COTEC publishes a guide to boost data opening and sharing in the business environment

The COTEC Foundation has recently published a Guide for the opening and sharing of data in the business environment, with recommendations and good practices to boost data reuse in the private sector. The objective is twofold: on the one hand, to raise awareness of the opportunities of data opening and sharing within the companies, and on the other, to accompany organizations in this process.

The guide is organized around 5 steps to follow when launching a data sharing / opening initiative:

1. Experimentation and awareness, where the potential of company data is identified.
2. Definition of a strong strategy that includes the objectives and decisions to be taken at the organizational level among other aspects.
3. Technical preparation, where aspects related to data management and technological infrastructure are addressed.
4. Implementation of data life cycle, which is subdivided into the following phases: collect, prepare, share or publish and maintain.
5. Initiative monitoring, where the level of success is analysed and actions for continuous improvement are proposed.

The guide also analyses other relevant aspects to consider, such as relationship and financing models, the legal framework and the roles or skills necessary to launch such an initiative. The document ends with an glossary of terms and acronyms.

To illustrate the numerous benefits that data opening can bring to private companies, the guide includes numerous examples of companies that have launched initiatives to share their data with third parties or have found a new business niche based on data. These examples show the potential offered by these processes, both for companies that provide data and for reusers.

The Cotec Open Data Working Group was launched in September 2018 and has been coordinated by Cristina Oyón and Amaia Martínez from the Department of Strategic Initiatives of SPRI, the Basque Agency for Business Development. The Economic Development Agency of La Rioja (ADER), Alliance 4 Universities, Banco Santander, Bankia, BBVA, Clarke Modet, the Ministry of Employment, Business and Commerce of the Junta de Andalucía, Ecoemblajes España (Ecoembes), EDP Spain, Vodafone Foundation, F. Iniciativas, Indra, the Valencian Institute for Business Competitiveness (IVACE), Orange, Primafrío, Suez Advanced Solutions Spain, Tecnalia and Telefónica are part of this group.