The open data ecosystem returned to full strength after the summer. During these autumn months, numerous initiatives have emerged to promote the use, reuse and dissemination of open data. They have been very productive weeks, so it has been impossible to collect them all in one post. However, we present you a small selection that will surely be of your interest.

Tools and applications to access more open data

We begin the review of the new developments that have emerged this fall in the open data ecosystem with the initiatives that have been encouraged to make available public data through various tools. We present you some of them:

• Castellón Provincial Council has presented its open data observatory, a great platform of updated information that includes indicators with the actions carried out by the Council to address the COVID, an area of good practice, a section with information on the Council of Reusers and the Provincial Council's Open Data Portal.
• Valencia City Council has renewed its Geoportal with the Smart City app, which shows thousands of open data of the city in fields such as mobility, wifi points, gardening, markets, sports or cultural elements.
• The University of Extremadura has made public its new research portal. The portal automatically collects the scientific and transfer production of the researchers without requiring any effort from the user.
• Ponferrada City Council, together with the company Rendytel, has presented a project to measure air quality in public spaces and buildings using technology based on IoT devices, which provide open data to all citizens. Through their mobile phones, users can find out the state of the air and the level of ventilation in real time and, therefore, assess the possible risk of contagion of Covid-19.

Although this is not a new initiative, we would like to take this opportunity to highlight that the Junta de Castilla y León has received the NovaGob Excellence Award for its work on transparency when displaying data on its portal.

Examples of reuse

Did you know that public bodies, in addition to continuing to open up their information, also continue to create services and products based on its reuse? Here are three examples from this fall:

• The University of Valladolid has developed the application 'Casual Learn', which is based on open data to help users learn art history. The application suggests learning tasks taking into account the interests and location of the user.
• Casual Learn was one of the winning projects in the 4th Castilla y León Open Data Competition, in this case in the category of Teaching Resources. In the Products and Services category, the winner was "Escovid19data", a collaborative collection of data from COVID-19 by province in Spain, while "Castilla y León en remoto" took first place in the ideas category and "Coverage of coronavirus diagnostic tests in Spain" in the data journalism category.
• Onda Town Council has presented an app which offers information on free parking spaces, traffic conditions, environmental parameters and pharmacies on duty. This application is part of the Onda Smart City project, a project which turned out to be the winner of the 12th Aslan Awards, as we reported a few months ago.

In addition to public bodies, we also want to highlight the work done by the four young Basques who have created Dataseeds, a platform at the service of European agricultural SMEs to offer a large amount of open data and facilitate their evolution towards a green transition. With their solution, they have come third in the "A European Green Deal" challenge in the EU Datathon 2020.

Events, courses and publications aimed at disseminating open data

But if there is a reason why autumn has stood out, it has been because of the great number of events, competitions, webinars and other activities aimed at promoting open data.

• Este otoño Asedie ha estrenado nuevo blog. Entre los contenidos que aborda destaca la transformación digital, la inteligencia artificial o los datos abiertos, siempre con el foco puesto en las empresas infomediarias.
• La Iniciativa Aporta acompañó a Databeers Málaga en su primera edición online, que este año estuvo dedicada a los datos abiertos de Copernicus. Si quieres conocer más sobre nuestra participación en esta jornada, puedes hacerlo aquí.
• The Government Obert Chair promoted by the Polytechnic University of Valencia, has transferred to the participants in the Autumn Camp of Transparency and Data Management, the foundations for the understanding of concepts related to open data management. In addition, the Valencian Community has announced during this period that it will train companies and professionals in smart city technologies through the project 'Ciudades conectadas y habitable'.
• Open data not only serves to bring applications to life, but also to enrich journalistic and literary works. The Generalitat de Catalunya has published the book "Open data and artificial intelligence, tools for gender equality". This writing allows us to reflect on how open data is also a key element in the fight against gender discrimination.
• Open data competitions have been a constant throughout the autumn: the Aporta Challenge, the Basque Country Open Data competition, BiscayApp...

Some international proposals

At the international level, some very interesting initiatives have also emerged this autumn.

• The World Bank has launched an open water data portal to help countries make informed decisions that will lead to a water-secure world.
• During these months, the European Data Portal has organized different webinars to address the future of open data portals, where experiences, good practices and opportunities for action have been shown to ensure that open data portals remain useful for the community. These webinars will run until January.
• We end with an international news, but with a local component. Brussels awards a Spanish consortium Yoda, its new European project based on open data. This is the development of a platform for any European citizen to create their own personalized board where they can order different sources of information according to their interests.

These are just some of the most prominent examples that have emerged in the world of open data during the autumn months of 2020. However, if you know of any other news that may be of interest, please do not hesitate to mention it in the comments or send us an email to dinamizacion@datos.gob.es.

The open data portal of Aragon emerged in 2012 and has not stopped growing since then. It currently has more than 2,100 datasets and a large number of applications. During these years it has incorporated new features to adapt to the real needs of citizens, such as its information structure that improves interoperability and homogenises the available data, or the incorporation of applications such as Open Analytics Data, which offers statistics related to the use of the most important portals of the Government of Aragon.

In the last few months, they have been working on the Aragon Open Data Focus Initiative, aimed at getting to know open data publishers and users better. To find out more about this interesting project and the rest of the activities they are developing, we have spoken to Julián Moyano, Technical Advisor of the General Directorate of Electronic Administration and Information Society, Department of Science, University and Knowledge Society of the Government of Aragon.

Full interview

1. What is Aragon Open Data Focus and what are its strategic points?

Aragon Open Data Focus is a way of bringing the data of the Government of Aragon's open data portal closer to society, and to those people who are not so familiar with the data, in order to encourage their use and interpretation.

Bringing together the data available in Aragon Open Data has required a better understanding of the real needs of the users and groups involved. These are the four strategic points of this work:

• Firstly, we have started with an initial analysis of the data and services available in Aragon Open Data.
• Second, through this analysis we have defined potential groups of users and agents of interest.
• Thirdly, from this point onwards, different meetings have been organised with these groups to look for synergies and establish lines of work.
• Fourthly, all this has resulted in the service called Aragon Open Data Focus with digital stories and narratives based on available open data and the concerns of the users.

Aragón Open Data Focus es una manera de acercar los datos del portal de datos abiertos del Gobierno de Aragón, Aragón Open Data, a la sociedad, y a aquellas personas que no están tan familiarizadas con los datos para favorecer su uso e interpretación.

2. To learn more about the users’ needs, you have held various virtual meetings. What groups have you met with and what conclusions have you drawn from these conversations?

The meetings have been a very important part of Aragon Open Data Focus. At the beginning of 2020, 8 meetings had been planned in person, to encourage participation and direct contact with these agents involved. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the first of those meetings had to be suspended, rescheduling the agenda of participants and calendar, to be held by videoconference. There has been a great deal of online activity and it has been very well received by the different groups of participants. The groups we have worked with have been:

• Public sector organisations: focused on companies and other public sector entities.
• Storytellers: journalists.
• Companies that reuse data.
• Students.
• Directors, managers and senior executives of private and public organisations.
• Developers and programmers from the technology sector.
• Auditors of public action, citizens' groups and social movements.
• Citizens, in general, new to open data.

The conclusions of all these meetings have been very valuable. The first of these is that it is necessary to talk and debate "one-on-one" with the agents involved, with the recipients of the services, with the possible and potential users of the data, in order to know their needs much better and share them in Aragon Open Data.

Some of the conclusions I would like to highlight that were obtained with the user groups were:  

• Those responsible for public sector bodies are demanding more cooperation within the administrations in order to correctly articulate the effort in terms of transparency and open data.
• Users with a more technical profile and familiar with the data demand more data in open formats, of better quality, improved descriptions, level of disaggregation and updated in real time.
• Interested parties and users with more general profiles want possibilities to relate data from different sources, visualisations, geopositioning of available open data, map visualisations and downloadable geographical information in open formats and with the possibility of integrating them into other websites.
• In addition, open data portals need to improve their dynamization, dissemination and constant approach to data providers and users. Permanent and rapid attention is also requested to new demands for open data or the resolution of users' doubts, linking any action to the culture of openness and transparency on the part of Public Administrations.

It should also be noted that the content, dynamics and conclusions of each of the events are available on the Government of Aragon's website: https://www.aragon.es/-/los-datos-abiertos-mas-cerca-de-la-sociedad-aragon-open-data-focus.

3. What actions are you developing to respond to user requests?

The meetings have been intense, full of ideas, proposals and debates. Now it is time to record the conclusions of these meetings in order to work on the action lines and demands suggested.

It is necessary to emphasize that these meetings and their conclusions are aligned with the Strategy of Aragon Open Data in which the evolution of the web portal of Aragon Open Data and the map of agents (journalists, researchers, citizens) that work with open data to offer an integral vision of the service are analysed. That is why Aragon Open Data Focus has a place in this Strategy.

With this, we continue profiling, working and complying with its lines of action, which allow us to promote the implication of the users and develop a data governance model that covers their demands: working on the opening of new resources, improving the existing ones and favouring their use.

4. What obstacles have you encountered when setting up Aragon Open Data Focus?

The main obstacle, as I have already pointed out, has been the coronavirus pandemic. Aragón Open Data Focus had a markedly face-to-face character, to talk and debate with those involved in a direct way with participative dynamics. We even had events planned in small villages and the rural environment of Aragon, to disseminate and share ideas about open data and to know first-hand their demands and needs. The pandemic made us change its dynamics and do it online, which has not been a problem either to hold these "meetings" and obtain conclusions.

Beyond that, we have noticed that users have great expectations about open data, and sometimes it is not easy to respond to them in this type of conference for different reasons: the inexistence of data in the administration (it is the responsibility of another organisation), technical problems, or due to the characteristics of the open data available. Circumstances that, although they may justify, not excuse, in detail the situation, are difficult to understand by the user or data demander, when we are in the 21st century, in the era of data and the digital economy.

5. What are the benefits for public administrations of this type of initiative?

Above all, it allows us to go deeper into the real needs of users and groups with whom we have worked in order to better focus our actions and future lines of work.

6. A few years ago, you told us that the datasets most demanded by users of Aragon Open Data were those related to the budget. Has this situation changed? What type of information do re-users demand now?

The budget data is still one of the most used in Aragon Open Data, both as open datasets and in the service that reflects it: https://presupuesto.aragon.es/

Today, if we look at the number of accesses, currently, the most demanded (it doubles the second resource with the most accesses) is data related to the coronavirus in Aragon, followed by cartographic data, data on the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) and statistical data.

7. How do you see the panorama of open data in Spain? What strengths do you think there are? And weaknesses? How could they be resolved?

The outlook in Spain is promising. Much has already been done to provide data in open formats by different public administrations at all territorial levels. Now, once their offer has grown in the number of datasets, the portals are been adapting to the demands of society which not only wants quantity, but also very specific data to make the most of it, for example: data on mobility, passenger transport, telecommunications infrastructures, digital services and health, in real time. This is in line with what the European Union has legislated on its new directive on open data and the re-use of public sector information as a strength. In other words, there is an important regulatory and institutional support for open data initiatives in Europe, in order to make the continent a truly data-based digital marketplace that improves the lives of citizens.

Weak points in the opening up of open data, which has good regulatory and legal backing, may be the response times for including a set of data requested from a given portal, and it would therefore be advisable to speed up the processes of opening up the data further. And in the event that there is no supplier acting as data manager, taking advantage of the possibilities of current technologies, for example, data recognition or automatic detection of schemes with quality and security validators, to allow open data to be opened and made available with the minimum of human intervention.

If data is an asset of the public administrations that serve citizens, companies and third parties in this new digital economy, they also have to lose that aura of closure and ownership, which they sometimes give off.

The open data catalogue of datos.gob.es is constantly growing. One of the latest additions is the Island Council of La Palma, which has recently federated almost 400 datasets. This action is part of its policies to promote the Open Government.

The Island Council of La Palma launched its data catalog in 2015, becoming one of the first open data portals in the Canary Islands. Its aim was to create a local and unified repository of data and applications of interest. For 5 years, La Palma Open Data has not stopped growing, and today has 87 active users and 77 work groups that help to enrich its open data ecosystem.

La Palma Open Data at a glance

The project is run by the Innovation, Projects and Information Society Service of the Island Council of La Palma, and is organised technologically around ESRI's ArcGis Online technology platform (AGOL).  Each area of the Cabildo manages its own datasets and applications through the platform, at both public and private level.

The portal has been progressively opened up to different types of formats, and currently has a high number of reusable themes and formats (csv, shp, kml, geoson, htm). The datasets are organised into 10 categories:

Of all the datasets hosted on the portal, the ones that receive the most visits are those directly related to tourism and outdoor sports, such as the network of footpaths and the routes of Transvulcania, a famous ultra-marathon held on the island every year. The catalogue also incorporates real-time datasets from IoT devices, related to weather and air quality stations.

Focus on reuse and use cases

La Palma Open Data also has an outstanding section of applications and visualisations, which facilitate access to the data for those citizens who do not have the knowledge or time to work with raw data. Some examples of the most widely used applications are:

• Transvulcania mountain race.
• Covid19 impact on the island of La Palma, with information, maps and official resources on the coronavirus COVID-19 on the island of La Palma.
• Network of footpaths, with different routes to enjoy nature.
• Meteo La Palma, an application that generates weather maps in real time and whose data are dumped into a public database.
• Waste, developed by the Island Service Consortium, with the distribution of clean points and containers.
• Public lighting, an application with the distribution and characteristics of all the island's public lighting.

To make it easier for any user to download the data and build their own applications, La Palma Open Data focuses on open standards, interoperability and downloading data via APIs.

In addition, the Cabildo periodically organises activities to promote reuse, such as hackathons, awards and open data conferences. They are currently working on new post-Covid19 editions.

Next steps

As we have seen, La Palma Open Data is an initiative that is constantly evolving, incorporating new features to adapt to the needs of users. Within the framework of the Smart Island project, its aim is to continue to promote the use of open data with the focus on real-time data from IoT devices.

Do you want to know more about La Palma Open Data? Visit their datasets in our catalog.

Measuring the impact of open data is not always easy. As we saw a few weeks ago, there are several theoretical models that are not easy to implement, so we have to look for different approaches. In the Aporta Initiative we use a mixed approach, as explained here: a quantitative analysis through indicators on data publication and its characteristics, and a qualitative one through the collection of cases of data use.

This approach is also used by various local, regional and state initiatives in our country. In today's article, we will focus on concrete examples of mechanisms implemented by Spanish open data initiatives to monitor and measure the impact of the use of their data.

Quantitative analysis

One of the first steps in monitoring impact is to know quantitatively if users are accessing the published data. To do this we can use different tools.

Dashboards

Thanks to the incorporation of web analytics tools in open data platforms, such as Google Analytics or Motomo (which until 2018 was called PIWIK), a series of indicators can be set around data consumption variables, such as how many users visit the web, what is their origin, which data sets are most in demand or in what format they are downloaded. All of this information is of great value when it comes to making decisions that imply improvements to continue promoting the reuse of public information.

With this data, dashboards can be created so that users can also know this information. This is the case of the Castellón Provincial Council, the Madrid City Council, the Catalan Government, Renfe, the Basque Government or the datos.gob.es itself.

Conducting surveys and periodic studies

In addition, it is advisable to carry out frequent public consultations and studies that allow us to know directly the impact of our data. The ONTSI periodically carries out a characterization study of the sector, and an analysis of the Public Administrations as reusers of their own data and that of third parties. Another example is the report on the Infomediary Sector of ASEDIE, now in its 8th edition. This report measures the products and services based on open data that have been generated. Both reports use a stable methodology that allows comparisons between different years. 

Qualitative analysis

It consists of the identification of use cases through different mechanisms, such as

Application and enterprise tracking

Thanks to the mapping of open data use cases, we can know what the impact of a certain data set is. In many open data platforms, whether local, regional or state, we can find a section of applications or companies with examples and reuse success stories that in turn serve as reference and inspiration for the creation of new value services. In the case of datos.gob.es, we have a form for companies or applications that wish to register their information, but we also carry out a proactive search, through contact with the main actors in the ecosystem and media alerts.

Other examples of portals that have applications sections are Andalusia, Castilla y Leon, Navarra, Barcelona, Santander, Malaga, Zaragoza, Valencia, Vitoria or Bilbao, although there are many more.

Implementation of data communities

In order to be aware of new developments in the field of reuse and to exchange knowledge and experiences to align the data publication strategy with the needs of reusers, some initiatives have opted for the implementation of communities. This is the case of the Basque Country, which has created a space to centralize everything that happens around the reuse of its data. This community has been especially useful to collect and measure the work that has been developed on COVID-19 using open data. Under its umbrella there are also activities and competitions that encourage reuse.

For its part, the Castellón Provincial Council has created a Provincial Council of Reusers, a mixed public-private body made up of technicians from the provincial institution itself, and people with recognized professional backgrounds in different economic sectors. These professionals meet once a quarter to hold a conversation to monitor use cases and which favours constant feedback and the enrichment of the Provincial Council's open data strategy. 

The National Library of Spain is working along the same lines and has launched a collaborative work platform so that those citizens who wish to do so can participate in specific projects to enrich the Library's data, making it more accessible and easier to reuse.

In short, all these activities allow monitoring the activity of an open data initiative and its impact on society. They help us to know what challenges we are solving in fields as important for humanity as the environment, health or education. In this way, we will be able to know its evolution over time and easily detect trends and possible areas of improvement, which will lead us to distribute the efforts and resources available in a more effective way.  

Content elaborated by datos.gob.es team.

At the end of 2018, Renfe launched its open data portal, a space to share information and key indicators with citizens. The launch of this portal was part of its digital transformation strategy to, in its own words, "put the customer at the center of all its services". 

With the continuous maintenance of this portal, the operator seeks to improve services and attention to users, as well as to promote transparency and accountability. But, as is always the case with open data, the aim is not only to make the data accessible to citizens, but also to encourage its dissemination and use. Renfe's open data federation with datos.gob.es and consequently also its federation with the European Data Portal enhance its visibility both nationally and internationally.

63 sets of data on rail transport

Renfe currently has 63 datasets, which provide information on stations, schedules and notices in 6 formats, as shown in the image below.

Since its inception, the portal has focused on providing operational data, such as general and suburban timetables, geolocated stations or notices of service changes. All of this, giving priority to machine-readable formats to facilitate their reuse. 

Of all the datasets currently available, the most visited, according to their own control panel, are:

• High-speed, long-distance and medium-distance schedules.
• Local timetables.
• Stations. Complete list.
• Number of employees.
• List of High Speed, Long Distance and Medium Distance stations.

Renfe's idea is to continue expanding the datasets on a regular basis and taking into account the contributions of citizens. For example, on April 1 of this year they incorporated new data on Cercanías passengers by time slots, as well as train sheets.

Why are open transport data important?

Open data actions such as Renfe's help democratize information, so that it can be consumed free of charge and reused to create valuable products and services.

Transport data is one of the most reused data categories, which is why the European Commission (EC) has identified it as high-value data. In the datos.gob.es data applications section, you can find multiple examples of products and services that are based on this type of information.

The most popular applications created on the basis of this type of data are those that provide information on the arrival time and routes of the various trains or that integrate different transport methods to determine the easiest and quickest way to reach a destination, such as this example. But transport data also provide us with information to better understand our environment and make decisions. For example, we can know how the empty Spain moves, an important information for the development of policies to help us fight this problem. Or know the services of a particular metropolitan area, something fundamental when deciding where to buy a house.

These examples highlight the importance of transport data and why it is necessary to promote its openness and reuse. With the launch of its portal and its continuous updating, Renfe subscribes to its commitment to this type of data, and is aligned with the strategy set out by the European Union in its new directive, which highlights the need to open up transport data due to its great benefits for society, the environment and the economy.

The Audit Office of the Valencian Community  (Sindicatura de Comptes de la Comunitat Valenciana) has just become the first public institution of external control (ICEX) in Spain to open its data to the portal datos.gob.es. This initiative is part of the 2019-2022 strategic plan of the Valencian Community's auditing body and highlights its ongoing efforts in transparency, as well as its constant desire to offer its data in a reusable format.

Thanks to its presence in the ww.datos.gob.es platform, the data of the Audit Office will also be reflected in the European data portal, which it periodically synchronizes with the national catalogue, making visible the efforts of Spanish institutions beyond our borders.

A year of intense work

Open data allows citizens to be involved in democratic life, facilitating access to public information and its reuse to create services of value to society. In this sense, the Sindicatura de Comptes, and especially its e-government department, has been working hard for a year to open its data in what represents a novelty in the field of ICEX.

The first dataset they have published, which will be followed by others, contains the information of their inventory INVENS, which includes the entities subject to the subjective scope of this institution's audit activity.  This inventory records the accounts that have been rendered, their date and, if applicable, the incidents occurred.

The audited bodies are obliged to inform the Sindicatura de Comptes about any additions or modifications affecting this inventory. In this sense, it should be clarified that the scope of this Audit Office is broader than that set forth in the budgetary and tax legislation applicable in the Generalitat Valenciana, to local entities and universities. This means that there are entities that, not being part of these public sectors, have the obligation to render accounts and are subject to audit. The way to control all these situations and obligations was the creation of INVENS. The first phase of this was published on the Sindicatura de Comptes' website in 2019 and has been implemented with subsequent updates, the last one in February of this year.

From now on, the data included in this inventory will also be available on the national open data portal.

A dataset with multiple uses

Opening up this dataset not only facilitates access to such information, but also its reuse, which can be of interest to multiple groups and use cases, for example:

• This is information of interest to the segment of bodies audited by the Valencian Community's Audit Office and adds value to the databases of each of the associates/infomediaries.
• It is a source to update, complete and standardize data in the databases of this segment.
• It offers useful information for infomediaries that cannot be found in other similar portals.

Other pioneering background: BADESPAV

The Sindicatura de Comptes de la Comunitat Valenciana has always been a pioneer in registering and publishing its information. In 2010 it began to compile a historical record of data which, under the name "Economic Database of the Valencian Autonomous Public Sector", can be consulted on the website of this institution, at the link BADESPAV. This is a useful and easy-to-use tool that constitutes the only place where the economic and financial data provided to the Syndicate by all the entities that make up the autonomous public sector can be consulted.

It currently includes data from 1990 to 2018 and will soon add data from 1983 to 1989. It is a reliable and relevant source of information, presented in a clear and systematic manner, related to the accounting and budgetary statements (balance sheets, profit and loss accounts, budget settlements, number of employees, guarantees provided, etc.), both of the Generalitat and all its instrumental or dependent public sector, which will be updated periodically.

Future plans

Precisely the mentioned BADESPAV database is the perfect candidate for the publication of new datasets in datos.gob.es. In fact, the Syndicate plans to open the data from this database progressively in the portal as the next step. Other datasets that may be published are the Valencian public sector contracts that have been sent to the Public Sector Procurement Platform from 2012 to 2019, as well as the data from the Operational Audit Report on the environmental actions carried out in the town halls of more than 10,000 inhabitants, which the Audit Office has recently carried out.

La Sindicatura de Comptes de la Comunitat Valenciana se acaba de convertir en la primera institución pública de control externo (ICEX) del estado español que abre sus datos al portal datos.gob.es. Esta iniciativa forma parte del plan estratégico 2019-2022 del ente fiscalizador de la Comunitat Valenciana y pone de manifiesto su esfuerzo continuo de transparencia, así como el deseo constante de ofrecer sus datos en un formato reutilizable.

Gracias a su presencia en la plataforma ww.datos.gob.es, los datos de la Sindicatura tendrán también su reflejo en el portal europeo de datos, que sincroniza periódicamente con el catálogo nacional, haciendo visible el esfuerzo de las instituciones españolas más allá de nuestras fronteras.

Un año de trabajo intenso

Los datos abiertos permiten involucrar a los ciudadanos en la vida democrática, facilitando el acceso a información pública y su reutilización para crear servicios de valor para la sociedad. En este sentido, la Sindicatura de Comptes, y en especial su departamento de administración electrónica, ha estado trabajando intensamente durante un año para abrir sus datos en lo que representa una novedad en el ámbito de los ICEX.

El primer dataset (o conjunto de datos) que han publicado, al que seguirán otros, contiene la información de su inventario INVENS, que recoge los entes incluidos en el ámbito subjetivo de la actuación fiscalizadora de esta institución.  En este inventario se hacen constar las cuentas que se hayan rendido, con la fecha en que se reciben y, si es el caso, las incidencias producidas.

Los entes auditados tienen la obligatoriedad de comunicar al ente fiscalizador cualquier alta o modificación que afecte a este inventario. En este sentido, cabe aclarar que el ámbito de fiscalización de la Sindicatura es más amplio que el recogido en la legislación presupuestaria y hacendística aplicable en la Generalitat Valenciana, a las entidades locales y en las universidades, lo que hace que existan entes que, no formando parte de estos sectores públicos, tengan la obligación de rendir cuentas y estén sujetos a fiscalización. La manera de controlar todas estas situaciones y obligaciones fue la creación de INVENS. La primera fase del mismo se publicó en la web de la Sindicatura en 2019 y se ha ido implementando con posteriores actualizaciones, la última en febrero de este año.

A partir de ahora, los datos incluidos en este inventario se podrán consultar también en el portal nacional de datos abiertos.

Un dataset con múltiples usos

Con la apertura de este conjunto de datos no solo se facilita el acceso a dicha información, sino también su reutilización, que puede ser de interés para múltiples colectivos y casos de uso, como, por ejemplo:

• Se trata de información de interés para el segmento de organismos auditados por la Sindicatura de Comptes de la Comunitat Valenciana y aporta valor a las bases de datos de cada uno de los asociados/ empresas infomediarias.
• Es una fuente para actualizar, completar y normalizar datos en las bases de datos de este segmento.
• Ofrece información útil para las empresas infomediarias que no se encuentra en otros portales semejantes.

Otros antecedentes también pioneros: BADESPAV

La Sindicatura de Comptes de la Comunitat Valenciana ha sido siempre pionera en el registro y la publicación de su información. Ya en el año 2010 empezó a elaborar un registro histórico de datos que, bajo la denominación de “Base de datos Económicas del Sector Público Autonómico Valenciano”, se puede consultar en la web de esta institución, en el enlace BADESPAV. Una herramienta útil y sencilla de utilizar que constituye el único lugar donde se pueden consultar los datos económico-financieros rendidos a la Sindicatura de todos los entes que forman el sector público autonómico.

Actualmente incluye los datos de los años 1990 a 2018 y en breve se añadirán los de los ejercicios 1983 a 1989. Se trata de una fuente de información fiable y relevante, presentada de manera clara y sistemática, de los estados contables y presupuestarios (balances, cuentas de resultados, liquidaciones de presupuestos, número de empleados, avales prestados, etc.), tanto de la Generalitat como de todo su sector público instrumental o dependiente, que se irá actualizando periódicamente.

Planes de futuro

Precisamente la mencionada base de datos BADESPAV es la candidata perfecta de cara en la publicación de nuevos datasets en datos.gob.es. De hecho, la Sindicatura tiene previsto como siguiente paso ir abriendo los datos de esta base progresivamente en el portal. Otros conjuntos de datos susceptibles de ser publicados son los contratos del sector público valenciano que han sido remitidos a la Plataforma de Contratación del Sector Público desde 2012 a 2019, así como los datos del Informe de auditoría operativa sobre las actuaciones en materia medioambiental llevadas a cabo en los ayuntamientos de más de 10.000 habitantes, que la Sindicatura ha realizado recientemente.

Can we consider a work of as a data? When talking about open data, we usually think of statistical, meteorological, geospatial data... but we do not have in mind a painting, a song or a book. Resources also susceptible to becoming open data.

When we talk about open cultural data we refer to publications, photographs or musical collections created and distributed by institutions belonging to the cultural sector. It is not just the digitalization of the funds, but also enriching them with metadata that provide the maximum possible information (author, date, technique, etc.) and facilitate access in conditions that favour their reuse.

In this sense, libraries seem to have taken the lead in opening information. We have the example of the National Library of Spain, which launched the open data portal datos.bne.es and has launched different projects based on the reuse of its data, such as BNEscolar. Another example is the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library Foundation, whose catalogue consists of more than 230,000 records open for reuse.

Museums, meanwhile, are slowly embracing the commitment to open data, although there are an increasing number of institutions that are committed to sharing their collections openly.

Two examples of museums that have opened their collections

On February 7, 2017, the New York Metropolitan Museum implemented a new open data policy. The museum creates, organizes and disseminates a wide range of images and digital data that document the history of the museum and its collection - made up of more than two million works of art, from ancient Greece to European masters such as Rafael, Rembrandt or Velázquez-. With this policy, the images of selected works of art that are in the public domain – and, therefore, with lack of copyright - have been made available to users without restrictions or cost, in accordance with the Creative Commons Zero designation (CC0 ).

The museum's website has a search engine, which shows the different pieces of the collection. The user can separate those that are under the CC0 license, thanks to a filtering tool. In total there are 406,000 high resolution images, accompanied by basic information such as title, artist, date, medium and dimensions.

Another example is the National Museum of Amsterdam or Rijksmuseum, dedicated to the art, crafts and history of this region, which has a large collection of Dutch Golden Age paintings. The Rijksmuseum has an open data space where digital reproductions and associated data are collected. These data are made available to the public free of charge for all types of purposes, also commercial. When the works are free of copyright, it is explicitly indicated in the corresponding descriptive metadata. In these cases, the copyright notice establishes "Public domain", with a reference to the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license.

Web pages of the Metropolitan Museum of New York and the Rijksmuseum

Why should museums open their collections?

In this interview with the people in charge of the Musée de Bretagne, pioneer in the opening of data among French museums, the interviewees highlight how thanks to the opening of their collection they have achieved greater visibility. The opening of data gives the museum “a positive and innovative image in the French culture sector. It also generates new knowledge about the museum’s collections, thanks to feedback from online visitors”. This museum has a collection of 700,000 pieces, of which more than 200,000 are now visible and reusable online, including free high-resolution public domain images to download and use.

In the same plot line, we can find this study that analyse the impact of the paintings and their metadata included in wikidata and Wikipedia in English. The study shows how the paintings included in Wikipedia are not only used to illustrate content related to art, but also to enrich other types of entries on diverse themes, such as history (for example, the paintings of kings that show us the aspect that they had) or basic concepts (show what a mermaid looks like through a pictorial representation of it). These paintings help complement textual information while attracting users' attention to museum collections, driving a views increase.

A field full of challenges, but also opportunities

Opening the works of the museums entails a series of challenges, such as the need to carry out a legal evaluation to know who are the rights holders and the contracts in force, so that copyright is always respected, or the technical challenges that entails. Museums will need a technological infrastructure, as well as resources to correctly catalogue all the works with their corresponding metadata (you can learn about the Prado Museum's experience in this interview).

But, on the other hand, if these challenges are overcome, the museum will gain multiple benefits, starting with the increase in visibility and the possibilities of its reuse to create valuable products and services.