The World of Open Data: Concepts, Methods, Tools and Experiences

245 Pages·2018·4.503 MB·English

by  Yannis Charalabidis, Anneke Zuiderwijk, Charalampos Alexopoulos, Marijn Janssen, Thomas Lampoltshammer, Enrico Ferro

Public Administration and Information Technology 28
Yannis Charalabidis · Anneke Zuiderwijk 
Charalampos Alexopoulos · Marijn Janssen 
Thomas Lampoltshammer · Enrico Ferro
The World
of Open
Data
Concepts, Methods, Tools and
Experiences
Public Administration and Information
Technology
Volume 28
Series editor
Manuel Pedro Rodriguez Bolivar, Granada, Spain
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10796
Yannis Charalabidis • Anneke Zuiderwijk
Charalampos Alexopoulos • Marijn Janssen
Thomas Lampoltshammer • Enrico Ferro
The World of Open Data
Concepts, Methods, Tools and Experiences
Yannis Charalabidis Anneke Zuiderwijk
Department of Information and Faculty of Technology, Policy & Management
Communication Engineering Delft University of Technology
University of the Aegean Delft, The Netherlands
Samos, Greece
Marijn Janssen
Charalampos Alexopoulos Faculty of Technology, Policy &
Department of Information and Management
Communication Engineering Delft University of Technology
University of the Aegean Delft, The Netherlands
Samos, Greece
Enrico Ferro
Thomas Lampoltshammer Head of Innovation Development
Department for E-Governance and Department
Administration Istituto Superiore Mario Boella
Danube University Krems Turin, Italy
Krems, Austria
ISSN 2512-1812 ISSN 2512-1839 (electronic)
Public Administration and Information Technology
ISBN 978-3-319-90849-6 ISBN 978-3-319-90850-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90850-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018942613
© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the
editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors
or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims
in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Printed on acid-free paper
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer International Publishing AG part
of Springer Nature.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Foreword: The Policy View
Public sector information, also referred to as open (government) data, is a valuable
resource for the digital economy. It is not only used as valuable raw material for the
production of data-based services and applications but also brings greater efficiency
to the delivery of public services and better informed decision-making. Re-use of
public sector information promotes citizen empowerment by facilitating govern-
ment accountability and democratic oversight.1
Open data is a fundamental enabler for the data economy, linked to the Digital
Single Market priority of the European Commission2 about ‘bringing down barriers
to unlock online opportunities’. A digital single market should allow the exchange
of information, open data included, easily and swiftly across borders, helping citi-
zens and businesses to benefit from them. The ISA2 programme plays a major role
in enabling the cross-border, cross-sector exchange of information.
The ISA2 programme3 supports the development of digital solutions that
enable public administrations, businesses and citizens in Europe to benefit from
interoperable cross-border and cross-sector public services, included in the space
of open data.
One of the most important products of the programme is the European
Interoperability Framework (EIF)4: This framework offers recommendations on
1 Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 November 2003 on
the re-use of public sector information – OJ L 345, 31.12.2003, p. 90–96 (http://data.europa.eu/eli/
dir/2003/98/oj)
2 More information on https://ec.europa.eu/commission/priorities/digital-single-market_en
3 Decision (EU) 2015/2240 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015
establishing a programme on interoperability solutions and common frameworks for European
public administrations, businesses and citizens (ISA2 programme) as a means for modernising the
public sector (text with EEA relevance) – OJ L 318, 4.12.2015, p. 1–16 (http://data.europa.eu/eli/
dec/2015/2240/oj). More information can be found on https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/home_en
4 Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European
Economic Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: European Interoperability
Framework – Implementation Strategy (COM(2017) 134 final) http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-con-
tent/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52017DC0134; and also https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/eif_en
v
vi Foreword: The Policy View
how to improve governance of interoperability activities, establish cross-
organizational relationships, streamline processes supporting end-to-end digital
exchanges, and ensure that both existing and new legislation do not compromise
and support interoperability efforts. One of the EIF principles is about openness,
Underlying principle 2, and there is a whole section on open data and recommenda-
tions to public administrations on opening their data.
Last, but not least, as part of the commitment from the ISA2 programme to open
data, it has developed the DCAT5 Application Profile for data portals (DCAT-AP)6.
Due to the increasing number of data portals and the magnitude of available datas-
ets, data users find it difficult to find and access the right data, even if this is avail-
able as open data. To ease this issue, the ISA2 programme has created a common
specification, a common language, for describing public sector datasets in Europe.
This common language enables the exchange of descriptions of datasets among data
portals. DCAT-AP makes possible for an open data portal, such as the European
Data Portal,7 to easily aggregate descriptions of datasets into a single point of access.
The European Data Portal uses DCAT-AP as the common vocabulary for harmoniz-
ing descriptions of over 800,000 datasets obtained from 79 data portals of 35 coun-
tries. The current version of DCAT-AP has been implemented by 12 countries in
Europe. Many more data portals at the European, regional and local level are com-
pliant with DCAT-AP.
We welcome this book and its future oriented view on the matter of open data. It
will provide invaluable help to public administrations when considering if and how
to publish open data and will also guide both research and policy discussion.
Fidel Santiago
Programme manager for the ISA2 Programme,
Interoperability Unit, Directorate General for Informatics,
European Commission
Brussels, Belgium
5 DCAT-AP is based on the W3C Data Catalogue Vocabulary (DCAT).
6 More information on https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/solution/dcat-application-profile-data-portals-
europe/about
7 At http://europeandataportal.eu/
Foreword: The Science View
This book is dedicated to the various aspects and challenges of open data and covers
the subject matter comprehensively and demonstrates the diversity of perspectives
and approaches, when tackling the issues faced in theory and practice. This book
aims at presenting the latest research findings such as theoretical foundations, prin-
ciples, methodologies, architectures and technical frameworks based on solid and
successful cases and lessons learnt from the domain of open data.
Open data is a tremendous resource. It provides the intelligence for insight,
invention and exploration that translate into better products and services that
improve everyday life and encourage business growth. Research shows that open
data has a significant impact in four key areas:
• Improving government
• Empowering citizens
• Creating opportunity
• Solving problems
Open data principles lead to more responsive and smarter government and better
service delivery. In order to meet the obligations of the open data movement, agen-
cies must manage data as a strategic asset to be:
• Open by default, protected where required
• Prioritized, discoverable and usable
• Primary and timely
• Well managed, trusted and authoritative
• Free where appropriate
• Subject to public input
The chapters in this book address all important above dimensions and systemati-
cally advance our understanding around the open data lifecycle. From policies and
organizational issues to data infrastructures and business models, the journey
through this book allows the reader to have a systematic, holistic view of the issues
and challenges.
vii
viii Foreword: The Science View
I congratulate the authors on the excellent work done and its results. I am certain
that this book will be a great commercial and academic success.
Timos Sellis, Fellow IEEE, ACM
Professor, Swinburne University of Technology
Director, Data Science Research Institute
Melbourne, Australia
Foreword: The Industry View
Data is a by-product of the Digital Revolution. It holds an enormous potential in
various fields, such as health, food security, climate change, resource efficiency,
smart cities and the list goes on. Data has become an asset for growth, innovation
and societal resilience. Studies have assessed the size of the potential prize. Whereas
the exact numbers may differ from one study to the next, the numbers put forward
range from dozens of billions to hundreds of billions. And it is not just about the
money. Data-driven products and services improve our everyday life thanks to intel-
ligent transport services or smart energy management for instance.
Today, there is more data and more capacity to manage data and these amounts
of data are expected to grow overtime. Data science can be applied to analyse and
interpret large amounts of data in order to retrieve valuable insight. This is no longer
(only) about structured internal data but about combining data with unstructured
internal and external data. Data analytics also witnesses a shift from sample focus
groups to exhaustive analysis or ‘real’ demand without the bias of statistics and
forecast inaccuracy.
Numerous European initiatives have been taken in order to reap the benefits of
open data. The European Data Portal, launched in 2015 by the European Commission
and Member States, is a single point of access to public data resources across
Europe. In addition, it offers support to European countries in opening up their data
as well as documenting the economic and societal impact of open data. The upcom-
ing Copernicus Data and Information Access Services (DIAS) will take data portals
to the next levels by offering access to increasing amounts of Earth Observation
data, tools and services. These initiatives materialize the ambition of a free flow of
data in Europe.
The data revolution is not just about opening up data, it is about setting up frame-
work conditions for data to be accessed easily and re-used. This means establishing
policies that are global enough to address the diversity of data providers, data for-
mats and tools. At the same time, these policies should be specific enough in order
to be implemented in practice and avoid data silos from being created. Or, worse,
sectors from opting out which would lead to a fragmented open data market and
undermine the extent of the expected benefits for data users and society as a whole.
ix