On 11, 12 and 13 November, a new edition of DATAforum Justice will be held in Granada. The event will bring together more than 100 speakers to discuss issues related to digital justice systems, artificial intelligence (AI) and the use of data in the judicial ecosystem.The event is organized by the Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts, with the collaboration of the University of Granada, the Andalusian Regional Government, the Granada City Council and the Granada Training and Management entity.

The following is a summary of some of the most important aspects of the conference.

An event aimed at a wide audience

This annual forum is aimed at both public and private sector professionals, without neglecting the general public, who want to know more about the digital transformation of justice in our country.

The DATAforum Justice 2024 also has a specific itinerary aimed at students, which aims to provide young people with valuable tools and knowledge in the field of justice and technology. To this end, specific presentations will be given and a DATAthon will be set up. These activities are particularly aimed at students of law, social sciences in general, computer engineering or subjects related to digital transformation. Attendees can obtain up to 2 ECTS credits (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System): one for attending the conference and one for participating in the DATAthon.

Data at the top of the agenda

The Paraninfo of the University of Granada will host experts from the administration, institutions and private companies, who will share their experience with an emphasis on new trends in the sector, the challenges ahead and the opportunities for improvement.

The conference will begin on Monday 11 November at 9:00 a.m., with a welcome to the students and a presentation of DATAthon. The official inauguration, addressed to all audiences, will be at 11:35 a.m. and will be given by Manuel Olmedo Palacios, Secretary of State for Justice, and Pedro Mercado Pacheco, Rector of the University of Granada.

From then on, various talks, debates, interviews, round tables and conferences will take place, including a large number of data-related topics. Among other issues, the data management, both in administrations and in companies, will be discussed in depth. It will also address the use of open data to prevent everything from hoaxes to suicide and sexual violence.

Another major theme will be the possibilities of artificial intelligence for optimising the sector, touching on aspects such as the automation of justice, the making of predictions. It will include presentations of specific use cases, such as the use of AI for the identification of deceased persons, without neglecting issues such as the governance of algorithms.

The event will end on Wednesday 13 at 17:00 hours with the official closing ceremony. On this occasion, Félix Bolaños, Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, will accompany the Rector of the University of Granada.

A Datathon to solve industry challenges through data

In parallel to this agenda, a DATAthon will be held in which participants will present innovative ideas and projects to improve justice in our society. It is a contest aimed at students, legal and IT professionals, research groups and startups.

Participants will be divided into multidisciplinary teams to propose solutions to a series of challenges, posed by the organisation, using data science oriented technologies. During the first two days, participants will have time to research and develop their original solution. On the third day, they will have to present a proposal to a qualified jury. The prizes will be awarded on the last day, before the closing ceremony and the Spanish wine and concert that will bring the 2024 edition of DATAfórum Justicia to a close.

In the 2023 edition, 35 people participated, divided into 6 teams that solved two case studies with public data and two prizes of 1,000 euros were awarded.

How to register

The registration period for the DATAforum Justice 2024 is now open. This must be done through the event website, indicating whether it is for the general public, public administration staff, private sector professionals or the media.

To participate in the DATAthon it is necessary to register also on the contest site.

Last year's edition, focusing on proposals to increase efficiency and transparency in judicial systems, was a great success, with over 800 registrants. This year again, a large number of people are expected, so we encourage you to book your place as soon as possible. This is a great opportunity to learn first-hand about successful experiences and to exchange views with experts in the sector.

EXTENDED: You can submit your project until September 20th!

The deadline to participate in the II edition of the Datathon UniversiData is now open. This competition recognises the value of projects that reuse open university data published on the portal UniversiDATA,a public-private initiative that was born at the end of 2020. Its aim was, and is, to promote open data in the Spanish higher education sector in a harmonised way.

UniversiDATA is currently made up of the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, the Universidad de Valladolid and the Universidad de Huelva, in collaboration with the company DIMETRICAL, The Analytics Lab, S.L.

What is the UniversiDATA Datathon about?

As previously indicated, participants must submit an open data processing project using one or more of the datasets published in UniversiDATA. These data may be combined with other data sources, but always bearing in mind that their use should not be secondary or ancillary.

There are no limitations on the nature of the project, the technologies involved or the formats of presentatiing the results. You can compete with a mobile app, a web application, a data analysis in Jupyter or R-Markdown, etc.  Works already submitted to other competitions, as well as internships, master's or bachelor's degree theses or research articles  are also valid .

For inspiration, you can visit the "UniversiDATA-Lab" where examples of applications and data analysis are shown. You can also check out the winning projects of the first edition.

How does the competition unfold?

The competition is divided into two phases:

1. Knockout stage

Those interested in participating can submit their candidature from 6 March until September 20, using this form. In addition to the personal data, the following information must be provided in the application:

• Members of the project
• Project title
• Problem to be solved
• Proposed solution
• Identification of addressees
• Usefulness of the project
• Data sets to be used

All the projects submitted will be evaluated by a jury. The jury will select 10 finalists, who will go on to the final phase. The list of selected projects will be made public on September 27, 2024.

2. Final Phase

Once selected, the finalists will start preparing their projects for the presentation to the jury, which will take place during an online event on December 16. The projects will be presented by videoconference.

The winners will be announced on December 23.

Who can participate?

The competition is open to any natural person with tax residence in the European Union, whether they are students, working professionals or amateurs.

You can participate as a group or as an individual.

what are the prizes?

This year, the financial endowment has been increased to a total of €9,000, divided as follows:

• First prize: € 4,000
• Second prize: € 3,000
• Third prize: € 1,500

In addition to these general prizes, the aim is also to recognise the best university student project that has been a finalist but has not won a prize. A special prize of €500 has been created for this purpose.

In case of group participation, the prize will be divided among all members of the group.

Do you have any queries?

Before participating, it is necessary to download and read the specific rules of the competition. If you have any questions, you can contact the organisers through this form. You will also be informed of any new developments on the the UniversiDATA Twitter profile.

In addition, throughout the competition, a direct communication channel will be established with the participants for any questions that may arise, including those concerning the datasets to be used.

The II Datathon UniversiDATA arises as a result of the success achieved in its first edition. it is a very positive experience that offers participants, once again this year, the opportunity not only to win financial recognition, but also to gain visibility by showing their talent when it comes to processing data that can provide answers to various questions of social and economic interest.

The Plenary Session of the Council of the Valencian Community has approved a collaboration agreement between the Ministry of Participation, Transparency, Cooperation and Democratic Quality and the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) with the aim of promoting the development of activities in the field of transparency and open data during 2023.

Thus, the Transparency Ministry will allocate 65,000 euros to promote the activities of the agreement focused on the opening and reuse of data present at different levels of public administrations.

Among the planned actions, the third edition of the Open Data Datathon stands out, an event that seeks to encourage the use of open data to develop applications and services that provide benefits to citizens. This collaboration will also promote the reuse of data related to the business sector, promoting innovation, dissemination, and awareness in various fields.

In parallel, it is planned to work jointly with different entities from civil society to establish a series of intelligent sensors for collecting data, while also promoting workshops and seminars on data journalism.

In turn, a series of informative sessions are included aimed at disseminating knowledge on the use and sharing of open data, the presentation of the Datos y Mujeres project, or the dissemination of open data repositories for research or transparency in algorithms.

Likewise, the collaboration includes the programming of talks and workshops to promote the use of open data in high schools, the integration of open data in different subjects of the PhD, bachelor's, and master's degrees on Public Management and Administration, the Master's degree in Cultural Management, and some transversal doctoral subjects.

Finally, this collaboration between the university and the administration also seeks to promote and mentor a large part of the work on transparency and open data, including the development of a guide to the reuse of open data aimed at reuse organizations, as well as activities to disseminate the Open Government Alliance (OGP) and action plans of the Valencian Community.

Previous projects related to open data

Apart from the plan of activities designed for this 2023 and detailed in the previous lines, this is not the first time that the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the Department of Participation and Transparency have worked together in the dissemination and promotion of open data. In fact, to be exact, they have been actively working through the Open Data and Transparency Observatory, belonging to the same university, to promote the value and sharing of data both in the academic and social spheres.

For instance, in line with this dissemination work, last year 2022, they promoted the 'Women and Data' initiative from the same entity, a project that brought together several women from the data field to talk about their professional experience, the challenges and opportunities addressed in the sector.

Among the interviewees, prominent names included Sonia Castro, coordinator of datos.gob.es, Ana Tudela, co-founder of Datadista, or Laura Castro, data visualization designer at Affective Advisory, among many other professionals.

Likewise, last spring and coinciding with the International Open Data Day, the second edition of Datathon took place, whose purpose was to promote the development of new tools from open data linked to responsible consumption, the environment or culture.

Thus, this particular alliance between the Department of Participation and Transparency and the Polytechnic University of Valencia demonstrates that not only is it possible to showcase the potential of open data, but also that dissemination opportunities are multiplied when institutions and the academic sphere work together in a coordinated and planned manner towards the same objectives.

The last few months of the year are always accompanied by numerous innovations in the open data ecosystem. It is the time chosen by many organisations to stage conferences and events to show the latest trends in the field and to demonstrate their progress.

New functionalities and partnerships

Public bodies have continued to make progress in their open data strategies, incorporating new functionalities and data sets at their open data platforms. Examples include:

• On 11 November, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge and The Information Lab Spain presented the SIDAMUN platform (Integrated Municipal Data System). It is a data visualisation tool with interactive dashboards which show detailed information about the current status of the territory.
• The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries has published four interactive reports to exploit more than 500 million data elements and thus provide information in a simple way about the status and evolution of the Spanish primary sector.
• The Open Data Portal of the Regional Government of Andalusia has been updated in order to promote the reuse of information, expanding the possibilities of access through APIs in a more efficient, automated way.
• The National Geographic Institute has updated the information on green routes (reconditioned railway lines) which are already available for download in KML, GPX and SHP.
• The Institute for Statistics and Cartography of Andalusia has published data on the Natural Movement of the Population for 2021, which provides information on births, marriages and deaths.

We have also seen advances made from a strategic perspective and in terms of partnerships. The Regional Ministry of Participation and Transparency of the  Valencian Regional Government set in motion a participatory process to design the first action plan of the 'OGP Local' programme of the Open Government Partnership. In turn, the Government of the Canary Islands has applied for  admission to the International Open Government Partnership and it will strengthen collaboration with the local entities of the islands, thereby mainstreaming the Open Government policies.

In addition, various organisations have announced news for the coming months. This is the case of Cordoba City Council which is set to launch in the near future a new portal with open data, or of Torrejon City Council which has included in its local action plan the creation of an Open data portal, as well as the promotion of the use of big data in institutions.

Open data tenders, a showcase for finding talent and new use cases

During the autumn, the winners of various contests were announced which sought to promote the reuse of open data. Thanks to these tenders, we have also learned of numerous cases of reuse which demonstrate open data's capacity to generate social and economic benefits.

• At the end of October we met the winners of our “Aporta” Challenge. First prize went to HelpVoice!, a service that seeks to help the elderly using speech recognition techniques based on automatic learning. A web environment to facilitate the analysis and interactive visualisation of microdata from the Hospital Morbidity Survey and an app to promote healthy habits won second and third prizes, respectively.
• The winners of the ideas and applications tender of Open Data Euskadi were also announced. The winners include a smart assistant for energy saving and an app to locate free parking spaces.
• Aragon Open Data, the open data portal of the Government of Aragon, celebrated its tenth anniversary with a face-to-face datathon to prototype services that help people through portal data. The award for the most innovative solution with the greatest impact went to Certifica-Tec, a website that allows you to geographically view the status of energy efficiency certificates.
• The Biscay Open Data Datathon set out to transform Biscay based on its open data. At the end of November, the final event of the Datathon was held. The winner was Argilum, followed by Datoston.
• UniversiData launched its first datathon, whose winning projects have just been announced.

In addition, in the last few months other initiatives related with the reuse of data have been announced such as:

• Researchers from Technical University of Madrid have carried out a study where they use artificial intelligence algorithms to analyse clinical data on lung cancer patients, scientific publications and open data. The aim is to obtain statistical patterns that allow the treatments to be improved.
• The Research Report 2021 that the University of Extremadura has just published was generated automatically from the open data portal. It is a document containing more than 1,200 pages which includes the investigations of all the departments of the centre.
• F4map is a 3D map that has been produced thanks to the open data of the OpenStreetMap collaborative community. Hence, and alternating visualisation in 2D and 3D, it offers a detailed view of different cities, buildings and monuments from all around the world.

Dissemination of open data and their use cases through events

One thing autumn has stood out for has been for the staging of events focused on the world of data, many of which were recorded and can be viewed again online. Examples include:

• The Ministry of Justice and the University of Salamanca organised the symposium Justice and Law in Data: The role of Data as an enabler and engine for change for the transformation of Justice and Law”. During the event reflections were made on data as a public asset. All the presentations are available on the Youtube channel of the University.
• In October Madrid hosted a new edition of the Data Management Summit Spain. The day before there was a prior session, organised in collaboration with DAMA España and the Data Office, aimed exclusively at representatives of the public administration and focused on open data and the exchange of information between administrations. This can be seen on Youtube too.
• The Barcelona Provincial Council, the Castellon Provincial Council and the Government of Aragon organised the National Open Data Meeting, with the aim of making clear the importance of the latter in territorial cohesion.
• The Iberian Conference on Spatial Data Infrastructure was held in Seville, where geographic information trends were discussed.
• A recording of the Associationism Seminars 2030, organised by the Government of the Canary Islands, can also be viewed. As regards the presentations, we would highlight the one related with the ‘Map of Associationism in the Canary Islands' which makes this type of data visible in an interactive way.
• ASEDIE organised the 14th edition of its International Conference on the reuse of public sector Information which featured various round tables, including one on 'The Data Economy: rights, obligations, opportunities and barriers'. 

Guides and courses

During these months, guides have also been published which seek to help publishers and reusers in their work with open data. From datos.gob.es we have published documents on How to prepare a Plan of measures to promote the opening and reuse of open data, the guide to Introduction to data anonymisation: Techniques and practical cases and the Practical guide for improving the quality of open data. In addition, other organisations have also published help documents such as:

• The Regional Government of Valencia has published a guide that compiles transparency obligations established by the Valencian law for public sector entities.
• The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) has translated the Singapore Data Protection Authority’s Guide to Basic Anonymisation, in view of its educational value and special interest to data protection officers. The guide is complemented by a free data anonymisation tool, which the AEPD makes available to organisations
• The NETWORK of Local Entities for Transparency and Citizen Participation of the FEMP has just presented the  Data visualisation guide for Local Entities, a document with good practices and recommendations. The document refers to a previous work of the City Council of L'Hospitalet.

International news

During this period, we have also seen developments at European level. Some of the ones we are highlighting are:

• In October the final of the EUdatathon 2022. The finalist teams were previously selected from a total of 156 initial proposals.
• The European Data Portal has launched the initiative Use Case Observatory to measure the impact of open data by monitoring 30 use cases over 3 years.
• A group of scientists from the Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research has created a database of 31,618 molecules thanks to algorithms trained with artificial intelligence.
• The World Bank has developed a new food and nutrition security dashboard which offers the latest global and national data.

These are just a few examples of what the open data ecosystem has produced in recent months. If you would like to share with us any other news, leave us a comment or send us an e-mail to dinamizacion@datos.gob.es

7 February 2022 was the date chosen for the launch of the sixth edition of the EU Datathon. Organised by the Publications Office of the European Union, this competition aims to raise awareness of the value of open data and showcase the opportunities for data-driven business models.

EU Datathon 2022 gives participants the opportunity to gain international visibility for their innovative ideas based on open data, as well as compete for a total prize fund of €200,000.

4 challenges available

Unlike the 2021 edition, which presented 3 challenges, this EU Datathon 2022 has 4 challenges to solve:

• Challenge 1: 'The European Green Deal'. The European Green Deal is the blueprint for a modern, sustainable and competitive European economy. Participants in this challenge must develop applications or services aimed at creating a greener Europe, for example to boost resource efficiency or reduce pollution.
• Challenge 2: 'Transparency in public procurement'. Transparency in public procurement helps to track how public money is spent, to fight fraud and to analyse economic and market trends. Therefore, this challenge invites developers to explore the wealth of information available and develop an application to expose it in a transparent way.
• Challenge 3: 'EU public procurement opportunities for young people'. Public procurement is often perceived as a complex field, where only specialists feel comfortable finding the information they need. This challenge invites developers to propose, for example, apps that help young people to easily find the information they need when applying for public procurement positions.
• Challenge 4: 'A Europe fit for the digital age'. The EU aims for a digital transformation that works for people and businesses. This challenge therefore drives the creation of applications or services that improve data literacy, increase connectivity or make data more understandable for all, based on the European Data Strategy.

How to participate?

Participants must submit an idea for an application that links and uses open datasets to address one of the four challenges above. Importantly, at least one of the datasets used to develop the idea must come from the datasets available on data.europa.eu.

In addition, participants opting for challenges 2 or 3 must use at least one dataset published by the EU Tender Electronic Daily (TED).

Who can participate?

The EU Datathon 2022 is aimed at citizens from all over the world interested in prototyping products based on public open data and even developing new business models, for-profit or not-for-profit, through the exploration of such data.

Participation is open to individuals or legal entities, in teams of one to four members. However, staff working in the institutions, agencies and bodies associated with or contracted by the EU Publications Office are not eligible to apply.

How does the competition unfold?

Participating teams must register their proposal via this form by 31 March 2022 at 23:59 CET (Central European Time). After the registration deadline, the competition will run in 2 phases:

1.Pre-selection

The jury, composed of experts from within and outside the EU institutions and agencies, will evaluate the registered proposals on the basis of a number of criteria such as the relevance of the selected challenge or the potential and creativity of the proposed solution.

For each challenge, the 6 highest scoring teams will be shortlisted. All participating teams will be notified of the results on 25 April 2022.

2.Fase final

The 24 shortlisted teams (6 per challenge) will be invited to turn their proposals into applications. Each team will have to produce and email a 60-second video presenting their app and the team working on it by 15 August 2022.

The final of the competition will take place on 20 October. The applications submitted in each challenge will be evaluated by a jury of experts. In addition to the relevance of the proposal, the open data used (economic and social potential, interoperability with other data sources, etc.) and fit for purpose (maturity of the product, benefits offered, etc.) will be taken into account.

What is the prize money?

This year, the total prize money increases considerably to 200,000 euros, which will be divided for each challenge as follows:

• First place: 25,000 euros
• Second place: EUR 15,000
• Third place: 7,000 euros

From datos.gob.es we invite you to submit your proposal. Remember that if you need inspiration, you can take as a reference CleanSpot, the Spanish company that managed to be a finalist in the EU Datathon 2021, winning second place in its challenge.

You also have at your disposal the information about the winning projects of all the editions of the Aporta Challenge, which, like the EU Datathon, seeks to reward ideas and prototypes based on open data that drive improvements in specific sectors of activity. The first year the focus was on the public sector, the second on the agri-food, forestry and rural sectors, and the third on education. The call for participants for the fourth edition, focusing on the field of health and well-being, has just closed.

Good luck to all participants!

The first EU Open Data Days took place from November 23rd to 25th in online format, organized by the Publications Office of the European Union. During 3 days, the open data community was able to learn from experts and professionals from various sectors about the innovations, challenges and opportunities facing the open data ecosystem.

The event, which included Spanish participation, was divided into two parts. During the first two days, the international conference EU DataViz 2021 was held, focused on sharing experiences and best practices in the field of open data and data visualizations. The last day was dedicated to the final of the EU Datathon 2021, an annual competition that seeks to showcase business models linked to the reuse of open data.

EU DataViz 2021: Keynote speakers to highlight the importance of open data

The conference was opened by Hilde Hardeman, the newly appointed Director-General of the Publications Office.

The first day focused on open data as a key driver of digital transformation. Speakers included Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, who highlighted the priority that the government of Luxembourg gave to digital transformation, and Yvo Volman of the European Commission, who presented the EU's perspective on open data and its plans to build a European single market for data, highlighting four pillars:

• A cross-sector governance framework promoting access to and use of data, including the legislative arena.
• The investment of between €4 billion and €6 billion for high-impact projects related to federated data spaces and cloud infrastructures.
• The boosting of digital and data skills, especially in SMEs.
• The deployment of common data spaces in crucial sectors and sectors of public interest.

After presentations by representatives of the European Data Portal and The Govlab, the specialized sessions began, where topics ranging from interoperability and accessibility of EU open data to the creation of open data ecosystems were addressed. The Spanish note was set by Antonio Ibáñez, Head of Transparency and Reuse of Information of Castilla y León, and Nuria Oliver, Co-Founder and Vice-President of ELLIS - European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems-, with two presentations focused on data provision during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Antonio Ibañez explained the challenges faced by the Castilla y León health service in providing complete and clear information, highlighting the complexity of the data and the need to update it constantly. As a result of their work, 1.6 million records were created and made available to the public through 34 datasets and various visualizations and interactive dashboards.
• For her part, Nuria Oliver spoke about Valencia's experience in using data science in the fight against COVID-19. The objective was to make informed decisions based on available information. To this end, different data sources were used, ranging from health data (cases, hospitalizations, etc.), mobile data that allowed estimates of population density and movements, and data from citizen surveys, among others. Epidemiological and predictive models were developed and used as the basis for policy decisions.

The first day's session was closed by Pascal Leardini, Deputy Secretary-General and Chief Operating Officer of the European Commission.

The second day of presentations focused on data visualization. Boštjan Koritnik, Minister of Public Administration of Slovenia, representing the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, opened the day.  Sixtine Bouygues of the European Commission highlighted the benefits and challenges of data visualization for EU administration, and Valérie Saintot of the European Central Bank focused on data visualization as a vector for innovation. Finally, Jonathan Schwabish of the Urban Institute spoke about the importance of applying diverse, equitable and inclusive awareness to data visualization.

Specialized sessions inspired discussions on data visualization as a tool for discovering new insights through storytelling. Internationally successful data visualization projects in fields such as finance or transportation were also explored.

The second day was closed by Paul Hofheinz, president and co-founder of The Lisbon Council, ASBL.

EU Datathon 2021: Spanish company CleanSpot wins second prize

The Open Data Days closed with the final of the EU Datathon. Nine teams had reached the final, selected from nearly 100 proposals from 33 countries, which had to create a mobile or web application using open datasets. The finalists were divided into three categories, aligned with the European Commission's policy priorities:

• Challenge 1: 'A European Green Deal', focusing on the European Green Deal and boosting sustainability.
• Challenge 2: 'An economy that works for people', focused on creating a fairer economic union, enabling economic growth while reducing poverty and inequality.
• Challenge 3: 'A Europe fit for the digital age', which seeks improvements in data-related skills and the European data strategy.

Prior to the final, the teams presented their ideas in a series of videos. In his opening speech, Commissioner Johannes Hahn praised the teams' innovative approaches and solutions to help Europe address its key challenges.

A jury of 18 data specialists chaired by Per Nymand-Andersen of the European Central Bank selected the winners of each challenge. Spanish company CleanSpot won second prize in the 'A European Green Deal' category for its app to raise awareness and incentivize recycling through gamification.

Cleanspot also won the second prize from the public, demonstrating the interest of citizens in this type of solutions.

You can see the rest of the winners here.

The awards ceremony ended the first EU Open Data Days, whose success was evidenced by the more than 2,000 registrations received.

If you were unable to attend, you can watch the videos of all the presentations and participations that made up the three days at this link.

The current healthcare situation has changed the way in which major events are held, with most of them moving from being held in person to online. However, little by little, the face-to-face format is being taken up again, returning to the offline format and even combining both experiences.

In this article we are going to discover some events related to the world of technology and data, both private and public, that will be held in the coming weeks and that you should not miss. Join us to discover them!

OpenExpo Virtual Experience 2021

8 to 10 June 2021 – Online

OpenExpo Europe has positioned itself in recent years as one of the main windows for dissemination in technological innovation, digital transformation and open source in Europe. Its main objective is to disseminate the latest trends, tools and services in innovation and technology among professionals in the technology sector, as well as helping them to increase their network of contacts.

The OpenExpo Virtual Experience initiative was launched last year, following the success achieved with the dissemination of online content on cybersecurity, blockchain, AI, virtual reality, IoT and big data, among other topics.

At this event, attendees will be able to enjoy more than 50 activities led by professional experts in technology and innovation: presentations, case studies, interviews, debates, workshops, Q&A sessions, 1to1 meetings, etc.  Some of the topics to be addressed are Govtech and the public administration's commitment to innovation, free educational software and Gaia-X, one of the European Commission's major projects in the field of data.

Advanced Factories

8 to 10 June 2021 – Barcelona

Barcelona will host the annual Advanced Factories summit, which brings together the most cutting-edge companies in Industry 4.0. Some of the focal points of this world-class meeting will be: industrial automation, sensors, energy efficiency, artificial intelligence, blockchain, machine learning and big data.

For the fourth consecutive year, this summit will host the Industry 4.0 Congress under the slogan "We are the future of automation", which will begin with a presentation on the role of data in the transformation of this sector.

Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2021

28 June to 01 July 2021 – Barcelona

This great technological event was suspended in 2020, but in 2021 it will re-emerge as a new event with great guarantees of health safety. As a novelty, this year's MWC will feature several virtual activities that will complement the on-site edition of the event. "Connected Impact" is the chosen theme, which places the COVID-19 pandemic as the main element influencing this year's technological trends.

As usual, leading professionals from the sector and prominent speakers will be taking part. Among them is Carme Artigas, Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, who will participate with a presentation on data in the age of intelligence.

As in previous years, the in-house event for startups 4YFN (4 Years From Now) will be held as part of the MWC. Its aim is to support contact between startups and investors, providing access to an international network of contacts and different business opportunities. Among the participating companies we can find many focused on the world of data and its reuse. Red.es selects Spanish companies and startups to participate in the different representation spaces that are organised.

South Summit

5 to 7 October 2021 – Online

The autumn will see the arrival of South Summit, a showcase in the form of a competition to give more visibility to disruptive projects seeking new customers, funding or strategic partnerships. It will feature investors and leading innovation companies from Spain, southern Europe and Latin America, regardless of the industry, country of origin or stage of development of the project.

This year the organisation has decided not to hold the event in person, so the project presentations will take place virtually.

IoT Solutions World Congress

5 to 7 October 2021 – Barcelona

This is undoubtedly one of the most high-profile IoT events in the world. Due to the growing demand from the sector, more than 8,000 visitors are expected to attend an event that will bring together industry experts to analyse how the Internet of Things is transforming production, transport, logistics, public services and sectors such as healthcare and energy.

Some of the papers to be presented include "Leveraging EdgeX Foundry as an Open, Trusted Data Framework for Smart Meter Monitoring", "Using Mobile, IoT and Data Analytics to Take a Localized Approach to the Global Waste Problem" and "Making Cities, Infrastructures & Construction Sites Smarter with Time Series Data".

Semantic Web for E-Government

24 October - online

This online event will focus on a review of the semantic web and its importance in achieving interoperability and integration between the different organisational levels of public administrations. Two current e-government and open data initiatives will be presented:

• The European Data Portal, a platform for integrating and assessing Europe's Linked Open Government Data. It will address the multiple applications of semantic web standards in the European Data Portal, such as DCAT, SKOS, SHACL and DQV. Special attention will also be given to the measurement and publication of quality information.

• Ciudades Abiertas: good practices for data harmonisation with local public administrations. It will be explained how a set of vocabularies is being developed to support a homogeneous provision of open data in the framework of Ciudades Abiertas, a collaborative project with four Spanish cities (Zaragoza, A Coruña, Madrid and Santiago de Compostela).

Smart City Expo World Congress

16 to 18 November 2021 – Barcelona

For several years now, Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) has become a benchmark event that combines technological innovation with the field of Smart Cities. It brings together experts, companies and entrepreneurs with the aim of creating synergies and promoting new projects.

In 2021, the congress celebrates its tenth anniversary and its organisers will once again opt to hold the event in person, combined with a digital platform that will offer a multitude of opportunities to its attendees.

This event is usually the framework chosen by Open Data Barcelona to showcase the finalists of its World Data Viz Challenge, although the 2021 edition has not yet been announced.

EU Open Data Days

23 to 25 November 2021 - Online

This year we will also attend the first edition of the EU Open Data Days, organised by the Publications Office of the European Union in collaboration with the Aporta Initiative.  The event will be virtual and will be divided into two activities:

• EU Dataviz 2021 (23-24 November). A programme of conferences focusing on open data and visualisations. They are currently defining the agenda which we will share with you soon.
• EU Datathon 2021 (25 November). In the months leading up to this event, a competition will be held to encourage the creation of products based on open data, such as mobile or web applications, that offer a response to different challenges related to EU priorities. The deadline for submissions is 11 June. The final will be held on 25 November as part of the Open Days.

This is just a selection of some of the major technology events coming up - do you know of any more you would like to highlight? Then don't hesitate to write us a comment or send us your proposal by email to contacto@datos.gob.es.

This Saturday, March 6, Open Data Day 2021 is celebrated worldwide. This event, which takes place annually on the first Saturday in March, seeks to promote the reuse of open data around the world.

In our country there are several organizations that have chosen the next few days to launch events related to the opening and reuse of information. Next, we collect several of them:

Datathon 2021: The role of open data in the face of challenges in a Post-Covid world

The “Datathon 2021: Challenges in a Post-Covid world” seeks to promote the interest and use of open data, mainly in the areas of tourism, agriculture or health. Its objective is to stimulate participants by offering data and tools of interest for the development of applications related to the use and reuse of open data, in addition to promoting citizen participation in new challenges that improve citizens' day-to-day lives.

The competition is promoted by different local and university institutions of the Valencian Community:

The process will be as follows:

• The competition will begin on March 5 with an informative day at 5:00 p.m. in remote format. Different representatives of the organizing entities will participate and there will be a round table on open data in the field of tourism, health and agriculture with those responsible in these fields. The session will end with practical information on how to participate in the Datathon.
• From then on, and for 3 months, six workshops will be held, together with experts in the field. With these workshops, participants will learn about the resources of the Valencian Government's open data portal, learn how to process the request for this information, and address the processes of collection, integration, visualization and geolocation of different types of data.
• Throughout the process, a team of student volunteers from the UA MultiTEC association will tutor the participants and resolve their doubts.

The call is open to any person of legal age interested in data management. The dates to consider are the following:

• The registration period ends on March 5. Registration is done using Eventbrite.
• The configuration of equipment can be done until March 18 through the following form.
• The completion and delivery of projects will end on May 14. A prize of 1,000 euros and three second prizes of 500 euros will be awarded for each of the challenges: tourism, health and agriculture.

The Datathon evaluation team will take into account the impact and importance of the challenge solved, the creativity and innovation of the application, the use of data, the suitability for the award category and the degree of completion achieved.

Journalism and open data visualization

The MPVD Agora on Journalism and Data Visualization organizes a session on Thursday, March 4 to celebrate the Open Data Day 2021 that will be broadcast on YouTube.

The session, which will begin at 3:00 p.m. and will last an hour and a half, will have 2 different parts:

• An introductory workshop to Observable, a tool for learning D3.js. The workshop will be given by Adrián Blanco Ramos, graphic editor of the Washington Post
• A talk about The owners of the game, an investigation about the hunting grounds in Spain published by El Mundo. José Fernando Leal (@ricologias), one of the coordinators, will be in charge of explaining all the details.

The session will be recorded for those who cannot see it live. It can be accessed through the YouTube channel MPVD Master of Journalism and Data Visualization. In this channel you can find previous sessions, dedicated, for example, to how to work with data and electronic records available in different formats and sources or how to create simple, clear and attractive stories through the analysis and visualization of data allows.

Although the videos are developed within the framework of the Master in Journalism and Data Visualization at the University of Alcalá, both the videos of this conference and those of the previous ones are available open to any user interested in the subject.

Conference - The DATA in the Local Administrations 20/30. Experiences and challenges March 9, 2021. On-line.

The Alcobendas City Council and the Institute for the Transfer of Knowledge in Public Innovation - ITCIP, with the support of the FEMP, organize a conference to publicize projects that local administrations are developing around the world of data.

The session will take place on March 9 online. Among other issues, subjects related to architecture, life cycle, governance, security and data protection and analysis will be addressed. Some of the experiences and proposals that will be discussed are the Data Offices, the Data Delegate, efficient forms of storage, data management and conservation, its application to public services in smart city projects and its role in the openness, transparency and reuse.

The event will have the participation of representatives from the FEMP, the European Commission, the Community of Madrid and cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Zaragoza, Malaga, Gijón, Logroño, Alcobendas, Sant Feliu de Llobregat and Mataró. In addition, the conference has the support of Oracle, which will provide the vision of the most innovative trends related to data.

You can see the full agenda at this link.

The conference can be followed for free, through the ITCIP page. You can sign up at this link.

At datos.gob.es we invite you to join some of these proposals and celebrate Open Data Day.