Open Data Ecosystem Update Summer 2020

The open data ecosystem does not rest in summer. During the summer months we have seen both the opening of new content and the creation of interesting reuse projects. In Spain, we find pioneering initiatives related to areas such as sustainability and smart cities, humanities and culture or geographic data.

Below are some examples of the proposals that have been launched this summer related to open data.

Launch of new portals, repositories and tools to promote access to open data

Reusers have more and more content at their fingertips. An increasing number of initiatives are encouraged to make their data available to users, as well as organizations that go one step further and launch thematic repositories:

• Terrassa City Council launched a new open data portal in July. The portal includes a data catalogue with 133 datasets on demography, transport, urbanism and infrastructure, etc. It also includes an applications section, with examples of reuse.
• The Generalitat Valenciana has also launched a new open data portal, which allows users to consult and download various types of data: education, health, infrastructure... and it includes a space with information for reusers.
• The San Sebastian City Council has opened the GeoDonostia portal, in which it releases all the geographic data and 300 graphics -which will be extended- so that citizens and professionals can consult them.
• In the economic field, the Institute of Economic Studies of the Province of Alicante, INECA, has launched, thanks to the open data, the largest economic database in the province.
• As far as initiatives in the food sector are concerned, the groups AGR127 and RNM322 from the University of Cordoba, which form part of the 'Cereal Water' Task Force, are investigating new techniques and technologies to achieve a more sustainable cereal crop. All the data generated will soon be shared through their platform.
• Regarding art and humanities, the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao opened its doors online through exhibitions and digital tours that allowed access to their works.

Where more advances are being experienced is in the field of sustainability and the search for smart and efficient cities. A good example is the city of Onda, whose project turned out to be the winner of the XII Aslan Awards. The project promotes the collection of real time data on public transport and incorporates a virtual assistant that solves the neighborhood's doubts.

The reuse of data in public administrations

But public bodies are not only opening up their information, they are also creating services to encourage its reuse:

• The City Council of Murcia has presented MUDATAlab, a laboratory that promotes the production and dissemination of humanistic related to the heritage of Murcia, based on the use of open data.
•  Summer has been the time chosen by several data initiatives to launch competitions aimed at promoting the creation of solutions based on data reuse. The Junta de Castilla y León has opened the period to participate in the fourth edition of its data contest, which this year includes as a novelty a prize for data journalism. The Government of the Basque Country has approved a new call for its awards, which will be opened in September, as well as the new edition of the Barcelona Dades Obertes Challenge.

Public administrations not only publish data, but are also reusers of information services, as we have seen in this recent report. Some examples, developed during the last months, are

• Andalusia has released an application through which geolocalized information on free Internet access points can be consulted.
• In order to improve habitability in the city, the Santiago de Compostela City Council has announced that it will introduce a traffic system that will signal the availability of parking spaces in the parking lots using open data from its open data portal.
• The Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia, ICGCat, has published a viewer of routes in the province with data extracted from the open data portal of the Catalan Government. In the same community, the Ministry of Agriculture has published a map of farms in Catalonia.

International proposals that promote the use of open data

Initiatives based on the use of open data are not only limited to Spain. There are also interesting proposals in the international arena that can serve as inspiration:

• Uruguay has created an open data system of trade and business intelligence that provides useful information to small and medium businesses.
• The Digital Agency for Public Innovation of Mexico City has presented a digital tool based on open data through which it will be possible to explore, consult and download information from the territorial cadastre.
• The Massachuetts Institute of Technology has collaborated with Toyota to launch open data to accelerate research in the field of autonomous driving.
• Argentina has launched an educational platform that includes virtual classrooms, a repository of educational content and a monitoring and research module, developed from open data.

These are some of the most striking examples to be found in the world of open data, but there are many more. If you know of any other interesting news, you can mention it in the comments or by sending an email to the Dynamization department: dinamizacion@datos.gob.es.