iniciativas de datos abiertos

At the end of last year, the IV Open Government Plan for Spain was published, which included a series of commitments that public administrations undertook related to accountability, improved participation or open data and the reuse of public information, among other aspects. The objective: to contribute to a fairer, more peaceful and inclusive society.

In this article we will review the strategies linked to open data of the Autonomous Communities and the commitments made in this plan.

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Andalusia

The Junta de Andalucía's open data portal has 4 objectives: Transparency; Innovation and economic growth; Efficiency and effectiveness of the administration; and Inclusion and empowerment of citizens. Its actions are framed within the Junta de Andalucía's Open Government Action Plan.

Its future plans are the implementation of formalised openness mechanisms, both technical and organisational. High-value datasets will be selected, common vocabularies will be defined and permanent contact will be established with the community of re-users to encourage re-use. Methodologies and processes for data-driven decision making will also be enabled, and a training plan on Open Government and open data will be carried out, especially targeting administration staff.

Asturias

The data catalogue of the Principality of Asturias is integrated in its Open Government area and its activity is framed within the Law of the Principality of Asturias 8/2018, of 14 September, on Transparency, Good Governance and Interest Groups.

The Asturian Government has committed, in the IV Open Government Plan, to the elaboration of the Strategic Transparency Plan of the Principality of Asturias (PETPA) with measures that contribute to the compliance with the Asturian Law 8/2018. This Plan will also include mechanisms for training, awareness-raising, participation, monitoring, control and evaluation in the field of Transparency.

Aragon

The Aragon Open Data Strategy focuses on two pillars. On the one hand, promoting interoperability, through the Interoperable Information Structure of Aragon EI2A. On the other hand, active listening, with actions such as Aragon Open Data Focus, aimed at getting to know publishers and users of open data better (more information in this interview). In their strategy they propose a model and a roadmap defining the mission, vision and values of Aragón Open Data:

• Mission: to be the catalogue from which citizens and companies can access the set of open data offered by the Government of Aragon and other institutions.
• Vision: to provide a treatment of information systems that not only generates wealth, but also develops and consolidates the infomediary sector to improve the social and economic development of the region.
• Values: quality, interoperability, participation, coordination, collaboration, transparency and accessibility.

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands have committed to centralising the public data of the different administrations of the islands in a single access point (called Canarias Datos abiertos), with the aim of improving the location and accessibility of the information, applying processes of standardisation of formats and ensuring interoperability, among other reasons.

Its commitments also include promoting participation, through a Canary Islands Open Government Network as a meeting point for the bodies of the Canary Islands Public Administration. All of this will be reflected in the Open Government Strategy for the Canarian Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030, recently presented.

Castilla y León

Castilla y León is a very active region in the open data ecosystem, with a special focus on dissemination and awareness-raising. It is currently running the fifth edition of its open data competition to promote the reuse of its datasets.

In the IV Open Government Plan, they are committed to approving a new law and drawing up a catalogue of public information, already approved, where the commitment of each organ, body and public entity of the regional public sector is materialised. The aim is to increase the volume of relevant, clear and structured public information to be actively disseminated.

Castilla y León is drafting the new Law on Transparency, access to public information and its reuse, which includes the so-called "Open Data clause": any IT development, whether carried out with its own or external resources, must facilitate the extraction of the information collected, recorded or collected in reusable formats.

Castilla - La Macha

The "Open Data of Castilla-La Mancha" space is the result of Law 4/2016, of 15 December, on Transparency and Good Governance of Castilla-La Mancha. Castilla-La Mancha's strategy has focused on constant openness and training. Since 2017, a Training Plan has been approved which includes specific courses on open data and reuse of information aimed at public employees. In addition, through a collaboration agreement with the University of Castilla-La Mancha, the Specialisation Course in Open Government (previously called Transparency and Access to Public Information) is being developed, which includes, among others, the subjects of access, open data and reuse of public information.

Among the objectives to be addressed in the coming months is the development of an improvement plan for its Open Data space, which will include advances in the visualisation of information, the incorporation of high-value data and data governance, among other issues.

Cantabria

Cantabria does not have a centralised open data portal for the whole territory, although we can find the ICANE (Cantabrian Institute of Statistics) open data space focused on the opening and reuse of statistical data. They also offer the possibility of downloading cartographies and geographic information from their geographic viewer.

In the 4th Open Government Plan, they have focused on the area of citizen participation, committing themselves to drafting a new law that establishes the material channels and provides information and knowledge to citizens, with the aim of motivating their participation. Until now, the regulatory framework in this area has been marked by Law 1/2018, of 21 March, on Transparency in Public Activity.

Catalonia

The Government of Catalonia is committed to citizen participation. Its open data strategy has been closely linked to contact with society and the business world, through different actions such as the "Café amb Dades" information sessions.

In the IV Open Government Plan, they committed to creating a virtual meeting place for all the actors working in the field of citizen participation: ParticipaCatalunya.cat, which is already operational. They also plan to build a space for citizen participation to supervise the Generalitat's anti-corruption strategy, as well as to prioritise the opening of public information related to gender inequality, in order to facilitate the monitoring and evaluation of the impact of public policies on equality. For the time being, they are working under the umbrella of their Open Government Plan 2019-2020, which was extended last year.

Extremadura

Within the area of citizen participation and transparency of the Regional Government of Extremadura we find its catalogue of publications, the result of the law 4/2013, of 21 May, on Open Government of Extremadura, which guarantees the right of access to public information. Its strategy also includes the Digital Modernisation Plan 2020-2024 of the Regional Government of Extremadura, which includes, among its priorities, data orientation, promoting its cataloguing and reuse by proactively facilitating its accessibility and usability. Likewise, transparency is one of the ten principles that should guide the performance of the plan and, ultimately, the functioning of the Administration in this scenario of Digital Transformation.

Extremadura's commitments in the IV Open Government Plan are related to the simplification of the right of access to public information and the reduction of response times to the interested party's request, as well as to increasing the level of citizen satisfaction in access to public services, promoting their accessibility and usability through the redesign of processes.

Galicia

In the strategy of the Open Data initiative of Galicia, Abert@s, the importance of internal dissemination stands out, encouraging the participation of all areas in the publication of data, and the promotion of reuse. Its actions are carried out under the umbrella of Law 1/2016, of 18 January, on transparency and good governance.

Galicia's commitments in the IV Open Government Plan are related to improving the Galician government's decision-making, enhancing citizen participation and the automation of administrative procedures, as well as boosting accessibility in the Xunta de Galicia's Transparency and Open Government Portal. They also want to improve the quality of information and promote the publication of content in reusable formats, among others.

Balearic Islands

The regulatory framework for Open Data in the Balearic Islands is Law 4/2011, of 31 March, on good administration and good government in the Balearic Islands, although the agreement that gave rise to its open data portal dates from a month earlier.

The Gobern's commitments on open government have mainly to do with training and regulation. On the one hand, they will carry out training activities aimed at public employees on open government, including open data. On the other hand, they will approve a new Transparency Law and a decree determining the organisation of transparency. The IV Open Government Plan includes more commitments, such as the creation of a platform for citizen participation and the development of an evaluability study to include monitoring indicators in public policies.

La Rioja

The open data portal of La Rioja responds to 2 laws: Law 3/2014, of 11 September, on Transparency and Good Governance of La Rioja and Decree 19/2013, of 31 May, which regulates the reuse of information in the Public Sector of the Autonomous Community of La Rioja.

Those responsible have committed to improving access to information on this portal, as well as on the Transparency Portal and the institutional website. The aim is to integrate, unify, publish, link and exploit the existing information in all of them, in a more efficient way. The development of a new website that is simpler, smarter and more efficient in terms of locating and reusing content will be promoted. Actions will also be developed to improve active publicity and the evaluation of the results of the plans and programmes.

Community of Madrid

The data portal of the Community of Madrid was launched in 2019, the same year as its Law 10/2019, of 10 April, on Transparency and Participation of the Community of Madrid. Since then, its portal has continued to grow, incorporating new datasets and sections aimed at reusers.

In the IV Open Government Plan, the Regional Government of Madrid highlights the importance of communication. It is committed to providing citizens with information in a simple, clear and effective way, so that they can interact more easily with the administration. As a background, they have already worked on a Clear Communication Guide that they want to extend to the field of transparency and citizen information.

Region of Murcia

The CARM has had an open data portal since 2014 and an open data strategy since 2016, which sets as one of its objectives the generation of value through the use of open data. The Regional Administration has included this policy in its Transparency and Open Government Portal, with the aim of aligning both strategies.

The commitments made by the CARM in the IV Open Government Plan are more closely linked to its Public Governance Strategy. Among the measures to be promoted is the creation of a framework for Institutional Integrity, including codes of conduct and training, dissemination and promotion actions, among others, as well as a Register of Interest Groups. Child and youth participation in the design of public policies will also be promoted through workshops.

Navarre

The open data portal of Navarre responds to the Foral Law 5/2018, of 17 May, on Transparency, Access to Public Information and Good Governance.  Work is currently being carried out on the integration of geographical data, which can be found in the Spatial Data Infrastructure of Navarre, and on the integration of a greater number of local entities.

Navarre wants to promote the use of open data on its portal, and therefore undertakes to publish datasets that are of greater interest for the reuse of public sector information and to improve the design and content of the Open Data space. It will incorporate data generated by (NA)SAT and will collaborate with the infomediary sector to identify data of greater interest. Among its objectives is also the federation of Open Data Navarra with broader open data catalogues, such as datos.gob.es.

Valencian Community

The opening and reuse of data is one of the strategic lines included in the Generalitat Valenciana's Biennial Transparency Plan. Although its open data portal dates back to 2016, a new version was launched in 2020, with a change of conception: they have gone from a data repository to a space open to the community of reusers.

In the coming months, Valencia will develop and implement an open data strategy in Valencian public administrations so that the data generated are open and reusable by default. The aim is to promote reuse, accountability and data-driven decision-making, among others. The Generalitat is also promoting instruments for better data management, such as the Artificial Intelligence Strategy for the Valencian Region, and is committed to a collaborative budgeting project, as well as to institutionalising public ethics.

Basque Country

The Open Data Euskadi portal was a pioneer in our country, dating back to 2009. The promotion of open data and the encouragement of its reuse is the responsibility of the Directorate for Citizen Services and Digital Services, as stated in its structural decree. Some of its latest projects are the new Euskalmet website, created with open data, the creation of various open data APIs (traffic, cultural events, etc.) and its Open Data Competitions.

Its commitment is to work together with the main Basque administrations to identify sets of data demanded by the group of reusers in the Basque Country and by citizens, and to standardise and link this data, developing inter-institutional visualisations and services. All of this is accompanied by a participation and communication plan in terms of social auditing, as set out in its Action Plan for Open Government in the Basque Country 2021-2024.

Ceuta and Melilla

The autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, although they do not have open portals yet, have also included commitments in the plan. Ceuta is committed to launching a transparency portal and developing regulations in this area, among other issues. Melilla, for its part, has focused on training and will carry out programmes on youth participation in public management.

In short, all the administrations are working to continue promoting access to information, citizen participation and the reuse of public data.

The Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP, in Spanish acronyms) brings together various local councils, provincial councils, councils and island councils. In total, it represents more than 7,000 bodies, defending the general interests of Local Bodies and promoting cooperation.

We spoke to Roberto Magro, coordinator of the FEMP's open data working group and Head of Interactive Services at Alcobendas City Council, to talk to us about the situation of open data in local entities and the steps being taken to promote it.

Full interview:

1. Could you explain how the FEMP's open data group contributes to the openness and reuse of public information?

Since the creation of the group in 2017, we have mainly focused on the creation of two didactic guides on what open data is and what we need in a municipality to implement an open data project. In addition, we have proposed the 40 datasets that every administration should open up to facilitate the reuse of public sector information.

2. One of its lines of work has been the elaboration of the document Open Data FEMP 2019: 40 datasets to be published by Local Bodies, which aims to provide common data models that facilitate the interoperability and reuse of public sector information. Why did you choose these datasets?

The people who made up the working group are very diverse: civil servants from local councils, freelancers, the university, private companies and the association of the infomediary sector in Spain. We all started to investigate which datasets were starting to be published and which ones could be more interesting from a local administration, with a double purpose: to respond to internal needs and to respond to the needs of reusers. Thus we reached a proposal of 40 datasets with examples of what and how they are published in our administrations.

3. What is the status of this initiative and what are your plans for the future?

After a break during 2020, we have proposed different projects to be tackled by the group, in which the following actions stand out:

• Review the 40 datasets published to date: practical examples, add or remove datasets, etc.
• Define new datasets: emergency, risk catalogue, Open Cities project, etc.
• Methodological proposal on how to measure the impact of the data.
• Drawing up an ethical decalogue on the treatment and use of data.
• Carry out actions to disseminate the Guidelines in conferences, seminars, etc.
• Carry out training actions on open data (theory and practice) at political, managerial and technical level.

4. You are also Head of Interactive Services at Alcobendas City Council. Alcobendas has an open data portal with more than 200 published datasets. What is the day-to-day running of a local data initiative like? What challenges do you face and how do you solve them?

The Internet and being able to publish information in open format allows us to be very agile once we decide what data to publish.

Sometimes, from the Innovation, Digital Transformation and Economic Development Department of the City Council, we discover datasets that can be published and we talk to those responsible for the information to convince them that we can publish and disseminate the data they have. On other occasions, it is the departments themselves who come to us and ask if they can publish data on the municipal website and open data portal. Here, we always consult the Data Protection Officer, so that no legal problems arise, and with his or her approval, we publish the information.

For the last two years, we have been trying not only to publish new datasets, but also to create visualisations so that the majority of citizens can understand the data and interpret it more easily, as well as offering downloads of the data in multiple formats.

But it is not always easy to publish data; at other times we are faced with decision-makers who do not wish to publish the information or databases from which it is too costly to extract data, because of the budget involved in creating data extraction, transformation and publication processes. There is still a long way to go, but I believe that we have to be there, promoting publication, training people and raising awareness of the advantages of publishing open data for a city council.

5. Two years ago, in your article "The star dish of administrative management: an open data ration" you shared a series of reflections and recommendations that all administrations should take into account when developing an open data project. Do you think the open data situation has changed since then in our country? What strengths do you think there are? And weaknesses?

I think that in any medium or large Spanish public administration it is already known what open data is, but it is a different matter if data is published or can be published due to lack of resources.

Every month I receive messages or calls asking how to approach a project, if it is easy, what resources are needed, if I know a company that can help them. The work done by the FEMP is very important because it disseminates teamwork and all mayors receive an email with information, in this case, about open data and that they can count on the FEMP and the Network of Local Entities for Transparency and Citizen Participation to advise them.

Undoubtedly, the weak points continue to be the lack of training and resources to be able to tackle a project of this type. In small town councils, the regional councils should help to create portals where information can be published in order to overcome the shortage of material and human resources. A great deal of work is being done to support the publication and reuse of information from all small and medium-sized municipalities.

In order to respond to an open data project, every institution must reflect and answer the question of why we want to publish open data and launch them to develop a project of this type. The answer, in many cases, will be because it reinforces Transparency, Accountability or Open Government policies. In other cases, because it is a way of collaborating with citizens and companies to generate social and economic value.

Now that there is a European open data strategy and a digital agenda and AI strategy in our country, it is time to put it into action. We must believe in data and approach the governance of institutions with data.

Open data will be our allies to be able to justify all the Next Generation funds that will start to arrive this year.

I believe that all the circumstances are in place for data to be the engine that transforms our administrations, both at organisational and management level.

In order to respond to an open data project, every institution must reflect and answer the question of why we want to publish open data and launch them to develop such a project.

6. What recommendations would you give to those local or provincial bodies that are thinking of launching an open data initiative?

They should be trained, they should ask the FEMP Network, they should give an answer to the why and the open data project they want to undertake should be aligned with the institution's policies.

Last but not least, they should create a multidisciplinary group in their institution (IT, legal, innovators, staff from the economic area, environment, organisation and planning, social services, citizen services...) that are coordinated by a person who leads the team and backed by the highest governing body of a city council: the mayor's office. With open data we will be able to see what our management is like: good, bad or fair, and with the data we will be able to improve and meet the needs, not only of the administration but also of the interest groups with which we interact: citizens, companies, other institutions, etc.

Open data must respond to the social problems of our society and therefore, the sooner we tackle a project of these characteristics, the sooner we will be able to improve people's lives.

The Cantabrian Institute of Statistics (ICANE in its Spanish acronym) has been one of the latest additions to the National Catalogue of Open Data. From now on, users of datos.gob.es can access statistical information on the Autonomous Community in reusable formats from our portal.

ICANE, a commitment to open and linked statistical data

The ICANE is the public body in Cantabria responsible for the production and dissemination of statistics related to society and the economy in the region. On its website, we can find population figures, economic accounts or data related to education and health. These data are shown in tables and graphs, which are easy to understand but not always easy to reuse.

For this reason, the ICANE has also launched an open data space, where statistical information is offered in formats and structures that favour its reuse. This is a linked data portal, which offers data through dereferenceable URIs on the Web. The concepts are linked to other repositories such as Eurostat, DBpedia or Geonames. This provides users with more related and contextual information, which facilitates the creation of new knowledge.

Users can access the published data either manually, using a search engine or filtering by tags, or automatically from the list of datasets produced in CKAN, through its API, or through an RDF browser. ICANE also has a SPARQL Endpoint.

Indicators and statistics available to all re-users

The ICANE catalogue currently has more than 350 datasets, divided into different categories. The data linked to the economy (216) and with a regional component (211) stand out. Some examples of datasets offered in open access are the Annual Wage Structure Survey, the Living Conditions Survey (LCS) or the Environmental Indicators.

Both data and metadata are provided in six different formats (HTML, JSON, RDF, XLS, PC-AXIS and SDMX), oriented both to automated machine processing and direct human readability.

The conditions for re-use are set out in the Legal Notice of the Cantabrian Statistics Institute. Some of the conditions for its use are citing the source of the documents or not altering or suppressing the metadata related to the date of update and the conditions of reuse, among others.

ICANE's presence in datos.gob.es and other catalogues to increase its visibility

In June this year, ICANE began its harvest with datos.gob.es, so that its datasets are now accessible from the National Catalogue of Open Data. With this move, not only does it improve the visibility of its datasets nationally, but also internationally, as datos.gob.es automatically federates with the data.europe.eu. In this way, the initiatives that register in our portal see how their datasets are also accessible from the European portal, without the need to carry out any additional management.

To guarantee the quality of its data, ICANE carries out a two-stage publication process: the information is stored in a test databank to be checked against official sources before being published in production. The import of the datasets from ICANE's Web Data Bank and Metadata API into the Open Data Portal is a fully automated process and monitored on a daily basis.

In addition to datos.gob.es, ICANE has also registered its databank as a dataset in The Data Hub, the open catalogue promoted by Datopian and The Open Knowledge International.

Why is the publication of local statistical data important?

The value of open statistical data has been highlighted by a multitude of bodies. From the European Union, which highlights them as high-value datasets in its Directive on open data and re-use of public sector information, to the UN, which drives their openness through a specific working group, promoted by its Statistical Commission. Statistical data allow us to better understand our environment and to make informed decisions.

In our country, the main body that provides statistical information is the National Statistics Institute (INE, in its Spanish acronym), which has more than 8,000 datasets in our catalogue. Like the ICANE, the INE also has an open data space on its website where it shares the Inventory of Statistical Operations, statistical information compiled by itself and published in INEbase, anonymised microdata from surveys and the Electoral Census Street Map.

But just as important as national statistical information is local statistical information. As the UN stated in one of its reports, this type of data can provide more segmented information on specific geographical areas, which is of great value when it comes to understanding differences between regions and being able to formulate fairer local and national policies.

In this sense, regional statistical bodies such as ICANE or the Canary Islands Institute of Statistics (Istac), which also federates a large amount of useful data with datos.gob.es, are essential. We hope that in the future more local bodies will be encouraged to follow in the footsteps of these institutions and provide data of interest to society as a whole.

Spring is coming to an end to give way to summer, holidays and warm weather. As with every change of season, for the Aporta Initiative it is time to review what has happened in the open data ecosystem over the last three months.

Boosting data strategies

During this season we have seen several initiatives, both local and statewide, launch processes to update their data strategies:

• In April, Málaga City Council presented a Municipal Open Government Plan that includes initiatives to promote open data. Specifically, the development of information campaigns, the homogenisation of dataset formats and the progressive incorporation of new datasets, also including data external to municipal management.
• The Community of Murcia launched a survey aimed at companies in the region to find out which datasets are of interest to them, with the aim of assessing their incorporation into the region's open data catalogue.
• The Government of Asturias carried out a participatory process to develop a Public Governance Strategy. Among other aspects, it aims to implement mechanisms to facilitate participation and access to open data.
• The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation has launched a consultation to identify proposals for the integration of Artificial Intelligence in the value chains of different sectors of the economy. All this within the framework of the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy.

The commitment to open data by Spanish public bodies is also evident in the growing support for the International Open Data Charter. Spanish representation in the Open Data Charter has grown this spring: two autonomous communities, Asturias and Valencia, and one local authority, the City Council of Pinto, agreed to join.

New portals and open datasets

In addition to the bloom, spring has also brought us new open data sharing platforms:

• Alcalá de Henares Town Council has developed a new Transparency and Open Data Portal to facilitate access to information and promote transparency in its management.
• A new version of Euskalmet, the meteorological service of the Basque Country, has also been launched. The portal includes an API Rest for reusers.
• The Spanish Patent and Trademark Office has presented a new version of its Open Data portal in a new format. Through it, users can access reusable data of all types of Industrial Property, available in PDF, XML or SGML formats, among others.

Other existing portals have opted to incorporate new tools:

• The Territorial Information Service of the Balearic Islands (Sitibsa) has launched a tool to automatically incorporate open data from its portal to the map service of the Spatial Data Infrastructure of the Balearic Islands (Ideib).
• The National Centre for Geographic Information (CNIG) has published the web application 'Mapa a la Carta', which allows to customise topographic maps.
• GeoPamplona, the geographic information system developed by the city council, has incorporated new features to improve the user experience and make the service more accessible to citizens. One example is its new catalogue of maps with information already selected, so that the user does not have to search for it.
• Zaragoza City Council has created 'Mis mapas, mis datos', a tool for creating simple and complex maps, combining various data sources.

Moreover, as usual, the vast majority of open data initiatives have been updating their data on a regular basis. Some of the new features that have been presented in recent months are the cultural heritage maps of each municipality on the Barcelona Provincial Council portal or the data on the state of the Mar Menor on the Murcia portal.

Events and training materials are growing

During these months we have attended many events and webinars related to open data. Some of them have been recorded and are available for viewing at any time:

• A few days before the arrival of spring, in March, there was the conference "Data in Local Administrations 20/30. Experiences and Challenges", organised by Alcobendas City Council, the Institute for Knowledge Transfer in Public Innovation (ITCIP) and the Innovation Club, with the support of the FEMP (Network of Local Entities for Transparency and Participation), the Spanish Network of Smart Cities - RECI and Oracle. The different sessions can be viewed here.
• On 23 April, a round table was held, within the framework of the Master in Technology and Digital Innovation in Engineering of the UNED, on "Big Data and datos abiertos applied to mobility". If you missed it, you can watch it on Youtube.

In addition, some courses, guides and books have been launched for those who want to broaden their knowledge of new technologies and data:

• The central government has launched the Elements of AI project in Spain. This is a free online course aimed at all citizens that offers training in the basic fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence.
• Castilla y León has presented the 'Digital transformation guide for public employees', which has a section dedicated to open data. It explains what open data is, talks about the National Open Data catalogue (datos.gob.es) and highlights the importance of reusing information in the public sector.
• The Geomatics and Surveying Engineering Forum of the IDEE Working Group publishes a new version of the book 'Spatial Data Infrastructures', which emphasises the publication and description of spatial datasets by means of services. Among other issues, it includes how they should be presented through viewers and catalogues for their management and exploitation.

Re-use of data by public administrations and citizens

The impact of open data has also become evident in recent months thanks to multiple examples. On the one hand, we have a number of public administrations that have taken advantage of the value of data to implement projects that improve their efficiency and the service they provide to citizens:

• The Madrid Tax Agency has launched a project to use Big Data and Artificial Intelligence to fight municipal tax fraud. A Tax Laboratory will lead this strategy by incorporating information from the City Council's Open Data Portal.
• The Provincial Council of Valencia starts the project 'Connecta València: tourist, intelligent and sustainable territory', which analyses tourist data to adapt and improve the experience in all its municipalities.
• Barcelona City Council has promoted the pilot project 'Dades x Comerç', developed by BCNOpenData to help small businesses make decisions and better understand customer behaviour based on open data.

On the other hand, companies and entrepreneurs have used data to create products, for example:

• The elections to the Community of Madrid left us with multiple examples of journalistic pieces developed based on open data, such as these from El Pais o eldiario.es.
• Two people from Bilbao have created CityAr, an app where users can organise routes, participate in events or play games through augmented reality. CityAr uses Bilbao's open data to show the city's cultural and leisure offer.

In this period, the call for two awards aimed at re-users has also been announced:

• The Asedie Awards 2021, for companies, institutions and open data projects that can contribute social and/or economic value. The deadline for applications is 15 September 2021.
• The new edition of the open data competition organised every year by Castilla y León, aimed at journalists, teachers, students or data reusers. Those interested in participating must send their proposal before 13 July.

A couple of global developments

At the international level, one of the main developments has been the launch of the new European data portal, data.europa.eu, which is positioned as a single access point for data from all over Europe. Its development and management for the next 6 years has been awarded to a consortium comprising, among others, the Ontological Engineering Group of the Polytechnic University of Madrid.

For its part, Asia has launched its first official portal that will bring together open data published by institutions, agencies and organisations from the different countries that make up the continent.

With these examples, it is clear that the open data ecosystem does not stop and continues to evolve month by month. If you want to share any other news that you consider of interest, we invite you to tell us your opinion in the comments section.

The Aporta initiative, in its desire to promote harmonisation and seek synergies between the various publishers of open data in our country, has launched an initiative to find out which datasets are most in demand among those offered in open format according to standards that facilitate their reuse.

To this end, we share a questionnaire and invite different public organisations to identify up to 10 datasets that from their point of view meet the aforementioned characteristics, preferably published on datos.gob.es. In this article we will focus on the responses provided by the Autonomous Communities.

Nine Autonomous Communities took part in the questionnaire: 

As can be seen in the links above, all of them have consolidated and sustainable open data portals in place. They have also shown their commitment to the openness and reuse of public data through various strategies and action plans included in the IV Open Government Plan.

You can see the specific results of the questionnaire in the following infographic:

Click here to see the infographic in full size and in its accessible version.

It can be seen that the datasets that stand out as a priority are those related to the public sector: budgets, expenditure, hiring, subsidies or organisation charts showing jobs and roles in the administration, among others. Public employment offers and the official gazette of each community also stand out.

Secondly, environmental datasets, such as weather forecasts or air quality data, which are very necessary when it comes to making predictions that allow us to fight against climate emergencies, stand out. Closely linked to this category we also find rural environment datasets, such as the Geographic Information System for Agricultural Plots (SIGPAC), with information on agricultural plots declared by farmers and livestock farmers and through which farmers and livestock farmers must make applications for aid.

Datasets related to the economy and employment, where we have included fundamental sectors for our country such as commerce or tourism, complete the top 3 most demanded thematic categories. Job offers, training courses, tourist establishments or beach guides are just some of the examples of datasets included in this category.

Transport data, such as road conditions or those related to public transport, also stand out. And those linked to education and health. Given the current global pandemic situation, it is not surprising that the autonomous communities have also highlighted the importance of COVID data, which are essential for decision-making. These data have been among the most in demand in recent months due to the health situation.

It is worth noting that the work carried out by ASEDIE in promoting the opening of the datasets of associations, cooperatives and foundations (an action they have come to call top 3 ASEDIE) has borne fruit, as the majority of the communities participating in the questionnaire have not only opened them, but have also indicated that they consider them to be a priority.

With this questionnaire, we have learned about some of the datasets considered a priority by the Autonomous Communities. The challenge now is to promote their harmonisation, so that the different bodies publish the same information structure in a way that facilitates their interoperability. Whenever possible, access to data should also be facilitated by means of APIs, with priority being given to data provided in real time or with a very high update frequency.

Do you agree with the highlighted datasets? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Collaboration and the search for common good practices is essential for the development of a homogeneous and interoperable open data ecosystem. In this sense, the Open Data Charter (ODC) brings together more than 150 governments and organizations with the aim of promoting the opening and reuse of government data based on common criteria to respond to social, economic and environmental challenges. Between the entities adhered, we found some of our country, as we will see in this article.

What does the Open Data Charter do?

The Open Data Charter promotes policies, common practices and resources that allow governments and civil organizations to collect, share and use public datato respond effectively and responsibly to the fight against corruption, climate action or pay equity. Their work can be summarized in two facets: articulating global norms and helping governments translate them into concrete reforms adapted to their context.

In 2015, the ODC developed the International Open Data Charter with 6 principles representing a set of standards agreed worldwide for the publication of data. These principles are:

• Open by default. Governments must open their data on a regular basis, being necessary to justify the reasons why certain data are kept closed, such as security or data protection reasons.
• Timely and Comprehensive. The data must be published quickly and completely, and, whenever possible, in its original form and without modifications.
• Accessible and Usable. They must be machine readable, easy to find, and free, under an open license.
• Comparable and Interoperable. Common standards should be used.
• To improve Governance and Citizen Participation. Open data facilitates transparency and accountability.
• For Inclusive Development and Innovation. They also help drive inclusive economic development through the creation of services and products based on them.

On its website, the ODC offers a resource series to assist in the application of these principles, as well as guides and reports that reflect the benefits of open data in all sectors.

Spain in the Open Data Charter

Our country has different organizations and entities that have signed the International Open Data Charter, and therefore undertake to incorporate these principles into their open data policies.

City councils

At the local level, there are 5 attached city councils. The City Council of Madrid was the pioneer in 2015. Not only was it the first city in our country to adhere to the Charter, but also the first in Europe. Their commitment was reflected in an audit of all their information and the elaboration of a publication calendar, in addition to the approval of a Transparency Ordinance which includes the principles of the ODC.

They followed Zaragoza in 2016, Gijón and Salamanca in 2017 and Alcobendas in 2019. All of them have acquired the commitment to make their data available to citizens in open formats in order to achieve accountability and make better use of data, increasing the value of the service they provide to citizens.

Autonomous communities

There are 3 Communities currently adhered to the International Open Data Charter

• The first Community to join was the Generalitat de Catalunya in 2018. Among other actions, the Generalitat has come to organize events jointly with the ODC. Last September they carried out a work session in order to define recommendations on which data is most effective to open to fight the pandemic.
• In 2019 the Castilla y León meeting. Castilla y León's commitments to the Open Data Charter are reflected in its future Transparence law, where the so-called "Open Data clause" is included, that establishes that all computer development that is carried out, with its own or third-party means, must facilitate the extraction of the information that is collected, recorded or collected in reusable formats, thus promoting the principle of "Open by default".
• The last region to join was Asturias, which have recently signed up. The Principality is working on a new portal that will be launched this year.

Although it is not yet included, it should be noted that the Valencian Community, has also requested your membership.

Non-governmental organizations

The ODC Principles have also been endorsed by 72 organizations and non-state actors working to support its implementation with governments around the world. Among them we find two Spanish entities:

• Asedie is the Multisectoral Information Association, which brings together infomediary companies that create valuable products based on open and private data. Among other actions, Asedie performs each year a analysis of the situation and evolution of the sector, as well as conferences with national and international speakers.
• DesideDatum is a consulting firm specialized in data openness, transparency, data governance and open government. Its clients include a large number of Spanish public administrations.

Advantages of adopting the principles of the Open Data Charter

Regions that have joined the Open Data Charter do so driven by a series of advantages, as they are:

• Have a common framework. The ODC principles ensure consistency of the opening policies of data at national and international level. In addition, it is a commitment to open information and transparency.
• Get medium in the implementation of open data projects. The ODC shares experiences and tools that can help when launching such an initiative.
• Get contacts to turn principles into practical actions. The ODC works with experts in anti-corruption, climate change and agriculture to develop guides on how to use open data and solve various challenges.
• Reach agreements in the main international forums. The ODC collaborates with governments and institutions such as the G20 and the OECD.

Institutions wishing to adopt the International Open Data Charter must make a public statement (you can use this model) which includes the actions to be taken to achieve the principles or means of verification to evaluate progress, among other aspects. This document should be sent to info@opendatacharter.net 

The "Open Data of Castilla-La Mancha" space began to operate on 22 June 2017, although its conception began 6 months earlier with the publication of Law 4/2016, of 15 December, on Transparency and Good Governance of Castilla-La Mancha. This law establishes in its article 27 the obligation to create, in the Transparency Portal, a space where public information data is offered to citizens in order to facilitate its reuse.

As a consequence of this regulatory mandate, on 30 May 2017, the Governing Council reached the Agreement approving the Castilla-La Mancha Open Data Project. The objective: to make public information available to citizens in accessible formats and to establish the necessary conditions for the data published to be reusable. To this end, a specific space called "Open Data of Castilla-La Mancha" was set up on the institutional Transparency Portal.

A constant effort to open up data

This space was born with 140 datasets, which have been gradually increased based on the work of identifying and selecting other datasets from various databases and which are documented according to criteria of social utility, added value and easy access. Within this space, a specific link was also created to Open Geographic Data of Castilla-La Mancha, where citizens can find geolocated data under the ESRI methodology.

Thanks to the constant collaboration with the different Regional Ministries, 206 datasets were created by the end of 2017, a number that has been increasing to reach 318 in 2020. This represents an increase of 54.4%.

On the portal, the datasets are classified into 22 categories to facilitate the search by users. Public sector, Environment, Rural environment, Health and Tourism are the categories with the highest number of datasets.

The importance of collaboration

Datos Abiertos de Castilla - La Mancha sees collaboration with other organisations as a fundamental element for the development of data reuse and openness. In this sense, two initiatives stand out:

• Inter-administrative collaboration. They are members of the Data Re-use Working Group in the Sectorial Committee for e-Government and collaborate in the initiatives that are being carried out, such as the definition of vocabularies, the opening of common datasets (associations, foundations, cooperatives), etc.
• Collaboration with ASEDIE. On a permanent and continuous basis, they collaborate with the Multisectorial Association of Information (ASEDIE) for the opening of new datasets such as, for example, the register of cooperatives, the register of Transformation Public Limited Companies or the register of hotel and catering establishments.

Next steps

Datos Abiertos de Castilla - La Mancha wants to continue advancing towards a greater promotion of openness and reuse of its data. To this end, 4 goals have been set to be achieved in the near future:

• Improving the visualisation of information. Among the objectives to be addressed in the coming months is the preparation of an improvement plan for the Castilla-La Mancha Open Data space. This plan will include the creation of a "scorecard" where statistical information will be displayed graphically and on a monthly basis. Among others, it will include indicators such as the evolution in the number of datasets, data formats, datasets by categories, the number of accesses made or the most visited and downloaded datasets. These indicators will facilitate the analysis and monitoring reports on the initiative. The plan will also include the promotion of data publishing using APIs.

• Incorporation of "high value" data based on the new Open Data Directive. Directive 2019/1024 on open data and re-use of public sector information seeks to encourage the use of open data and stimulate innovation by establishing a set of minimum standards governing re-use. Among these rules is the promotion of high-value data. Castilla-La Mancha will work on improving datasets related to the agricultural sector, energy efficiency and information on companies and enterprises, as well as demographic and economic indicators.

• Continue with the dissemination and awareness-raising through a Training Plan. Since 2018, a specific course on "Open Data and reuse of regional public sector information" has been offered for public employees of the Regional Administration and its Autonomous Bodies, as well as a Conference on Transparency and Access to Public Information, organised by the University of Castilla-La Mancha. These conferences address topics such as document management, transparency and information management, data protection and the role of open data. This year will also see the start of an expert course, in collaboration with the University of Castilla-La Mancha. Entitled "Open Government", the course will last 150 hours and will include a module on "Publication and re-use of open data". It will be aimed at public employees in subgroups A1 and A2 of the regional administration and its autonomous bodies.

• Promotion of a single policy or strategy in the management of Open Data and a Data Office. Datos Abiertos de Castilla - La Mancha considers it essential to draw up a Data Governance Strategy, understood as the corporate management of the data, information and knowledge of an organisation with the aim of harmonising, sharing data, promoting ethics in its use, guaranteeing the security of the information and its publication in a coordinated manner (promoting the availability and usability of the information). All of this in a way that allows accessibility, availability and clarity. In this sense, they consider it essential to create a "Data Office" as a key element for the unified management of public data and the exploitation of information. The first step will be the creation of a specific working commission in which all institutional actors involved in data management will participate. It will analyse the situation, make proposals for the elaboration of the strategy and lay the foundations for the creation of the Data Office.

In short, this is an initiative committed to open data, which will continue working to promote continuous improvements in the provision and access of citizens to public data in the region.

The open data catalog of the Generalitat Valenciana was born in 2016, as part of the GVA Oberta transparency portal within the framework of execution and development of the transparency regulations. After a first stage of institutionalization of the public policy of transparency in the Autonomous Administration. The promotion of open data has become one of the main challenges for open government, given the importance that data management gains in the economy and in society.

New version of the portal

The year 2020 was a turning point in the Generalitat's open data project. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of having open and reliable data, and this has posed the challenge of guaranteeing up-to-date data on the evolution of the pandemic. In fact, the number of queries to the open data catalog has multiplied since last year.

As a result of the conviction about the growing importance of data, in July 2020 a new open data portal, with a change in conception: it has gone from a data repository to a space open to the community of reusers. To this end, they have developed new functionalities, contents and forms of interaction with reusers, as shown in the following section.

The Generalitat Valenciana focuses on four lines of action

Within the GVA open data project, there are different parallel lines of work:

1) Expand the data catalog by adding new data sets from the open data portal. This involves identifying the available datasets that are of interest and progressively opening them through different actions with reusers, as we will see later. Currently the portal hasnwith more than 1,000 data sets. During 2020, the most consulted data were those related to the evolution of the COVID-19, but in recent months other datasets have also been opened such as employment regulation files, Data of air pollution, business parks, educational centers and students, itineraries and schedules public transport trunk or dataset catalog, among others.

The Generalitat Valenciana federates its data sets with datos.gob.es, in such a way that, from the national catalog, users can access the data published by this entity. With this action, they are also automatically federated with the European Data Portal, thus gaining visibility at a national and international level.

2) Improve and expand the functionalities of the portal, with the aim of getting the data to the public and providing new tools for consultation and reuse. In this sense, the catalog has been improved to include information on data quality and include the possibility of making graphs and displaying geolocated information. In addition, a new section of open data visualizations, with graphs and interactive viewers to offer the data in a more understandable way to the public.

3) Promote the reuse of data and the generation of an ecosystem of reusers and reusers, both in the orientation of the same open data portal and through awareness-raising actions. Mechanisms have been incorporated into the open data portal, such as the creation of a contact channel for reusers and of a newsletter, in addition to creating new sections of open data news, reuse examples or dissemination of open data initiatives of the Valencian Community.

In addition, actions have been organized to promote the use of data and the creation of a community of users and reusers. In this sense, they organize workshops and conferences on open data with different universities, such as Datathon 2021: aopen data datathon, lasting 3 months, with workshops and mentoring for the teams and prizes for the winners of each challenge. A report has also been drawn up with the Polytechnic University of Valencia survey aimed at researchers on the use of open data and specific activities have been planned for journalists and specific sectors throughout the year.

4) Finally, there is a transversal line of work that seeks to articulate alliances at different levels to advance in the opening and reuse of data in the Valencian Community. Thus, the Valencian Alliance for Open Government as a permanent space for collaboration with the provincial councils and the Valencian Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, a framework in which it collaborates in the formation and opening of data throughout the Valencian territory.

Likewise, agreements have been adopted with all the public universities of the Valencian Community (Jaume I University, València University, València Polytechnic University, Alicante University and Miguel Hernández University) to collaborate in training and research activities on transparency and open data.

Next steps

In the coming months, the Generalitat Valenciana will continue to promote its commitment to open data and its reuse. Recently, a further step has been taken in this regard with the agreement of the Consell to request adherence to the International Charter of Open Data and promote the development of the open data strategy of the Generalitat, which will coordinate the General Directorate of Transparency, Attention to Citizenship and Good Governance.

The bases of this strategy, which will mark the data opening policy in the coming years, are the following:

• The identification and extension of datasets
• Data governance
• Opening from design and by default
• The promotion of the use and reuse of data by citizens and companies
• Collaboration with the rest of the Valencian public administrations and institutions

This initiative also seeks to articulate greater collaboration with other public entities in the opening of data and connect the open data project with other initiatives for data management of the Generalitat in the framework of digital transformation.

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.

The open data ecosystem has been very active over the last few months. The year 2020 has ended with two important developments. The first, the Open Data Maturity Report published by the European Data Portal, where Spain has increased its overall position by 5% and remains among the leaders in the European sector.  The second is the new National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, which includes a series of actions related to open data.

But there are many more new developments that have taken place in recent months. In this article we tell you about some examples, both at national, local and regional level.

State initiatives related to open data

In addition to the publication of the Artificial Intelligence Strategy, in recent weeks the Plan for the Digitalization of Public Administrations 2021-2025 has also been presented, which will mobilize public investment of at least 2,600 million euros over the next three years. Among its points, the plan highlights "the importance of evolving the model of access to public and private information to promote high value-added services". To this end, it will build on the work carried out by the Aporta Initiative in the field of open data.

In addition to these strategic actions, it should be noted that some state agencies have taken advantage of the winter season to launch new projects linked to open data:

• The Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda has published its mobility study with Big Data that characterizes mobility at national, autonomous community, provincial and local levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data generated in the study has been made available to citizens in open data format and has been used to develop a series of indicators.
• The Ministry of Tourism has launched 'Dataestur', a platform that collects basic data on tourism in Spain and from which you can access the various sources of tourism statistics from public and private organizations.

Local open data initiatives

During these last months, several municipalities and institutions have carried out initiatives related to open data, such as:

• The open data portal of the Government of Aragon launched a new chatbot service that makes it easier for citizens to access the information available in Aragon Open Data. Thanks to this, Aragonese people can be better informed and make use of the data in a more accessible way.
• The Community of Murcia creates 'Education in Open Government', a new educational program to bring concepts such as accountability and citizen participation closer to students.
• The City Council of Santiago de Compostela has developed and built new smart surface collectors for the characterization of organic solid waste, through the use of IoT technologies and algorithms trained with open data. This action allows it to advance on its path towards becoming a smart city.
• The Government of the Canary Islands launched its new open data portal, which has more than 7,500 data. Thanks to this, this portal has managed to become the single access point with the most public information data registered in all of Spain.
• The Community of Madrid has announced a new open data strategy to promote and strengthen the transparency of the administration and promote economic development based on knowledge, information and data.
• The Ronda City Council launches "Geoportal Ronda" a new spatial open data tool through which you can now consult all the geographic and urban information of the municipality.
• The City Council of Malaga has received recognition at the IDC Awards thanks to a municipal project that values open data and its uses to improve the quality of life of citizens. Specifically, the Consistory has been third in the category of 'Economic development and citizen engagement'.
• The Vigo City Council has also been awarded in the category 'Planning and administration' thanks to the Smart City VCI+ platform, which centralizes and structures the city's data to create a scorecard that allows a more efficient local management. The platform includes an open data portal so that citizens can consult municipal data in different formats and use them in professional and private environments.

International developments

Acabamos el repaso incluyendo algunos ejemplos de proyectos internacionales ligados con la materia:

We finish the review by including some examples of international projects related to the subject:

• The European Union is driving the EO4AGRI project, which seeks to use earth observation data from the Copernicus program to digitize the agricultural sector and adapt the CAP to the new times.
• The European Commission has launched a public consultation to gather feedback on public sector interoperability initiatives in the EU. The information gathered will feed into the evaluation of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF). The deadline for participation is April 27.
• An international expedition has created a dataset that collects information on the physical and biological dynamics of the Arctic to help better understand climate change. For the time being, this data will be used exclusively until January 1, 2023, when it will be published openly.
• China has unveiled a public data platform that makes it possible to check emission levels in real time to see which factories and institutions pollute the most.
• Argentina's Ministry of Tourism and Sports has launched an open data portal using Andino, a platform on top of CKAN.

These are just a few examples that can be found in the world of open data, but there are many more. If you know of any other interesting new developments that are of interest, you can mention them in the comments or send us an email to dinamización@datos.gob.es.