ePSIplatform news and events

Brussels Opens First Data Sets

tonzijlstra — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:12:54 +0000

A handful of first data sets, under self made license.

The Belgian city of Brussels has published for the first time a number of data sets as open data.

At the page opendata.bruxelles.be data sets can be found on the location of libraries, public toilets, parking spaces, sports facilities and banks.

The page also provides a form to submit requests and ideas for further data sets to be released.

The data sets are being made available under a license created by the city itself (PDF in French), modeled after the license the French city of Rennes uses for its open data.

Irish Companies Registration Office Gets API

tonzijlstra — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:54:56 +0000

The Irish Companies Registration Office has taken a major step towards opening up their data for re-use by launching an API. Although pay-for information isn't made available yet, and you do need to register to obtain an API key, it is a good step forward.

The API is RESTful, and returns the free data normally available through the CRO website in XML or JSON.

According to the comment section under a blog posting by Conor O'Neill on Web2Ireland about the new service, the API is already being used by one Irish company on their website to provide their clients with an easy search option to check if a company name already exists or not.

The CRO is inviting feedback on the API service they now provide.

France Launches DataConnexions

tonzijlstra — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:29:59 +0000

The French open data initiative Etalab, who is also responsible for the French national open government data portal, has launched DataConnexions, in collaboration with entrepreneurs, civic organisations and others.

DataConnexions is a community aimed at stimulating innovation through open government data.

To support, amplify and accelerate the development of the French open data ecosystem Etalab has convened key stakeholders of innovation and the digital economy into a community of open data projects. DataConnexions is open to all.

The DataConnexions community will organize four competitions in 2012, the first one of which will be announced early March. Each competition is followed by gatherings, providing networking sessions for stakeholders. There will also be an on-line platform for interaction and collaboration.

Below is the English press release describing DataConnexions in more detail.

Etalab and its partners launch DataConnexions

Open Data Handbook Published

tonzijlstra — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:10:32 +0000

The Open Knowledge Foundation has officially launched the Open Data Handbook. It addresses the legal, technical, social and organizational aspects of opening up data for free re-use.

A first draft was created by a small group of open data enthusiasts late 2010, amongst which 3 of the ePSIplatform team members, in a weekend-long session in Berlin. Since then, a wide group of editors and contributors have added to and refined the original material, to create the Handbook now published as Version 1.0.

As the OKF writes in their blog about the Handbook:

"The Open Data Handbook is a valuable resource for everyone interested in open data. It covers many types of data, but its particular focus is open government data.

The Open Data Handbook is targeted towards a broad audience. It contains useful information for civil servants, journalists, activists, developers, researchers – basically, for anyone with an interest in open data!

From a basic introduction of the ‘what and why’ of open data, the Handbook goes on to discuss the practicalities of making data open – the ‘how’. It gives advice on everything from choosing a file format and applying a license, to motivating the community and telling the world. Clear explanations, illustrative examples and technical recommendations make the Handbook suitable for people with all levels of experience, from the absolute beginner to the seasoned open data professional.

The Handbook is divided into short chapters which cover individual aspects of open data. It can be read in a single sitting, or dipped into as a reference work."

If you are interested in adding material to the Handbook, or contribute in another way to new and improved versions of it, we and the OKF are looking forward to hearing from you. Join the mailing list, or find out how you can help create a version in your language.

Rome Province Data Portal

tonzijlstra — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:46:53 +0000

Data portal launched, using CKAN.

The Italian Province of Rome has opened an open data portal. Although currently the portal holds just 1 dataset, it is a new sign of the growing activity of Italian public sector bodies concerning open government data. The portal is created using CKAN, the same open source software that powers many official data catalogues in Europe (e.g. the UK and Dutch national data portals, as well as the planned EU data portal)

Earlier this week we reported the launch of the geo data portal of the Trentino province.

Announcing the ePSI Trailblazers

ddie — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:02:48 +0000

In the run-up to the upcoming ePSI Conference 2012 on 16th March in Rotterdam, Netherlands, we are very excited to announce the ePSI Trailblazers 2012.

What are the ePSI Trailblazers?

What if, instead of handing out another award, we could offer you both recognition from your peers and help in improving your work? At the ePSI Conference, you'll have the chance to present your ideas and get help in making these ideas even better!

The ePSIplatform is looking for PSI re-use innovators - the 'trailblazers' - who have done something new and exciting with open data in the past year.

Selected initiatives can include both well established applications and services, and new/start-up initiatives, proofs-of-concept and demos. Trailblazers will get the opportunity to give a five minute presentation at the EPSI conference to explain what they've done and why this is innovative.

However - and this is where trailblazers get more than a simple award - the winners would also be asked to explain in a few minutes what they need to move their initiative forward, and to do even better things with it. This can be as straightforward as getting new seed funding, but may also involve more pragmatic things: help in liaising with other governments, finding new programmers/hackers to help build technical improvements, organizing brainstorming sessions to identify new application areas, identifying new relevant data sets, getting legal assistance, etc. The EPSI team will then try to help them achieve this objective by providing funding or material assistance.

The ePSI Trailblazers will be awarded at the up coming ePSIplatform Conference 2012, 16 March 2012, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Help us to find the ePSI Trailblazers 2012 by submitting proposals here!

Trentino Launches Geo Data Portal

tonzijlstra — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:22:39 +0000

The Italian province Trentino has opened an open geo data portal, taking an important step towards open government in the region. Currently registration for access to the data sets is still needed, but apart from that the data is available for everyone for every type of re-use. The data is licensed under a Creative Commons 0 license, which is equivalent to putting the data into the public domain. See the Italian press release.

The first data sets available are part of the ecological and territorial information system (SIAT), ranging from urban planning to the use of public waters, hydrographic information and data on avalanches.

The URL for the new geo portal is http://www.territorio.provincia.tn.it/

Amsterdam Opens Geo Data

tonzijlstra — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:05:53 +0000

Six data sets, more to come.

The Amsterdam department for spatial planning (DRO) has started to release Amsterdam geographic data as open data.

Data sets now released are the ones underlying interactive mapping applications the city already provides, starting with the data of the most used ones. This includes data sets pertaining to public transport lines, bike and car lanes, green roofs, real estate valuations, unused lots, spatial planning and zoning, and what city buildings and spaces are used for. Over time the available data will be extended.

The department on its site writes "we assume that emerging products or services that are (partly) based on public data will help stimulate economic activity and employment in our city." They express the hope that "researchers and app developers will get to work with these data sets" and that they "are curious to see the results."

The data is released a.o. as ESRI shapefiles. The license attached is unspecified, although data sets are billed as 'open data'. Contact points for data sets are provided.

The European Data Forum

tonzijlstra — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:09:05 +0000

From the event website: "The European Data Forum (EDF) 2012 will take place on June 6-7, 2012 in Copenhagen (Denmark) at the Copenhagen Business School (CBS).

It is a meeting place for industry, research, policymakers and community initiatives to discuss the challenges of Big Data and the emerging Data Economy and to develop suitable action plans for addressing these challenges.

Of special focus for the EDF are Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), since they are driving innovation and competition in many data-driven economic sectors. The range of topics discussed at the European Data Forum ranges from novel data-driven business models (e.g. data clearing houses), and technological innovations (e.g. Linked Data Web) to societal aspects (e.g. open governmental data as well as data privacy and security).

EDF is based on a cross-project cooperation of LATC (Linked Open Data Around-the-Clock), LOD2, IKF, and PlanetData. It is supported by the European Commission and brought to you by STI International."

The program contains both the main conference as well as a hackathon for developers.

Registration is open.

UK National Archives 'Hack on the Record'

tonzijlstra — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:55:21 +0000

Over the weekend of 24 and 25 March, The National Archives is holding its first hack day:

"Archives will be opened up to web developers and designers to encourage them to gather and exchange ideas and make use of The National Archives’ data and documents.

The event is aimed at attracting developers who share an interest in history, government and culture, to devise and build systems using the National Archives' records, as well as datasets from across the web.

Non-developers are also welcome – anyone with ideas for interesting tools, visualisations or systems developers could build using the National Archives' data.

On the day, records experts from The National Archives will be on hand, together with colleagues from the British Museum, British Library and Wikimedia UK to talk about their data and to pitch ideas.

Hack days at other institutions in the past have generated ideas including an online Domesday book, a detailed record of the Blitz and a range of apps and games.

Follow the conversation on twitter: #hackon12"

Hack Day Graz

tonzijlstra — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:32:53 +0000

The open data community in Graz is organizing a Open Data Hackathon on 16 March. This is the day before the OpenCamp that is to also take place in Graz, which will cover a wide variety of domains where openness is of importance.

This is the first hackathon to take place in Graz, which aims to bring together those interested in open government data to exchange experience and ideas and work on projects together.

More information (in German) can be found at the event page.

LAPSI and EVPSI Final Meetings

tonzijlstra — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:10:41 +0000

The 4th LAPSI Internal Conference and Final Meeting will take place in Turin,Italy, on 9 & 10 July 2012. The two-day meeting is jointly organized with the EVPSI Final Meeting.

LAPSI is the European thematic network on legal aspects of PSI re-use.

EVPSI (Extracting Value from Public Sector Information) is the Piedmontese research project on Public Sector Information coordinated by the Turin Faculty of Law, with the support of Regione Piemonte, together with the NEXA Center for Internet & Society, the Rosselli Foundation and the Novara Faculty of Economics.

A tentative draft program is available.

LAPSI 6th Thematic Seminar and 3rd Internal Conference

tonzijlstra — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:01:59 +0000

LAPSI is currently organizing its 6th Thematic Seminar and 3rd Internal Conference. The Meeting will take place in Budapest, on March 22rd and 23rd 2012. Additional activities are scheduled on March 21st 2012, along with the 3rd HUNAGI Conference and Exhibition. LAPSI is the European thematic network on legal aspects of PSI re-use.

A draft program is available.
The Thematic Seminar will take a closer look at licensing. With talks planned on "Ad hoc Licences, Dominant Licenses Models and (the Lack of) Interoperability", as well as "Is a One-Fit-All License Suitable for the Different PSI Mashing up Markets?"

Please note that this is a by invitation meeting. Contact projectmanager [at] lapsi-project [dot] eu if you want to participate.

The third internal conference will discuss policy recommendations, in the area of IP and licenses, and regulators, soft law and access.

New Topic Report: Transport Data

tonzijlstra — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:04:22 +0000

We have published a new Topic Report, in our regular series of reports on aspects of PSI re-use. The new Topic Report takes a closer look at the availability and re-use of transport data.

The research includes an assessment of the state of play in terms of re-using transport data and highlights applications and services.

The author has conducted a survey and interviews with both transport data re-users and apps developers. The report hightlights best practices for both transport data producers opening up their data as well as projects re-using transport data. To conclude the report identifies possible barriers for the re-use of transport data in EU Member States.

The findings of this Topic Report suggest that there is growing demand for transport data. Whilst many transport data producers have yet to respond properly to the growing demand for transport data from citizens and developers, there are also success-stories where data providers have opened up transport data, leading to the creation of new and innovative applications.

Both a downloadable and embeddable version of the Topic Report Re-use of Transport Data is available.

Our Topic Reports cover various aspects of PSI re-use in more depth (countries, specific policy issues, forms of re-use etc.), and can be written by both members from our team as well as external authors and experts.

First Tunisian Data Portal

tonzijlstra — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:25:03 +0000

The Agence Tunis Afrique Press agency reports the launch of the first portal in Tunisia for access to public data.

Aim of the project is to make more data available for re-use in Tunisia. The site has two main components: the website itself, opendata.tn, with information on open data developments in Tunisia, and the data platform, platform.data.tn, which lists and provides access to available data sets. The platform section will also start listing applications and examples of re-use of public data.

You can follow the progress of this Tunisian open data project on Twitter: @OpenDataTN

Dutch Postcodes Immediately Re-used

tonzijlstra — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:29:59 +0000

As of 1 February 2012 the Dutch postcodes are publicly available for re-use. This after a court complaint by PostNL (the Dutch privatized mail that exploited the postcodes before) was dismissed last December. Postcodes are part of the Dutch key register of addresses and buildings which is available for re-use for all.

With the release of the postcodes at the start of this month, re-use of the postcodes is immediately visible. For instance in the statistics and demographics explorer the Dutch nation wide newspaper NRC has created, which combines data from the national statistics office (CBS) to postcodes. (See screenshot) Dutch postcodes on average 'cover' 38 people, which makes for a very granular way to visualize data on a map.

average per capita income in Amsterdam, plotted by postcode.

Berlin Open Data Strategy

tonzijlstra — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:24:00 +0000

The Fraunhofer FOKUS research institute, at the request of the Berlin Senate committee for economy, technology and research, has performed a study into an Open Data Strategy for Berlin. Organizational, legal and technical aspects of open data for Berlin are discussed, as well as concepts, pilots and advice on steps to take. Editors are Dr. Wolfgang Both, and Prof. Dr. Ina Schieferdecker. Berlin already has an open data portal, which places it in the forefront of open data developments in Germany. The experiences made with this portal have been used in this study as well.

The study proposes short- mid- and long term steps to take, in the areas of organization, technology and legal aspects.

For the short term (1 year), embedding Open Data as a principle in all laws and regulations of Berlin is proposed, as well as making the Berlin open data portal a regular part of operations (ending its pilot character). This requires creating the right circumstances in political organizational, technical and legal terms.

This entails amongst others:

A clear political statement on open data, including adding the principle of open data to the Berlin freedom of information act. This makes "public, unless..." the leading principle and requires decision criteria and training of data holders.
Taking the Creative Commons BY (by attribution) as default license, and requiring the use of additional restrictions to be motivated.
Adding the Berlin data portal to the regular tasks and responsibilities of the Berlin administrative bodies.
Creating an Open Data Officer for Berlin, and a cross-departmental work group for the extension of the data portal.
Adding links to relevant machine readable data to press releases, reports, and other publications of Berlin

In the medium term (2 to 3 years) deliberate extension of the availability and publication of data is proposed, including the addition of tools, services and training. This also entails creating processes for quality control, and user feedback.

For the long term (3 to 5 years) coordination and integration of the Berlin open data activities with other German, german language and European initiatives. In the long term the Berlin data portal should only publish machine readable data formats, and make the move linked data (in combination with adding tools to view, analyze and present such semantic data).

The report is available in German, both in full version (146 pages, excluding Annexes), and as a summary (20 pages, excluding Annexes), in PDF.

Overview of Italian OGD Initiatives

tonzijlstra — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:04:22 +0000

The Italian national open government data site, dati.gov.it, has published a map of all Italian open data initiatives currently under way. This includes some 25 local communities, regions, ministries and other public bodies.

The overview also compares the various initiatives on things like licenses used for published data and the level of reusability of the data (in terms of formats, open standards etc.).

A similar overview of initiatives is available for France, made by LiberTIC.

Europeana on Linked Open Data

tonzijlstra — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:46:13 +0000

Europeana has launched an animation to explain what Linked Open Data is and why it’s a good thing, both for users and for data providers.

Linked Open Data from europeana on Vimeo.

Europeana is Europe’s digital library, archive and museum, and supports digital innovation in the heritage sector, working with national memory organisations across Europe.

Europeana is making data openly available to the public and private sectors alike so they can use it to develop of innovative applications for smartphones and tablets and to create new web services and portals. This support for commercial enterprise in the digital sector is central to Europeana’s business strategy.

They are facilitating developments in Linked Open Data by publishing data for 2.4 million objects for the first time under an open metadata licence - CC0, the Creative Commons’ Public Domain Dedication. Europeana holds over 20 million objects in total.

Support for Open Data innovation is at the root of Europeana’s new Data Exchange Agreement, the contract that libraries, museums, and archives agree to when their metadata goes into Europeana.

The Data Exchange Agreement has been signed by all the national libraries, by leading national museums such as the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and by many of the content providers for entire countries, such as Sweden’s National Heritage Board. The new Data Exchange Agreement dedicates the metadata to the Public Domain and comes into effect on 1 July 2012, after which all metadata in Europeana will be available as Open Data.

Spanish Day on PSI Re-use

tonzijlstra — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:46:13 +0000

On 15 and 16 February the event ‘II Jornada sobre la Reutilización de la Información del Sector Público: acceso y uso de la información’ (the day on the re-use of public sector information: access and use of information) took place in Madrid.

Over 100 persons witnessed a well organized conference hosted by the faculty of documentation science of the university Complutense de Madrid and the Instituto Universitario Agustín Millares of the University Carlos III de Madrid.

A large number of interesting speakers (policy makers, information professionals, scientists, students and re-users) gave presentations on a wide array of issues connected to Open Data in Spain, such as re-users of information in archives, cultural information, library information, meta data etc.

Also, the European Commission (mr Juan Pelegrin) gave a presentation on the proposal for a new PSI Directive and on behalf of the ePSI Platform Marc de Vries demonstrated the impact PSI re-use policy has had over the last 14 years (in 1998 the Green Paper on PSI was adopted) within various PSI sectors. Also, Marc invited all present to come over to Rotterdam to participate in the ePSI Platform Conference on 16 March.

The program and background information on this Spanish day on PSI re-use are available on-line as PDF. Also see the earlier blog post by Proyecto Aporta.

Moldova Budget Visualization

tonzijlstra — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 11:34:44 +0000

Moldova has a data portal, which is part of an open data project that is being implemented together with the World Bank. One of the resulting applications of the available data is an interactive visualization of budget and costs of public sector bodies.

The web application allows you to explore the Moldova budget and expenditures by expenditure type, various economic activity types, and various levels of government. Historic information is available over the years 2005 to 2010.

Denmark To Join OGP

tonzijlstra — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:43:34 +0000

Denmark is gearing up to join the Open Government Partnership (OGP). This multilateral cooperation of some 50 countries aims to promote openness in the public sector, through transparency, citizen participation and technology (amongst others open government data).

Denmark's participation will be based on a public consultation involving citizens, businesses and civil society organizations which will result in an annual action plan. Specific commitments will be in force from April 2012.
April is also when the global annual OGP conference is due to take place in Brasil.

The public consultation to collect ideas and input for the action plan has just been launched, and ends 29 February.
Areas of focus in the action plan will be providing government information and services in a timely and efficient manner, aiming to increase knowledge, participation, transparency, and cohesiveness.
All information on the public consultation can be found on the Consultation Portal.

UK Open Standards Consultation

tonzijlstra — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:57:43 +0000

The UK has started a public consultation on Open Standards. Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, stating aims to reduce IT costs, as well as make communication with government bodies easier, says "Open standards are vital for progressing this work and I encourage you to share your views in this consultation."

The UK Government is seeking to:

give citizens and businesses a choice in the software they use when accessing government information and services;
reduce lock-in to a particular vendor or product;
reduce the cost of IT through a more competitive and diverse market and sustained commercial leverage; and
improve software interoperability and sharing of data and documents across government boundaries.

The proposed open standards policy is seeking to deliver these outcomes and is outlined in three chapters:

Criteria for Open Standards
Open standards mandation
International alignment

The public consultation ask questions on all three of these topics. Responses can be handed in digitally as well a via mail. See "How to Respond".
The deadline for sending in responses is 3 May 2012. The UK government is expected to respond to the received feedback by the summer of this year.

See the consultation's website for all information concerning the public consultation.

Jury Apps for Germany Gets to Work

tonzijlstra — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:50:18 +0000

The jury of the Apps for Germany competition can start their work. Now the deadline for submissions has past, the total number of entries can be counted: Over 300 data sets have been published by public sector bodies, more than 100 ideas for applications were handed in, and some 75 working applications were submitted. "That is very good level of participation for this first national open data competition" the organizers (three NGO's) said.

The jury will select the three best entries in each of those three categories (data sets, ideas, apps). The total prize money in the category for applications is 18.000 Euro. The winners will receive their prizes from German Minister for the Interior Dr. Hans-Peter Friedrich on 6 March 2012, at the Cebit fair in Hannover.

Estonian Data Portal At End of Month

tonzijlstra — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:21:08 +0000

In the monthly newsletter of the Estonian e-Governance Academy (a NGO), the planned release of an Estonian data portal for the end of February is announced.

At a conference organised by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications on open government data, the data portal was said to be ready at the end of February, and to be made available under the URL opendata.riik.ee. Currently the URL shows a place holder page of a Drupal CMS saying that a beta version of the portal is being finalized and tested.

With this portal Estonia will add itself to a growing list of EU Member States with a national data portal.