Open data drive Spain's position in DESI Index

Recently, the European Commission has published the results of the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), the barometer that establishes Europe’s digital performance and tracks the evolution of EU member states in terms of digital competitiveness. In this new edition, Spain secures the 10th position of the ranking, ahead of countries such as Germany, France and Italy, as the following graph shows. Since this index was published for the first time in 2014, our country has progressed 6 positions.

The DESI is an index that summarises 30 indicators distributed in 5 dimensions that measure digitalization-related aspects of 28 EU member States: Connectivity, Human Capital, Use of Internet, Integration of Digital Technology and Digital Public Services. Both the global index and each of the dimensions are associated to exogenous weightings based on the digital policy priorities of European Union. Here is a detail of the indicators that integrate each dimension:

As we can see in the figure, the index includes indicators related to Digital Public Services, among others. These indicators are aimed at measuring the modernization level and the quality of public services as a source of efficiency for public administrations, citizens and businesses. The high position of Spain in this section is one of the reasons behind the progress in the index: Spain currently secures the position number 6 of 28 EU countries, with a higher score than the previous year.

Specifically, Public Digital Services dimension include five sub-dimensions, as the following figure shows:

One of the sub-dimensions with a best score is open data. This category has increased its score by 3% in comparison to 2017 contribution. This score is based on each country position according the Open Data Maturity Index, promoted by the European Commission. This index analyses the maturity level of open data ecosystems in Europe based on a series of metrics distributed in two blocks:

• Open data Readiness. This section measures open data global policies and the actions carried out by each country to promote its dissemination: national coordination, strategies for measuring impact, use of licenses, etc.
• Data portals Maturity. It refers to the usability analysis of the platforms based on the availability of functionalities and topics, the data accessibility and the ease of reusing the available information.

According to 2017 edition, Spain ranks the second position of EU Open Data Maturity Index, leading the maturity ranking (as you can see in the following figure), as a result of the high scores obtained in the different indicators: regulations, policies, national coordination, portal usability, reuse or open data availability.

In particular, Spain scores higher in aspects linked to national coordination, although the country policy metrics have slightly decreased due to the heterogeneity in data use licenses. In terms of usability, the report highlights the high percentage of data offered in machine-readable formats, as well as the good monitoring of activities linked to national data catalogues. Finally, in impact measures section, it is relevant to refer the numerous cases of open data reuse in the country.

The evolution and continuous improvement in the open data policies in Spain is, therefore, an important indicator that drives the digital maturity of the country, and as a consequence, its position in DESI Index. This improvement shows that the efforts carried out are positive. Now we have to continue working in the same direction to try to improve even more our position in 2019 edition.