Open data re-use: an opportunity for Spain (COTEC Report)

The COTEC Foundation, a private non-profit organization that promotes innovation as a driving force for economic and social development in Spain, recently published its report "The Reuse of Open Data: an opportunity for Spain". In this study, led by the experts Alberto Abella, María Ortiz de Urbina and Carmen de Pablos, different diagnostic exercises have been carried out to draw a scenario that seeks to show current knowledge about the reuse of open data, in order to identify guidelines and recommendations that help promote the use of data in the generation of business.

The realization of the study has followed a methodology that mainly includes three research areas:

• Study of 103 operational national portals included in the map of initiatives of datos.gob.es, and of their maturity according to a simplified version of the model established by the pan-European data portal.
• Study of the published datasets, on a total of 20,026 identified datasets, after the necessary filtering to avoid duplication as a result of federations among portals.
• Study of the reuse of the published data through a survey carried out to the responsible for the open data portals in Spain.

After the corresponding analysis, a SWOT analysis has been carried out, which has highlighte a series of evidences and reflections that are summarized in the following graph:

Thus, according to the report, aspects such as the lack of homogeneity and quality of published data are presented as great barriers to the creation of innovative businesses. In fact, despite the fact that 87% of the services generated from open data are geolocated and are in real time by 67%, 52% of the published data does not contain any geographical reference and only 5% is updated at least once a week.

In parallel, this study identifies a set of strategic barriers and key techniques. As regards strategic barriers, the lack of mechanisms for internal governance of data to control and manage how data moves within the organization and mechanisms of publication and systematic updating. Regarding technical barriers, the scarce use of adequate tools for the publication of data stands out, which limits the automation of access, the systematic publication, the notification of new features or the adequate understanding of information due to the lack of visualizations about the published data.

Finally, and based on the diagnosis made, the report concludes with a series of key measures to overcome the identified barriers, many of which have in commeon the need for coordination, the importance of a strategy in service generation organizations based on data and measurement actions of use and impact.

The publication of data is not an exercise in transparency, but the sowing of resources that must bear fruit in other entities (re-users). The field where this reuse occurs must be taken care of. - Alberto Abella, 2017-