datasets that exist but are not yet open can be listed and so on. This session combines the perspectives of the EDP with ideas from Austria on internal data monitoring, and from the PSI Alliance on what is important for potential business users of PSI.
In this session, Wendy Carrara will discuss the EDP's model of Portal Maturity that measures the usability of a portal with regard to the availability of functionalities, the overall re-usability of data and the spread of data. In addition to these findings, recommendations are formulated based on common trends recorded across different Member States. This session will focus on portal usability and launch a discussion of the recommendations proposed and identify further recommendations and best practices.
Bernhard Krabina from the Austrian Zentrum für Verwaltungsforschung will reflect on the obligation on European Union member states to make their publicly funded data available at zero or, at most, marginal cost, leading to a need for a systematic approach of internal data monitoring. It is easy to find the first batch of suitable datasets to publish, but setting up an internal data catalogue is ever more important.
In the workshop we will discuss
- organisational procedures for setting up an internal data catalogue: who is in charge, what (meta)data is collected - are the metrics proposed in the Open Government Implementation Model suitable for internal use, are they being used, do they need improvement?
- tools for collection: how is information about potential data sets collected, what tools are used. As a potential best-practice, the OGD Cockpit will be presented and discussed. - what kind of information has to be added according to the PSI directive? e.g. marginal costs, legal information, etc? - how transparent must an internal data catalogue be?
Georg Hittmair (PSI Alliance) notes that while open data platforms contain information about data that were released voluntarily by public sector bodies, not all portals collect the requests from PSI re-users according to the PSI Directive. Those requests show the real needs of the private sector and therefore could lead to improvements in the reuse of public sector information. [paper]
Location Track
Room 0.019
Location in the Real World
Facilitators: Athina Trakas (OGC) & Arnulf Christl (Megaspatial) Scribe: Stuart [notes]
The second session introduces three real-world location information datastores which follow completely different approaches. One of them is driven by a comunity (crowd sourced), one is commercial and one is maintained by public authorities.
Smart Cities
Auditorium 2 (Room 0.036)
What is the role of standards for Smart Cities and how should they be created?
Facilitators: Hanna Niemi-Hugaerts, Muriel Foulonneau, Slim Turki. Scribe: Andras [notes]
What is the role of standards for Smart Cities and how should they be created?
This session includes:
The session will discuss the ability for local communities to deploy e-government services or facilitate the take up of data in existing apps for citizens and companies. Can we define which apps have been useful and successful elsewhere and analyse the capacity of a city to become “smart” based on the availability of data resources? While data formats can be documented through DCAT for instance, the data characteristics required by reusable apps also need to be documented. In this session we propose discussing the availability of apps that can be applied beyond the boundaries of the current environments in which they are used and the data characteristics, including formats, granularity and licences that are necessary.
But are standards helping us to take the next leap ahead or are they slowing down the development? Agile developer friendly standards seem to be popping up like mushrooms after the rain: Open311, Open Contracting, Open Trails etc. Simultaneously standardisation bodies like ISO, W3C and OGC are tackling the issue with a more official, and therefore slower approach. Enterprise standards like XBRL, SIRI and GTFS are created that are more generic but also more complex to implement and use. Which way should cities follow? And how should cities co-operate in finding the best solutions and picking the best common specifications for their open APIs and data models? Active co-operation would lead to clear benefits by creating larger market for the developers and enabling "roaming" of the digital city services. Cities should also find an effective way to steer the development of future versions of the standards to meet the ever changing needs of the cities and react to constant change in the technical ecosystem. To ignite discussion some of the recent initiatives of joining the forces of the cities to push standardisation will be presented briefly, eg. CitySDK, The Finnish Six Cities Strategy, and the Open and Agile Smart Cities network (OASC).
- Parallel Session B Reports
Room TBC?
Brief (3 minute) summaries from each session, focusing on three questions:
- What X is the thing that should be done to publish or reuse PSI?
- Why does X facilitate the publication or reuse of PSI?
- How can one achieve X and how can you measure or test it?
And the best practices discussed.
- Coffee
- Plenary Talks
Auditorium 1 (0.035)
Facilitator: Noël Van Herreweghe
An Intelligent Fire Risk Monitor Based on Linked Open Data, Nicky van Oorschot, netage.nl [paper] [slides] [notes]
Since the beginning of 2015 netage.nl has been working on a Linked Open Data use case within the Fire Department in the Netherlands. In this use case we are developing an self-service analytics platform where fire departments combine open available datasets to calculate dwelling fire risks in various neighbourhoods corresponding to forensic fire related research. During a research period the application has been proven and verified. The ambition is to spread the application internationally among different countries. In addition to the explanation of the use case, the presentation will include a specific talk according to location and geographic issues and challenges we encountered. We believe that more companies encounter the same issues and challenges that we can deal with more easily, by aligning location and geographic classifications and ontologies. We would love to share our ideas during a presentation.
The Connecting Europe Facility Programme, Daniele Rizzi, European Commission [slides] [notes]
- Reaching Consensus
Auditorium 1 (0.035)
Facilitators: Nancy Routzouni & Peter Winstanley, respectively of the Greek and Scottish Governments [scribe: PhilA]
This highly interactive session will begin with Nancy Routzouni introducing the accepted and candidate Share-PSI Best Practices. She'll describe how they're being collected from the Share-PSI workshops before Peter Winstanley explains how the BPs can help authorities implementing the revised PSI Directive.
Then stand by for quick explanations of several of the BPs from their authors. 60" max presentation, then 30" to write down your thoughts and on to the next one. Please consider:
- Will you/have you already implemented this recommendation?
- Do you have a story to tell about this?
- Do you think it's seriously wrong?
The following list is subject to change but is indicative:
- Publish overview of managed data / Categorise openness of data, Øystein Åsnes
- Develop and Implement a Cross Agency Strategy / Establish an Open Data Ecosystem, Noël van Herreweghe
- Develop an Open Data Publication Plan, Jan Kučera
- Open Data Business Model Patterns and Open Data Business Value Disciplines, Fatemeh Ahmadi-Zeleti
- Support Open Data Start Ups, Yannis Charalabidis
- Open Up Public Transport Data, Martin Alvarez-Espinar
- Encourage crowdsourcing around PSI, Peter Krantz
- Develop a federation tool for open data portals, Dolores Hernandez
- Enable feedback channels for improving the quality of existing government data, Valentina Janev
- Standards for Geospatial Data, Athina Trakas
- Identify what you already publish, Peter Winstanley
- Establish Open Government Portal for data sharing, José Luis Roda-García
- Enable quality assessment of open data, Valentina Janev
- Holistic Metrics, Johann Höchtl
- Provide PSI at zero charge, Makx Dekkers
- Cost-benefit analysis of the value of information, Peter Winstanley
- Select high value datasets for publication, Jan Kučera
End of Day 1
The Share-PSI social event at the Classic Remise.
If you didn't book for the social event, TransforMap is running a fringe event: Federating Civic Data.