List of best practices by Share-PSI 2.0

The European Directive on the Re-use of Public Sector Information (RISP), which was revised in 2013, came into forceon 31 December 2003 to include a greater number of entities - museums, libraries and archives - in order to promote the openess and re-use of public open data by European Union society.

The Share-PSI 2.0 thematic network was born in this context, bringing together a large number of specialized agents from twenty-eight European countries, with the goal of identifying good practices and provide guidanace on open standards in the implementation of the PSI Directive to, in this way, optimize the interoperability and harmonization; ensure that this application is adapted to each legislative and cultural framework at national level; guarantee the commercial interests of this technical provision, providing special advice on the calculation and charging of marginal costs; and inform about the development of relevant technical standards that meet the needs of European states.

In this context, Share-PSI 2.0 has launched a document that compiles a number of best practices that guide all public organizations that comply with the European Commission Directive; while broadening and contextualizing the best web data practices of the W3C helping to maximize the reuse potential. Thanks to this project, the experience of the members of the network has been compiled and the knowledge acquired is shared through the workshops, initiatives, success stories and implementation guides that the organization carries out.

 Methodology of selection of best practices by Share-PSI 2.0

The process followed by the thematic network to identify and select the best practices has been based on five stages whose starting point are the studies and experiences that participants exchange in the different events organized periodically by Share-PSI 2.0.

First, the shared stories have been compiled in the workshops where the moderators collected all relevant information to subsequently identify the experiences and create a first proposal. An editorial board, made up of some of the network members, analyzed the material and created an initial proposal of those good practices that were outstanding and different from the rest.

Lastly, through the Share-PSI 2.0 member's vote, the list of best practices was ratified and those that registered a support of more than 80% of the network (a total of 48) were classified and included within the document. Those discarded practices and other experiences collected in subsequent events have been included as ten additional recommendations in an annex to complete the original list.

Overview of Share-PSI 2.0 and W3C best practices

Divided into twenty-one categories, Share-PSI 2.0 best practices include initiatives, use cases, real stories, and several projects ranging from crowdsourcing ideas to information re-use, examples of open data ecosystems, geospatial data standards or projects in sectors such as transport, research and entrepreneurship.

All good practices follow the same scheme to facilitate their understanding and application by other European public bodies. In this way, each of them explains the challenge to which they respond, the reasons for their selection and recommendations for their implementation, as well as the actual cases where it has been carried out in the European Union and what the related good practices are.

Spain occupies a prominent place in the countries referenced in the report with twenty-six good practices that include open data portals such as the Open Data Canarias regional platform, specific regulations such as the Basque Country re-use law, support materials such as the guidelines for open data sectorial plans developed by the Iniciativa Aporta or the Open University handbook developed by the association CRUE-TIC, among others.

It should be noted that the best practices developed by Share-PSI 2.0 and those developed by the W3C working group complement each other; The latter focus on the technical aspects of data exchange on the web, excluding any political issues that do fit into the thematic network document. Nevertheless, from the point of view of the implementation of the Directive, both sets of good practices should be taken into account as one and, for this reason, the Share-PSI 2.0 guide links and includes the thirty-five best practices of the W3C related to the different elements of European PSI regulations.

The guide designed by Share-PSI 2.0 is comprehensive enough to be applied in both national and local environments throughout the European Union. Taking into account that the status and level of maturity of open datsa in the EU is quite heterogeneous, the best practices recommended by the network can become a source of inspiration for each country in order to optimize the national open data ecosystem and to move on in the Implementation of the PSI Directive.