Resources to advance open data as a result of ENDA-driven challenges

The National Open Data Meeting (ENDA, in its Spanish acronym) is an initiative born in 2022 from the joint effort of the Diputación de Barcelona, the Government of Aragón and the Diputación de Castellón. Its objective is to be a space for the exchange of ideas and reflections of the administrations to identify and elaborate concrete proposals in order to promote the reuse of quality  open data that can bring concrete value in improving the living conditions of citizens.

An important peculiarity of the Encounters initiative is that it fosters an annual cycle of collaborative work, where challenges are posed and solutions are worked out together. These challenges, proposed by the organisers, are developed throughout the year by volunteers linked to the field of data, most of them belonging to the academic world and the public administration.

Three challenges have been worked on so far. The conclusions of the challenges worked on are presented during each annual event and the documentation generated is made public.

CHALLENGE 1.- Generate data exchanges and facilitate their opening up

At the first ENDA (held in Barcelona, November 2022) a vote was taken on which data should be prioritised for openness. Based on the results of this vote, the Challenge 1 working group made an effort to collect standards, regulations, data sources and data controllers, as well as cases of publication and re-use.

The objective of this challenge was to foster inter-administrative collaboration to generate data exchanges and facilitate their openness, identifying datasets to work on in order to boost their quality, the use of standards and their reusability.

• Material from Challenge 1: Encourage inter-administrative collaboration to generate data exchanges and facilitate their openness presented at the second ENDA (Zaragoza, September 2023)

CHALLENGE 2.- Increase capacities for data openness

Challenge 2 aimed to ensure that public sector workers develop the knowledge and skills needed to drive the dissemination of open data. The ultimate goal was to improve public policies by involving citizens and businesses in the whole process of opening up. 

Therefore, the working group defined profiles and roles needed for data opening, collecting information on their functions and the skills and knowledge required.

In addition, a list of free training courses on open data and data analytics was compiled, linking these with the profiles for which they could be targeted.

• Document of the Challenge 2: Capabilities for opening data

CHALLENGE 3.- Measuring the impact of open data

Challenge 3 sought to address the need to understand the impact of open data. Therefore, throughout the year, work was carried out on a methodological proposal for a systematic mapping of initiatives that seek to measure the impact of open data.

At the third ENDA (Peñíscola, May 2024), a self-test for local authorities to measure the impact of the publication of open data was presented as a result of the working group.

• Document of the Challenge 3: Methodological proposal for a systematic mapping of initiatives that seek to measure the impact of open data

The answers to these challenges have been made possible through collaboration and joint work, resulting in concrete documents and tools that will be of great help to other public bodies that want to advance their open data strategy. In the coming years, work will continue on new challenges, with the aim of further boosting the openness of quality data and its re-use for the benefit of society as a whole.