As the year comes to an end, it is the perfect time to pause and reflect on all that we have experienced and shared at Iniciativa Aporta. This year has been full of challenges, learning and achievements that deserve to be celebrated.

One of the milestones we want to share is that we have reached almost two million visits on the platform, which is a 15% growth compared to 2023. The interest in data and related technologies has also been evident in social networks: we have exceeded 14,000 followers on LinkedIn (+56%) and 21,000 on X, the former Twitter (+ 1.5%). In addition, we wanted to reach out to new audiences with the launch of our Instagram and Threads profiles, and the redesign of the YouTube channel.

One of our objectives is to promote the openness of data generated by the public sector so that it can be reused by businesses and citizens. The Aporta Initiative provides qualified technical support to help public bodies overcome their challenges and make quality data available to users, through audits, training sessions and advice.  This work has borne fruit with over 90,000 datasets published in the National Catalogue, 18% more than in 202. These datasets are federated with the European Open Data Portal, data.europa.eu.

But it is not only about publishing data, it is also about promoting its use. In order to promote knowledge about open data and stimulate a market linked to the reuse of public sector information, the Aporta Initiative has developed more than 120 articles, 1,400 tweets and 250 publications on LinkedIn with news, events or analysis of the sector. In this sense, we have tried to gather the latest trends on multiple data-related topics such as artificial intelligence, data spaces or open science. In addition:

• Spain is among the EU countries setting open data trends by 2024.
• We have launched a new content format: the pódcasts from datos.gob.es. The aim is to give you the opportunity to learn more about different topics through audio programmes that you can listen to anytime, anywhere.
• We have strengthened the infographics section, with new content summarising complex data-related issues, such as legislation or strategic documents. Each infographic presents detailed information in a visually appealing way, making it easy to grasp important concepts and allowing you to quickly access key points.
• We have created new data science exercises, designed to guide you step-by-step through key concepts and various analysis techniques so you can learn effectively and practically. In addition, each exercise includes the full code available on GitHub, allowing you to replicate and experiment on your own.
• We have published new guides and reports focusing on how to harness the potential of open data to drive innovation and transparency. Each document includes clear explanations and practical examples to keep you up to date with best practices and tools, ensuring that you are always at the forefront in the use of emerging data-related technologies.
• We have expanded the list of examples of applications and companies that reuse open data. In the case of applications, we have already reached 470 solutions (37 more than in 2023) and in the case of companies, 96 companies (6 more than in 2023)..

Thank you for a good year! In 2025 we will continue to work to drive the data culture in public bodies, businesses and citizens.

You can see more about our activity in the following infographic:

Link to the infographic

Link to the infographic

The year is coming to an end and it is a good time to review some of the issues that have marked the open data and data sharing ecosystem in Spain, a community that continues to grow and build alliances for the development of innovative technologies. A synergy that lays the foundations to face an interconnected, digital future full of possibilities.   

With 2024 just a few days away, we take stock of the news, events and training of interest that have marked the year behind us. In this compilation we review some regulatory developments, new portals and projects promoted by the public sector, as well as various educational resources and reference documentation that 2023 has left us. 

Legal regulation for the development of collaborative environments  

During this year, in datos.gob.es we have echoed relevant news in the open data and data sharing sector. All of them have contributed to consolidate the appropriate context for interoperability and the promotion of the value of data in our society. The following is a review of the most relevant announcements: 

• At the beginning of the year, the European Commission published a first list of high-value datasets that are of great value to the economy, the environment and society because of the information they contain. For this reason, member states must make them available to the public by summer 2024. This first list of categories includes geospatial, earth observation and environmental, meteorological, statistical, business and mobility data. On the other hand, at the end of 2023, the same body made a proposal to expand the list of categories of datasets to be considered of high value, adding another seven proposals for categories that could be included in the future: climate loss, energy, financial, public administration and government, health, justice and language. 

• In the first quarter of the year, Law 37/2007 on the reuse of public sector information was amended in light of the latest European Open Data Directive. Now, public administrations will have to comply with, among others, two essential requirements: to focus on the publication of high-value data through APIs and to designate a unit responsible for information to ensure the correct opening of data. These measures are intended to be aligned with the demands of competitiveness and innovation raised by technologies such as AI and with the key role played by data when it comes to configuring data spaces.  

• The publication of the UNE data specifications was another milestone in standardization that marked 2023. The volume of data continues to grow and mechanisms are needed to ensure its proper use and exploitation. To this end, there are: 

  • UNE 0077 on Data Governance  

  • UNE 0078 on Data Management  

  • UNE 0079 on Data Quality Management  

  • UNE 0080, Data Governance, Management and Quality Evaluation Guide  

  • UNE 0081, Guide to Data Quality Evaluation.  

• Another noteworthy advance has been the approval of the consolidated wording of the European Data Regulation (Data Act), which seeks to provide harmonized standards for fair access to and use of data. The legal structure that will drive the data economy in the EU is now a reality. The Data Act and the Data Governance Act also passed in 2023 will contribute to the development of a European Digital Single Market.  

• In October 2023 the future Interoperable Europe Act (Interoperable Europe Act) entered the final legislative stage after getting the go-ahead from the member states. The aim of the Interoperable Europe Act is to strengthen interoperability between public sector administrations in the EU and to create digital public services focused on citizens and businesses. 

Advances in the open data ecosystem in Spain  

 In the last year, many public bodies have opted for opening their data in formats suitable for reuse, many of them focused on specific topics, such as meteorology. Some examples are:  

•  The Diputación de Segovia premiered an open data portal with information from city councils.  

• The Cabildo de Palma launched a new open and real-time weather data portal that provides information on current and historical weather and air quality.  

• The City Council of Soria also created a georeferenced information viewer that allows to consult parameters such as air quality, noise level, meteorology or traffic of people, among other variables.   

• The Malaga City Council has recently allied with the CSIC to develop a marine observatory that will collect and share open data in real time on coastal activity.   

• Progress on new portals will continue during 2024, as there are city councils that have expressed their interest in developing projects of this type. One example is the City Council of Las Torres de Cotillas: it recently launched a municipal website and a citizen participation portal in which they plan to enable an open data space in the near future. 

On the other hand, many institutions that already published open data have been expanding their catalog of datasets throughout the year. This is the case of the Canary Islands Statistics Institute (ISTAC), which has implemented various improvements such as the expansion of its semantic open data catalog to achieve better data and metadata sharing. 

Along these lines, more agreements have also been signed to promote the opening and sharing of data, as well as the acquisition of related skills. For example, with universities:  

• The Navarra Open Data portal incorporated information provided by the Public University of Navarra (UPNA) on its structure, activity, economic data and workforce.   

• The University of Valladolid (UVa) has presented a Chair of Transparency and Open Government that will address issues such as data governance, among others.   

• The University of Burgos has implemented an open science policy to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing and provide equal access to scientific and research work.   

• The Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M) has partnered with the Community of Madrid to establish the Chair on Territorial Dynamism that will promote research and the development of open data analysis activities, among others. 

Disruptive solutions using open data   

The winning combination of open data and technology has driven the development of multiple initiatives of interest as a result of the efforts of public administrations, such as, for example:  

• The Community of Madrid managed to optimize by 25% the reliability of the prediction of pollen levels in the territory thanks to artificial intelligence and open data. Through the CAM's open data portal, citizens can access an interactive map to find out the level of pollen in the air in their area.    

• The Valencia City Council's Chair of Governance at the Polytechnic University (UPV) published a study that uses open data sources to calculate the carbon footprint by neighborhoods in the city of Valencia.   

• The Xunta de Galicia presented a digital twin project for territorial management that will have information stored in public and private databases.   

• The Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) initiated the TeresIA project for terminology in Spanish that will generate a meta-search engine for access to terminologies of pan-Hispanic scope based on AI and open data.   

During 2023, Public Administrations have not only launched technological projects, but have also boosted entrepreneurship around open data with activities such as the Castilla y León Open Data contest. An event in which projects developed with open data as products or services, ideas, data journalism works and didactic resources were awarded. 

Trainings and events to keep up with the trends  

Educational materials on open data and related technologies have only grown in 2023. We highlight some free and virtual resources that are available:  

• The European Open Data Portal is a reference source in all aspects, also at the training level. Over the last year, it has shared educational resources such as this free course on data visualization, this one on the legal aspects of open data or this one on how to incorporate open data into an application.  

• In 2023, the European Interoperability Academy published a free online short course on open source licensing for which no prior knowledge of the subject is required.   

• In 2023, we have published more practical exercises from the 'Visualizations step by step' series such as this tutorial to learn how to generate a customized tourist map with MyMaps or this analysis of meteorological data using the "ggplot2" library. 

In addition, there are many activities that have been carried out in 2023 to promote the data culture. However, if you missed any of them, you can re-watch the online recordings of the following ones:   

• In March, the European Conference on Data and Semantics was broadcast, presenting trends in multilingual data.  

• In September, the 2nd National Open Data Meeting was held under the theme "Urgent Call to Action for the Environment".  The event continued the tradition started in 2022 in Barcelona, consolidating itself as one of the main meetings in Spain in the field of public sector data reuse and presenting training materials of interest to the community.  

• In October, the European benchmark interoperability conference SEMIC 2023, Interoperable Europe in the age of AI, was organized in Madrid. 

Reports and other reference documents published in 2023  

Once we have reviewed the news, initiatives, trainings and events, we would like to highlight a compendium of extensive knowledge such as the set of in-depth reports that have been published in 2023 on the open data sector and innovative technologies. Some noteworthy ones are:  

• The Asociación Multisectorial de la Información (ASEDIE) presented in April 2023 its 11th edition of the Infomediary Sector Report in which it reviews the health of companies working with data, a sector with growth potential. Here you can read the main conclusions.  

• From October 2023 Spain co-chaired the Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a task that has involved driving OGP initiatives and leading open government thematic areas. This organization presented its global Open Government Partnership report in 2023, a document that highlights good practices such as the publication of large volumes of open data by European countries. In addition, it also identifies several areas for improvement such as the publication of more high-value data (HDV) in reusable and interoperable formats. 

• The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a report on public administration principles in November 2023 in which it highlighted, among others, digitization as a tool for making data-driven decisions and implementing effective and efficient processes.  

• During this year, the European Commission published a report on the integration of data spaces in the European data strategy. Signed by experts in the field, this document lays the groundwork for implementing European dataspaces.  

• On the other hand, the open data working group of the Red de Entidades Locales por la Transparencia y la Participación Ciudadana and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces presented a list of the 80 datasets to be published to continue completing the guides published in previous years. You can consult it here. 

These are just a few examples of what the open data ecosystem has given of itself in the last year. If you would like to share with datos.gob.es any other news, leave us a comment or send us an email to dinamizacion@datos.gob.es. 

We are in the last days of the year, those hours that we all take advantage of to mentally review what the previous 12 months have given us. At the Aporta Initiative we are no exception and we want to take advantage of the fact that we are just over 72 hours away from eating our grapes to take stock of what we have done and what is yet to come. 

2023 has been a great year for the entire community of data publishers and users. Artificial intelligence has been in the news on multiple occasions, gaining greater prominence not only at the business level: more and more citizens are beginning to understand the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. In this context, the quantity and quality of available data has become a pressing need, as a driver of increasingly intelligent applications that help us to make progress as a society. 

In this sense, Spain continues to do its homework and reap good results in international balances. In the last month we have known the results of two indexes that place Spain at the top of the openness and reuse of public information: the European Data Portal considers that Spain ranks fourth in terms of open data in the European Union, while the OECD ranks it fifth worldwide. To these must be added the Report on the State of the Digital Decade, whose scope is broader as it includes many other factors that influence digital transformation, and which also places Spain ahead of the average in digital infrastructures and capabilities. 

datos.gob.es consolidates its position as the meeting point for Spain's open data community   

1.700.000. That is the number of visits that datos.gob.es has received during the last year. A 21% more than in the same period of 2022. A figure that highlights the growing interest in open data in our country. This increase has also been reflected in social networks. The Twitter profile of the Aporta Initiative has consolidated its position as a channel for keeping up to date with news and trends related to data-driven innovation, attracting new users who have reported a growth of 6%, to close to 21,000 followers. Meanwhile, the growth of the community of data professionals around datos.gob.es has been reflected on LinkedIn, attracting 51% more users and reaching a total of 9,000. 

This growth is marked by the incessant activity in favor of data sharing, openness and reuse carried out by the Aporta Initiative and reflected in the datos.gob.es platform:  

•  The number of datasets in the National Data Catalog, hosted at datos.gob.es, has grown by 19%. As of today, users have at their disposal more than 76,000 datasets published by various organizations at national, regional and autonomous community level. Specifically, 77 new publishing organizations have been added. In addition, the datasets already published have been enriched, increasing by 85,000 the available distributions (i.e., the files in various formats in which the data are presented). To ensure its quality, the data.gob.es advisory team has handled more than 600 queries from 140 public institutions. In addition, audits have been carried out, as well as new surveys to promote the opening of new valuable data.   

• The platform has also continued to publish content prepared by various data experts, including aspects related to trends, regulation, success stories, best practices and technical specifications, among others. Specifically, more than 100 articles have been published, 40 examples of solutions and business models based on data (currently the catalog exceeds 500), as well as a multitude of new practical exercises, guides, reports and audiovisual content, such as infographics and videos. 

New data trends  

2024 looks set to be a very promising year in terms of data-related developments. In recent years we have seen great progress at the regulatory level, with various regulations that promote the opening and sharing of data. The most recent of these are the Data Governance Act (DGA), which became fully applicable in September, and the Data Act (DA), which was passed in November. This growing legal landscape means that during 2024 we face the challenge of achieving harmonized implementation to drive a European Digital Single Market.   

This year will also see a major focus on the drive to build data spaces and developments in high-value data. Regarding the latter, June is the deadline for making available to citizens the data sets considered of high value and detailed in the implementing regulation published a year ago, following a series of technical requirements that facilitate their reuse. In addition, the European Commission is already working on a prospection to see possible categories that could be included as high-value data in the future. 

In short, we are facing an exciting year, which will bring many new developments in the field of data, in order to promote not only the data economy but also to be the driving force behind advances that will have an impact on society as a whole. 

Just a few days before the end of 2022, we’d like to take this opportunity to take stock of the year that is drawing to a close, a period during which the open data community has not stopped growing in Spain and in which we have joined our joint forces and desires with the Data Office. The latter unit is responsible for boosting the management, sharing and use of data throughout all the production sectors of the Spanish Economy and Society, focusing its efforts in particular on promoting spaces for sharing and making use of sectoral data.

It is precisely thanks to the incorporation of the Data Office under the Aporta Initiative that we have been able to double the dissemination effect and promote the role that open data plays in the development of the data economy.

Concurrently, during 2022 we have continued working to bring open data closer to the public, the professional community and public administrations. Thus, and with the aim of promoting the reuse of open data for social purposes, we have once again organised a new edition of the Aporta Challenge.

Focusing on the health and well-being of citizens, the fourth edition of this competition featured three winners of the very highest level and the common denominator of their digital solutions is to improve the physical and mental health of people, thanks to services developed with open data.

New examples of use cases and step-by-step visualisations

In turn, throughout this year we have continued to characterise new examples of use cases that help to increase the catalogue of open data reuse companies and applications. With the new admissions, datos.gob.es already has a catalogue of 84 reuse companies and a total of 418 applications developed from open data. Of the latter, more than 40 were identified in 2022.

Furthermore, since last year we inaugurated the step-by -step visualisations section, we have continued to explore their potential so that users can be inspired and easily replicate the examples.

Reports, guides and audio-visual material to promote the use of open data

For the purpose of continuing to provide advice to the communities of open data publishers and reusers, another of the mainstays in 2022 has been a focus on offering innovative reports on the latest trends in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, as well as the development of guides , infographics and videos which foster an up-close knowledge of new use cases and trends related with open data.

Some of the most frequently read articles at the datos.gob.es portal have been '4 examples of projects by private companies that are committed to open data sharing', 'How is digital transformation evolving in Spain?' either 'The main challenges to promote sectoral data spaces', inter alia. As far as the interviews are concerned, we would highlight those held with the winners of the 4th “Aporta” Challenge, with Hélène Verbrugghe, Public Policy Manager for Spain and Portugal of Meta or with Alberto González Yanes, Head of the Economic Statistics Service of the Canary Islands Institute of Statistics (ISTAC), inter alia.

Finally, we would like to thank the open data community for its support for another year. During 2022, we have managed to ensure that the National Data Catalogue exceeds 64,000 published data sets. In addition, datos.gob.es has received more than 1,300,000 visits, 25% more than in 2021, and the profiles of datos.gob.es on LinkedIn and Twitter have grown by 45% and 12%, respectively.

Here at datos.gob.es and the Data Office we are taking on this new year full of enthusiasm and a desire to work so that open data keep making progress in Spain through publishers and reusers.

Here's to a highly successful 2023!

If you’d like to see the infographic in full size you can click here.

** In order to access the links included in the image itself, please download the pdf version available below.

There are only a few hours left until the end of 2021, a year marked once again by the health situation, which has highlighted the importance of updated, accurate and complete information for decision making.

With regard to the Aporta Initiative, this year we have focused not only on the opening of data by public bodies, but also on bringing open data closer to citizens, facilitating its reuse by companies, developers or any user who wishes to do so. To this end, we have launched several actions:

• Launch of the IV Aporta Challenge, which seeks to identify and recognize new ideas and prototypes that use open data. The new edition of the Challenge has focused, unsurprisingly, on the healthcare field. The call was launched in November and will be open until January 25.
• Step-by-step visualizations. One of the new features of 2021 has been the publication of the visualizations section, which includes various works carried out using data from the National Catalog. In each of them, the steps to follow to achieve the result are explained in a simple way: dataset to download, necessary tools and treatments to be carried out. The source code has also been made available to users on github. The objective is that any user can easily replicate the exercise.
• New reports and guides. Documents have been published and updated for both publishers and reusers, focusing on data processing and analysis (Practical Introductory Guide to Exploratory Data Analysis, Data Processing and Visualization Tools and Emerging Technologies and Open Data: Predictive Analytics), trends (The Future of Open Data) or use cases (Data-driven Educational Technology to Improve Learning in the Classroom and at Home).
• New videos and infographics. Videos have also been created to explain to publishers how to make the most of the portal's functionalities and to reusers how to use the API and SPARQL. In the case of infographics, a repository has been created to make them more easily accessible.

In addition, we have continued to bring users the latest developments in the sector. More than 130 new contents have been published in the news, events, innovation blog and interviews sections, and more than 50 new use cases made possible thanks to open data have been made known in the sections on applications and reusing companies.

Another focus has been on listening to and supporting the open data community. The support team has dealt with more than 750 queries from 120 public bodies, which have been helped to resolve their doubts related to open data. We have also approached several data communities, such as R-Hispano, R-Ladies or Hackathon Lovers, to learn first-hand about their work with open data, as well as the challenges and needs they face.

We would like to thank the open data community once again for its support. Thanks to this, during 2021, we have reached 160 publishers, whose efforts have made the National Catalog exceed 50,000 published datasets. In addition, datos.gob.es has received more than one million visits, and datos.gob.es profiles on LinkedIn and Twitter have grown by 9% and 12% respectively. Not to mention that Spain is among the leading countries in open data in Europe for another year, according to the European Data Portal.

Datos.gob.es is the meeting point of the open data ecosystem in Spain, a place where the different voices of public administrations and data users converge. In 2022 we will continue working with all publishers and reusers so that open data continues to advance in Spain.

Happy new year and here's to a successful 2022!

(You can download the accessible version in word here)

At the end of each year, at datos.gob.es we take an overview of the activity carried out during the last 365 days. In these infographics you will find a summary of the actions carried out and the achievements. New content will be published periodically.

• Balance of the Aporta Initiative 2024
• Balance of the Aporta Initiative 2023
• Balance of the Aporta Initiative 2022
• Balance of the Aporta Initiative 2021
• Balance of the Aporta Initiative 2020
• Balance of the Aporta Initiative 2019
• Balance of the Aporta Initiative 2018
• Balance of the Aporta Initiative 2017