The Organizational Chart of the Government of the Canary Islands, an example of reuse of open data

In recent months, the Canary Islands data initiative strategy has focused on centralization, with the aim of providing citizens with access to public information through a single access point. With this motive launched a new version of their open data portal, data.canarias.es, and have continued to develop projects that display data in a simple and unified way. An example is the Government Organizational Chart that they have recently published.

Interesting data on the organizational structure and policy makers in a single portal

The Organizational chart of the Government of the Canary Islands is a web portal that openly offers information of interest related to both the organic structure and the political representatives in the Government of the Canary Islands. Its launch has been carried out by the General Directorate of Transparency and Citizen Participation, dependent on the Ministry of Public Administrations, Justice and Security of the Government of the Canary Islands.

From the beginning, the Organization Chart has been designed with the opening of data by default, accessibility and usability in mind. The tool consumes data published on the Canary Islands open data portal, such as the salaries of public officials and temporary personnel, through its API. It also includes numerous sections with information on autonomous bodies, public entities, public business entities, commercial companies, public foundations, consortia or collegiate bodies, automatically extracted from the corporate toolDirectory of Administrative Units and Registry and Citizen Services Offices (DIRCAC).

All the content of the Organization Chart is published, in turn, in an automated and periodic way, on the Canary Islands open data portal. The Organizational Chart data is published on the Canary Islands open data portal, as well as the remuneration, the organic structure or the registry and citizen service offices. They are updated automatically, once a month, taking the data from the information systems and publishing them on the open data portal. This configuration is fully parameterizable and can be adapted to the frequency that is considered necessary.

From the organization chart itself, all data can be downloaded both in open and editable format (ODT) and in a format that allows it to be viewed on any device (PDF).

What information is available in the Organization Chart?

Thanks to the Organizational Chart, citizens can find out who is part of the regional government. The information appears divided into eleven main areas: Presidency and the ten ministries.

In the Organizational Chart, the resumes, salaries and declarations of assets of all the high positions that make up the Government are available, in addition to the temporary personnel who work with them. Likewise, the emails, the address of their offices and the web pages of each area are also displayed. All this information is constantly updated, reflecting any changes that occur.

Regarding the agendas for the transparency of public activity, which are accessible from each of the files of public positions in the Organizational Chart, it should be noted that, thanks to the efforts, it has been achieved:

• Update the application so that agendas can be managed from any device (mobile, tablet, PC,…), thereby improving their use by the responsible persons.
• Categorize the events that, in addition, are visually highlighted by a color code, thus facilitating their location by the public.
• Publish immediately, and automatically, all the changes that are made in the agendas in the Organization Chart.
• Incorporate more information, such as the location of the events or the data of the attendees.
• Download the data of the calendars in open formats such as CSV or JSON, or in ICAL format, which will allow adding these events to other calendars.
• Publish all the information of the agendas in the Canary Islands open data portal, including an API for direct consumption.

At the moment, the agendas of the members of the Governing Council, the Vice-counselors and the Vice-counselors have been published, but it is planned that the agendas of the rest of the public positions of the Government of the Canary Islands will be incorporated progressively.

The Organization Chart was presented at the International Congress on Transparency, held last September in Alicante, as an example not only of openness and reuse of data, but also of transparency and accountability. All this has been developed by a team of people committed to transparency, accountability and open data, all principles of Open Government, in order to offer better services to citizens.