Entrevista
María Jesús González-Espejo is, with Laura Fauqueur, co-founder of the Institute of Legal Innovation (Instituto de Innovación Legal), a company specialized in supporting professionals, law firms and organizations in innovation and digital transformation projects. For this, they are based on 4 pillars: consulting, training, events and information.
Datos.gob.es has spoken with her to tell us the role of open data to get a more transparent judicial system.
What is the impact of data and new technologies in the legal sector? Why is it important to transform this sector?
Technology and data can and will transform the sector in many ways. On the one hand, technology and data impact on the legal framework. In effect, new technologies are demanding new regulations and also generating new business sources for lawyers who specialize and are able to advise on these topics.
On the other hand, technology allows jurists to better manage their work and their organizations. And nowadays, although later than other sectors, jurists know that they can be much more efficient if they use technology for certain tasks, especially those where data and its management are relevant: issues management; Customer Management; People Management; knowledge management; financial management and legal prediction. The impact of these technologies on legal professionals and their organizations is enormous.
Finally, there are legal services that can be offered through technology, improving its provision. For example, chatbots allow providing advice in a more efficient manner, and contract automation tools allow generate contract easily and without the need for professional support. These types of technologies will clearly impact the employment market.
The Institute of Legal Innovation seeks to help in the digital transformation of the sector through different projects. What is the role of open data in this transformation process?
I believe that the Institute of Legal Innovation has been one of the first private operators that has claimed the need for more open data. In the legal sector there is a series of data that are key to the development of more and better Legal Tech: judgments, resolutions and other information that result from legal procedures and that must be public. Many of the agencies that keep this information (CGPJ, CENDOJ, Registrars, Notaries, Ministry of Justice, Bar Associations, etc.) provide us with great reports and statistics, but not the data. In our opinion, that is the next step that must be taken to produce the real "Legal Tech Revolution", as I claimed during my speech in the Senate.
What is Legal Design Thinking? What advantages can it bring?
Legal Design Thinking is a methodology, based on Design Thinking. The origin of Design Thinking is located in the 50s in Stanford University in the US, but it is really in the 90s, hand in hand with David Kelley, when Design Thinking begins to be conceived as we know it today. In the 90s, also professors of this university began to investigate the applications of this methodology to the legal field. Parallel to this North American school, in Helsinki, several researchers of different specializations (legal, design, etc.) develop projects focused on the so-called Visual Design Thinking and its application to the legal sector.
This methodology helps to solve legal problems, understanding as such, those that refer to the functioning of the legal system or legal service providers, Legal Design Thinking (LDC). The word "problem" must be understood not in the traditional sense, as something negative, but in a broader one, as a challenge or situation that can be improved through creativity. This activity is the core idea on which Design Thinking is articulated. The other main point of the Design Thinking discipline is the client, the user, the recipient of the service, the contract, the rule, the sentence. In summary, Legal Design Thinking is a discipline that fits into the heuristic and whose main objective is the search for solutions to problems through creativity, always putting people at the center of the activity.
This discipline is very useful for many of the needs that law firms and other organizations in the legal sector have nowadays, such as the revision of their business models; the identification and development of new products or services; the understanding of customer journey to better meet customer needs or the operation of equipment.
One of the challenges to address the digital transformation of the legal sector is the lack of personnel with technological skills and knowledge, something that also happens in other sectors. What are the necessary capabilities and how can they be acquired?
Acquiring technological knowledge is not easy, but it is possible. There are already some complete works that analyse the Legal Tech in depth. In addition, there are numerous conferences, congresses, etc. where you can learn about the subject.
However, it is more complex to acquire the necessary skills such as project management; leadership; change management; time management; etc. The reasons are that, on the one hand, our sector has its own idiosyncrasy and requires customized training; but at the same time jurists are usually short on time and, consequently, many courses do not achieve sufficient capacity. So it is not always easy to find suitable training offer.
You also organize hackathons, such as #HackTheJustice (2017) and JustiApps (2014). Among other issues, the aim is to develop applications that help improve the efficiency and transparency of the sector. How has the reception of these events been? What are the challenges to access and reuse legal public data?
The reception of these events has been very good. In fact, they have received support from many relevant institutions such as the Ministry of Justice, the General Council of Notaries and companies such as Amazon, Banco Santander, Ilunión, Everis, Thomson Reuters, WKE, etc. In both editions we counted on a sufficient number of participants who also had very different profiles: lawyers, judges, students, etc. For all of them, working for a weekend with designers and developers of apps has been a unique experience that has changed their lives. Several of our participants have decided to turn, in part, their professional lives around after participating in our hackathons.
When we organize the first hackathon, we realized that there were almost no legal datasets and we made a round of calls to try to get them. The answers were not very positive. Since our first hackathon, there have not been major changes. So there is still room for work to continue asking the institutions to open the data they own.
What measures do you consider necessary to encourage the opening and reuse of legal open data?
The most important measure seems simple at first sight: all administrations that are responsible for data susceptible to becoming datasets should open them. Beginning with the Ministry of Justice and continuing through the CENDOJ or Registrars. All datasets should be inventoried, so that whoever wants to locate them does not have to spend days on their location.
To encourage reuse, perhaps a Legal Datathon could be organized once a year. Of course, hackathons and such activities also help and it would be great if some public institution wanted to organize them. In addition, the creation of Legal Tech incubators in professional colleges would support entrepreneurs who reuse this data. Finally, training in data, big data, transparency, etc. to law students and even professionals is perhaps the most necessary and practical measure that could be implemented.
The Legal Innovation Institute is also an incubator of Legal Tech projects. Based on your experience, how is the situation in Spain regarding innovation in the legal sector? Could you tell us about some of the projects you have in hand?
The situation is better in some aspects and worse in others. Spain has a clear advantage: the potential of the Spanish-speaking market. And several disadvantages: lack of enterprising spirit in technology among jurists; lack of institutional support; lack of training in the necessary skills and knowledge; etc. However, I am optimistic and I think that, in Spain,we are becoming aware that we are facing a sector with great potential. In the coming years, I think that we can become the cradle of many Legal Tech that will transform professionals, legal organizations and how many legal services are provided today.
One of the most relevant projects that we have in hand is the launch of the first Legal Tech comparator. It will be a very useful tool for any firm or professional who wants to know what technology is available in the market.
Noticia
As every year, it is time to evaluate the activity carried out during the last year.
2018 has been a very positive year for Aporta initiative. On the one hand, our work has been acknowledged, one more year, by the European Data Portal, which consider our country as an open data trend-setter. In addition, published datasets has grown, exceeding the barrier of 21,500 (32% more than the previous year), as well as publishers and user visits (with a growth of 15% and 64%, respectively).
On this year, we have focused on the promotion of reuse companies, highlighting the role of open data as a driver of innovation and entrepreneurship. The new edition of the Aporta Meeting, held on November 28, addressed this topic. During the event, public bodies, start-ups and big companies analyzed the keys to success and the challenges of entrepreneurship linked to data and new technological paradigms. It was also discussed how the opening and reuse of data improve the management of public administrations. The event was a great success of the public and had a notable impact on the media.
In addition, we have continued with our work of dissemination and promotion of open data, reporting both news at national and international level, as well as generating guides and articles that help to launch a greater number of initiatives, promoting openness of information from public administrations. It should be noted that an increasing number of agencies use our advice and support service to solve technical and methodological doubts. In addition, we have reinforced the interview section, giving voice to professionals who have initiated interesting projects.
All the successes achieved have been possible thanks to the open data community, whose effort has driven the achievement of all the objectives. We will continue working in 2019 to further boost the universe of open data in Spain.
Evento
8th Edition of Aporta Meeting will take place on November 28. In this occasion, the event will focus on the power of public data to promote innovation and entrepreneurship. Under the motto "Innovation with public data", consolidated companies, start-ups and public bodies will share their experience about taking advantage of improvement and business opportunities linked to open data and new technological paradigms, such as Big Data or Artificial intelligence.
Thanks to these testimonies, attendees can learn first-hand about the challenges of an innovative project with open data, and discover possible solutions. The objective is to create an inclusive and dynamic event, where attendees can also share their concerns and own experiences through collaborative round tables.
The Meeting will begin at 9:30 in the Assembly Hall of the Secretariat of State for Digital Progress (Ministry of Economy and Enterprise).
- Round table 1: The value of open data reuse for Public Administrations
The first round table will be focused on public administrations and how the reuse of their data allows optimizing the services offered to citizens.
There are many examples of local, regional or state entities that have implemented services and applications based on public data to improve their agility and efficiency. These services allow a more direct communication, promoting transparency and accountability, as well as a greater participation of citizens in their locality or region political life. In addition, through the data analysis, these organizations can also identify behavior patterns that drive better resource planning and greater services personalization.
In order to address this issue, representatives from the following entities will participate in the round table: City of Madrid - who will moderate the debate-, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Junta of Castilla y León, Autonomous Community of Murcia, Renfe and Provincial Council of Bizkaia.
- Round table II: Public sector information and entrepreneurship
According to the latest data from the National Observatory of Telecommunications and the Information Society (ONTSI), currently, there are more than 530 small and medium-sized companies with the objective of creating ideas and new products based on public information and data. These companies generated a turnover of 1,500 - 1,750 million euros and more than 5,000 direct jobs in 2016.
Innovation based on public data is especially noticeable when we talk about entrepreneurs and start-ups. The availability of free public data or public data with a marginal cost reduce the risk of starting a new business.
Therefore, the second round table will be integrated by entrepreneurs and startups from different sectors that are developing new products and services based on public data reuse and analysis. This is the case of VisualNACert, a software developer that improves the management of agricultural farms, Piperlab, which uses Big Data technologies and data sciences to develop algorithms that improve decision making, or Naru Intelligence, which applies data analytics to biomedicine sector. This round table will be moderated by Barcelona Open Data Initiative.
- Round table III: Public data and business development
But open data is not only useful for entrepreneurs. An increasing number of private entities use public data to face business challenges and improve their competitiveness. For these companies, public data has become an additional business resource that contributes to maintaining leadership in their industry sector, reducing corporate costs, adapting to and evolving with agility in their environments and collaborating with clients - and even competitors- to face industry challenges.
Therefore, the third round table will be integrated by four international companies that will explain how public data use help improve their products or services, adapt to new markets and expand their radius of influence in the industry. These companies are Informa, Syngenta, GMV and Esri, who will share their experience under the moderation of the Secretariat of State for Digital Progress.
The complete agenda is available in this link. Although the event is free, places are limited. Therefore, those interested in attending must register in this link.
Noticia
Open data has direct benefits in the economy, as it contributes to improve income, create jobs and save costs. Thanks to open data, companies can not only acquire a greater knowledge about their environment and make better decisions, but also use open data as raw material for their business development.
According to the Economic benefits of Open Data, a report carried out by the European Data Portal, the direct market size of open data will increase by 36% between 2016 and 2020 in the European Union, reaching a cumulative direct market size of 325 billion euros. The same report highlights that more than 25,000 jobs will be created in the private sector, at the same period.
Although innovation around open data takes place in organizations of all sizes and maturity levels, its value is especially notable when we talk about entrepreneurs and start-ups. Open data decreases the risk of starting a new business, since many data are free or have a marginal cost. Therefore, an increasing number of companies are starting their professional journey using public data to create new business models, products and services: according to the latest ASEDIE report, 23% of Spanish reuser companies have been founded in the last 5 years.
Although the outlook is positive, it is true that companies that want to undertake using open data also have to face a series of organizational, technical and financial challenges. Building a business case can be slow, especially if you don´t have all the economic resources and the necessary technical skills. Here, public administrations can play an important role.
According to the Open Data and Entrepreneurship report, public administrations can help drive innovation and entrepreneurship based on open data through 5 principles:
- Build the ecosystem including technical experts with business knowledge, citizens, journalists and data providers. The objective is to create a space for dialogue where player´s needs can be addressed, driving collaboration and the creation of new financing mechanisms and income streams.
- Promote that young people use open data through education. On the one hand, encouraging academic plans to increase the offer in terms of data analysis and disruptive technologies. On the other hand, promoting educational projects, contests or events that communicate the value of open data, encourage its reuse and promote the acquisition of new skills. As an example, Barcelona Dades obertes and the Escuelas Comciencia.
- Invest in national and regional acceleration and incubation programs. A good idea is to advise and support entrepreneurs through virtual accelerators, grants, mentoring programs and other actions aimed at promoting innovation. All actions should be linked with the community we have created, fostering the replication of successful strategies.
- Make the link between entrepreneurs, data and domain. Organizing hackathons or challenges on themed lines to engage with the domain, drive certain data sets and help companies focused on this area.
- Monitor entrepreneurs’ activities. Knowing which data sets are the most reused and their purpose allows to measure open data impact and promote the opening of new data sets.
In short, the role of public administrations does not end with the publication of open data, but its contribution is essential to promote a data-based economy, driving the reuse of information and the creation of new business models and work positions.
Noticia
Increasing the flow of open data is one of the major recommendations to accelerate digitalisation in Spain, as outlined in the report ‘Digital reinvention: an opportunity for Spain’, prepared by Fundación Cotec para la Innovación and Digital McKinsey. According to this report, published last July, digitalisation could mean lead to an increase in Spain’s GDP of between 1.8% and 2.3% per year until 2025. Today, the digital economy represents 5.6% of Spain's GDP.
The document highlights how the process of digitalisation is accelerating and transforming society as a whole and how we are currently presented with new innovations, including the Internet of Things, Big Data, and advanced analytics, as well as the impact that digital transformation has on all economic and social spheres, surveying the various waves of innovation and how they have shaped the digital economy. In particular, it refers to the companies that are leading this transformation and how many milestones have already been reached in the process of digitalisation in Spain.
Over 60 pages, the report describes how digitalisation functions as a lever to improve productivity and that this transition to the digital world requires a reconfiguration of the productive model. The better use of data to develop new products is, indeed, one of the keys to this process.
The report sets out a dozen proposals (chart attached) – one of them is the increase in open data mentioned above – to speed up digitalisation in Spain in the short term and notes that a joint effort between public institutions, the private sector, and citizens is a major precondition.
In particular, it specifies that prioritising the measurement and publication of national data is required in order to accelerate digitalisation, along with increased connectivity with other EU countries by means of the free flow of data. ‘Data sharing increases understanding between sectors and institutions and provides a basis for decision-making and creating applications that leverage Big Data.’ The report states that ‘Although Spain is the European leader in Open Data, more can still be done by participating in the various initiatives to integrate European data infrastructure.’ In this sense, the report supports the Open Science Cloud, created to connect researchers from all over Europe, allowing them to store and share data between countries, and recommends doing everything possible to encourage initiatives of this nature, as well as continuing to work on the integration and publication of national data.
This report provides examples of how governments around the world are joining the trend of making their data public. For example, several cities in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, or Chongqing, have launched pages that allow citizens to freely access government data. More than 400 databases published by the city of Beijing provide information about tourism, education, transport, land use, and medical treatment. Companies are using this data to create applications that facilitate urban mobility and even help prevent disease.
Another of the examples of open data is that of Boston About Results, a performance measurement platform launched in 2006 in the city of Boston (USA) that publishes performance data from various departments and projects. ‘By publishing the data, it increases the accountability of public officials, advances the public administration's transparency, and strengthens management by providing officials with tools,’ it states.
The study advocates the use of digital technologies to improve R&D. ‘The availability of large amounts of data and the ability to analyse it would not only help to improve the speed at which new discoveries are generated but would also decrease the development time of new products through improved testing and quality measurement mechanisms. It concludes that ‘Computer-aided design and the data generated from production systems can help engineers to design the next generation of products’. Indeed, one of the main conclusions referring to the data in this report, ‘Digital reinvention: an opportunity for Spain’, is that the digitalisation of the economy favours the availability, tracking, and processing of data, which consequently allows an improvement in productivity.
Noticia
As the open data sector has developed in recent years, we have also seen an increase in its impact on the business and entrepreneurial world. In addition, the growing interest of many institutions (both public and private) in the entrepreneurial and technological world has made it possible to effect a transition in the support given to data entrepreneurs by these institutions, moving beyond contests and challenges to more complex frameworks with incubators and business accelerators. The aim is now to gather these initial ideas and develop them, providing them with the resources and visibility necessary to turn them into viable business projects, including, in many cases, direct investment in the project.
There are currently more than 250 incubators and accelerators in Spain alone, both public and private, including several that are well-known and well established in the country, such as SeedRocket, Wayra, Digital Assets Deployment, and Lanzadera. These programs offer, in their initial phases, basic support consisting of multiple services, such as physical space, financial, legal, and operational support, business plan development, evolution, growth and expansion, and personal mentoring for each of the projects. The objective is to accelerate projects that are either in their conceptual phase or already under development in order to progress more rapidly and generate profits when they come to market.
Given the proliferation of this type of services, progress is being made beyond a model that was, perhaps, too general towards one of greater specialisation, where, in addition to offering all the advanced services, there is also a focus on hosting and supporting projects in a specific sector of activity, with advisors with expertise in this area. This is exactly what can be seen happening in the data sector, where it is now possible to find acceleration projects that focus on the most significant challenges relating to data management, including security, technology, business intelligence, open data, data science, and big data. In this regard, there are well-known leading options in the United States, such as Data Elite, The Data Incubator, or StartX, but there are also others in Spain, which do operate on the international stage, such as Incubio and The Internet of Things & Data.
The European Commission, as part of its strategy and overall policy on open data, has no desire to miss the boat of new entrepreneurial developments regarding data and has, therefore, created its own acceleration programmes for businesses in the data economy, with two successful programmes to date:
Finodex: A virtual European accelerator that provided a broad range of services to entrepreneurs who offered their services and products using open data and the FIWARE platform in areas as varied as health, smart cities, transportation, agriculture, energy, teaching, and logistics. With nearly 500 ideas in total and more than 100 companies in 19 different countries that have been part of the acceleration programme, the results of the project have surpassed initial expectations, accruing a total ROI of more than 75% and procuring more than 10.5 million euros in additional funding for companies.
ODINE: This open data incubator provided a six-month incubation programme to European entrepreneurs by offering financing, further training, ongoing support, participation in exclusive events, and media promotion, as well as access to an international network of contacts and investors. In total, more than 1,000 proposals were received covering various disciplines from across Europe, from which more than 50 companies were selected to receive more than 5 million euros of total investment, generating a total economic impact of over 20 million euros.
Thanks to the success of and precedent set by these programmes, we now have a new call in Data Pitch, a project intended to provide support to a total of 50 entrepreneurs who use the data provided by partner organisations to resolve social problems. Data Pitch will offer up to 100,000 euros of funding in two rounds of funding for each of the initiatives for which they provide guidance, starting in July.