Infomediary activity is not classified as such in the CNAE. Therefore, the census of companies must be updated through indirect and ad hoc actions. Periodically, the National Observatory of Telecommunications and the Information Society (ONTSI) analyzes the state of this sector and collects the results in a report, which this year reaches its fifth edition.

Under the title "From Infomediary Sector to Economy Data. Characterization of the Infomediate Sector", this year's report starts from a new approach, more aligned with the European Union's vision. The document highlights that the infomediate sector is evolving towards the data economy, and takes as a reference the words of the European Commission, which defines "data companies" as "organizations whose main activity is to produce products, services and technologies related to data".

A sustainable sector in continuous growth

This year's report shows us that we are facing a sector that does not stop growing in a sustainable way. 708 companies have been identified, 32% more than in 2016. It is worth noting that the businesses that are created around this activity last over time, since 63.7% of the companies analyzed are more than 10 years old. The sector is mainly concentrated in Madrid, where more than 50% of the companies are located. It is followed by Catalonia, with 18.4%.

In recent years there has been an evolution towards businesses centred on digital technologies: the most recent companies are mainly in the field of programming and IT consultancy and information services.

73.5% of the companies carry out more than one infomediaries activity, although the one that attracts more business in data analysis and/or visualization.

Almost 50% of these companies are micro-enterprises (with less than 10 employees) and only 6% have more than 250 employees. The turnover of the sector, however, is not negligible, estimated to reach 1,987 million euros in 2018, 15.4% more than in 2015. Of this volume, 718 million come from the reuse of information.

With regard to employment, in recent years there has been significant growth. The sector employs between 14,000 and 16,000 people, 14.3% more than in 2016. If we focus only on employees linked to data reuse, the growth is even more spectacular, 61.5%, reaching 7,700-8,400 workers. 

Traditionally, the distribution of employment by gender in the infomediate sector has been equal (49.9% women and 50.1% men). However, the progressive introduction of digital technologies is breaking this parity in favor of men. Newer (and more technological) companies have many more men than women on their staff.

1 in 5 companies uses data from public sources

More than 80% of the companies analyzed use data from public sources to develop these services, which are combined with private data in 69.9% of the cases. The most demanded public information belongs to the fields of trade, environment, economy and demography. They mainly access this data in non-proprietary structured formats (csv, xml), although it is worth noting that there are still many suppliers that provide their data without structure (pdf, jpg), making it difficult to process automatically.

When asked about the data they most miss, the companies surveyed indicated that they would like to have more data on weather, real-time transport, tourism, demographics (with information disaggregated at the level of census sections), justice at the regional and local level, the public sector, the economy and the treasury.

These are just some of the report's conclusions, but there are many more. You can download the full report and its presentation below.

The public procurement reform that has taken place in Europe has incorporated innovation as a new public policy that must be promoted through contractual tools. Although innovation can be understood as a concept that is difficult to pinpoint, the Directive 2014/24 / EU has incorporated a legal definition that helps to define it by indicating that it corresponds to the

introduction of a new or significant product, service or process including, but not limited to, production, building or construction processes, a new marketing method, or a new method of organising business practices, workplace organisation or external relations, among others, with the aim of helping to solve societal challenges or supporting the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

Innovation in the delivery of services is one of the main challenges currently faced by public entities, especially with regards to the advanced use of technology. In this respect, the release of the data held by them can give companies and society in general the incentive necessary to offer new services or, if necessary, to improve existing ones by offering innovative delivery modalities based on technological innovation.

Moreover, in the context of Open Government, collaboration is one of the pillars on which public policies must be sustained, along with transparency and participation. Consequently, the promotion of open data makes it possible for the private sector to consider collaborating to meet public needs from a new perspective by offering advanced services that focus on data from the public sector.

However, to the extent that such services require public funding, an unexpected difficulty arises which ultimately disincentives the spontaneous predisposition of reusable agents: the need to proceed with the processing of a procurement procedure which, by legal requirement, must be based on the principles of publicity and competition. In this scenario, the reluctance to participate in a competitive and formalised procedure may end up becoming a definitive barrier that, after all, hinders - when it does not directly impede - suggestive and disruptive ideas based on the reuse of public information being converted into innovative services that contribute significant added value.

There are formalised instruments such as the so-called public procurement of innovation solutions (PPI) , which can be of great help in promoting new services based on the release of data from public entities, especially taking into account the interpretative guidelines and criteria that have been issued from the within the EU and by the General State Administration and, also, through the most specialised doctrine on public procurement.

The flexibility demanded by the collaboration inspired by the principles of Open Government needs a broader vision that not only takes this instrument into account but also, in general, the use of the various non-bid contract procedures - with all their legal guarantees, of course, to avoid unacceptable abuses - and, above all, an intelligent promotion action that does not only contemplate economic incentives in the form of direct subsidies. Always bearing in mind that, as it has sought to ensure after the reform of the European Directive on Reuse in 2013 and Spanish legislation in 2015, exclusive agreements will only be admissible under very exceptional circumstances.

The recent entry into force of Law 9/2017, of November 8, on Public Sector Contracts last March, has introduced a novelty of great relevance in the Spanish legal system regarding to the reuse of Public sector information. In effect, the aforementioned legal regulation has consolidated the role of the contractor's profile on the Internet as an essential instrument to facilitate access to information regarding the contractual activity of public authorities. Apart from other provisions aimed at reinforcing the content of publications and the accessibility of the information collected there, article 63 of the aforementioned Law requires that all information included in the contractor profile be published "in open and reusable formats". In addition, this content must necessarily be spread through the Public Sector Contracting Platform in the terms of article 347 - the management of this electronic instrument correspond to the General State Administration-.

This is a new advance in the process of transformation of the contractual management carried out by public authorities to be aligned with Open Government parameters. This approach has already started with Law 19/2013, of December 9, on transparency, access to public information and good governance, whose Article 8 requires the dissemination of "all contracts, indicating the purpose, duration, amount of the bidding and the awarding, the procedure used for its conclusion, the instruments to publicize it - if it takes place-, the number of bidders participating in the procedure and the identity of the successful bidder, as well as the amendments to the contract ", in addition to “the decisions of withdrawal and waiver of contracts”. However, this publication refers to a later phase of the contractual process, in such a way that, ultimately, its objective is the accountability related to their decisions and the circumstances in which it takes place.

As is well known, the reform in the area of ​​eGovernment in 2015, was an important step forward, since the use of electronic means in management can ultimately be a boost for increasing the efficiency of public information availability in accordance with the standards that facilitate its reuse.

In this regard, from October 2nd, 2016, all administrative acts must be recorded electronically, unless, by its nature, another more appropriate form could be required, which will undoubtedly be exceptional. This requirement is established not only for functions, but also for any document issued by the Public Administrations, which must also incorporate the minimum required metadata. In this sense, the necessary respect for the National Interoperability Framework already allowed us to affirm that, based on a systematic interpretation of all the aforementioned standards, the document management of Public Administrations should not only be carried out electronically, but also, in accordance with standards that allow the reuse of information.

What, then, is the scope of the new regulation on public procurement in this matter? On the one hand, it has been firmly established -and without, therefore, any interpretation required- that the dissemination of the information to be published in the contractor's profile must necessarily be in open and reusable formats. Consequently, this represents an advance with respect to 2 previous laws:

• The legislation on transparency, which only considers it as a mere preference.
• The legislation on the reuse of public sector information, which simply requires public authorities to ensure access to documents so that they can be reused.

On the other hand, the object of publication in the new contract legislation does not refer only to finalized procedures, as is the case of transparency regulation, but also to those that are being processed at that time or will be initiated in the future. It is, therefore, a measure that aims:

• Promote effective competition in the selection process of companies that aspire to be selected, so the obligation of dissemination in accordance with these requirements becomes an inexcusable obligation.
• Facilitate the audit and, in general, the control of the contracts carried out by the public sector, which undoubtedly is decisively promoted in the contractual field with initiatives and projects based on open and reusable data.

In short, after the presentation of the main novelties of the new legislation on public procurement, a question remains to be answered, what would undoubtedly be the main issue to be raised from the point of view of its practical application: What would happen if a call for bids was published in the contractor's profile without complying with the legal requirements regarding open and reusable data?

Certainly, it could not be said that the legal requirement specifically contemplated in the legislation on public procurement has been ignored (Article 39.1.c of the Law on Public Sector Contracts), since there has been publicized. However, we could find a violation of the general regulation on common administrative procedure (Article 48.2 of Law 39/2015), because the announcement of bidding would lack the essential formal requirements to achieve its purpose; even if there are undeniable publicizing through the legally required instrument, that is, the profile of the contracting party.

In any case, we will have to wait to know the courts’ interpretation of contractual remedies on the scope of the new legal regulation.

Content prepared by Julián Valero, professor at the University of Murcia and Coordinator of the Research Group "Innovation, Law and Technology" (iDerTec).

Contents and points of view expressed in this publication are the exclusive responsibility of its author.