Training materials and professional skills on open data at the II National Open Data Meeting.

On September 14th, the II National Open Data Meeting took place under the theme "Urgent Call to Action for the Environment" at the Pignatelli building, the headquarters of the Government of Zaragoza. The event, held in person in the Crown Room, allowed attendees to participate and exchange ideas in real-time.

The event continued the tradition started in 2022 in Barcelona, establishing itself as one of the main gatherings in Spain in the field of public sector data reuse. María Ángeles Rincón, Director-General of Electronic Administration and Corporate Applications of the Government of Aragon, inaugurated the event, emphasizing the importance of open data in terms of transparency, reuse, economic development, and social development. She highlighted that high-quality and neutral data available on open data portals are crucial for driving artificial intelligence and understanding our environmental surroundings.

The day continued with a presentation by María Jesús Fernández Ruiz, Head of the Technical Office of Open Government of the City of Zaragoza, titled "Why Implement Data Governance in Our Institutions?" In her presentation, she stressed the need to manage data as a strategic asset and a public good, integrating them into governance and management policies. She also emphasized the importance of interoperability and the reuse of large volumes of data to turn them into knowledge, as well as the formation of interdisciplinary teams for data management and analysis.

The event included three panel discussions with the participation of professionals, experts, and scientists related to the management, publication, and use of open data, focusing on environmental data.

The first panel discussion highlighted the value of open data for understanding the environment we live in. In this video, you can revisit the panel discussion moderated by Borja Carvajal of the Diputación de Castellón: II National Open Data Meeting, Zaragoza, September 14, 2023 (morning session).

Secondly, Magda Lorente from the Diputación de Barcelona moderated the discussion "Open Data, Algorithms, and Artificial Intelligence: How to Combat Environmental Disinformation?" This second panel featured professionals from data journalism, science, and the public sector who discussed the opportunities and challenges of disseminating environmental information through open data.

Conclusions from Challenges 1 and 2 on Open Data: Interadministrative Collaboration and Professional Competencies

After the second panel discussion, the conclusions of Challenges 1 and 2 on open data were presented, two lines of work defined at the I National Open Data Meeting held in 2022.

In last year's conference, several challenges were identified in the field of open data. The first of them (Challenge 1) involved promoting collaboration between administrations to facilitate the opening of data sets and generate valuable exchanges for both parties. To address this challenge, annual work was carried out to establish the appropriate lines of action.

You can download the document summarizing the conclusions of Challenge 1 here: https://opendata.aragon.es/documents/90029301/115623550/Reto_1_encuentro_datos_Reto_1.pptx

On the other hand, Challenge 2 aimed to identify the need to define professional roles, as well as essential knowledge and competencies that public employees who take on tasks related to data opening should have.

To address this second challenge, a working group of professionals with expertise in the sector was also established, all pursuing the same goal: to promote the dissemination of open data and thus improve public policies by involving citizens and businesses throughout the opening process.

To resolve the key issues raised, the group addressed two related lines of work:

1. Defining competencies and basic knowledge in the field of open data for different public professional profiles involved in data opening and use.
2. Identifying and compiling existing training materials and pathways to provide workers with a starting point.

Key Professional Competencies for Data Opening

To specify the set of actions and attitudes that a worker should have to complete their work with open data, it was considered necessary to identify the main profiles in the administration needed, as well as the specific needs of each position. In this regard, the working group has based its analysis on the following roles:

• Open Data Manager role: responsible for technical leadership in promoting open data policies, data policy definition, and data model activities.
• Technical role in data opening (IT profile): encourages execution activities more related to system management, data extraction processes, data cleaning, etc., among others.
• Functional role in data opening (service technician): carries out execution activities more related to selecting data to be published, quality, promotion of open data, visualization, data analytics, for example.
• Use of data by public workers: performs activities involving data use for decision-making, basic data analytics, among others. Analyzing the functions of each of these roles, the team has established the necessary competencies and knowledge for performing the functions defined in each of these roles.

You can download the document with conclusions about professional capabilities for data opening here: https://opendata.aragon.es/documents/90029301/115623550/reto+2_+trabajadores+p%C3%BAblicos+capacitados+para+el+uso+y+la+apertura+de+datos.docx

Training Materials and Pathways on Open Data

In line with the second line of work, the team of professionals has developed an inventory of online training resources in the field of open data, which can be accessed for free. This list includes courses and materials in Spanish, co-official languages, and English, covering topics such as open data, their processing, analysis, and application.

You can download the document listing training materials, the result of the work of Challenge 2's group, here: [https://opendata.aragon.es/datos/catalogo/dataset/listado-de-materiales-formativos-sobre-datos-abiertos-fruto-del-trabajo-del-grupo-del-reto-2

In conclusion, the working group considered that the progress made during this first year marks a solid start, which will serve as a basis for administrations to design training and development plans aimed at the different roles involved in data opening. This, in turn, will contribute to strengthening and improving data policies in these entities.

Furthermore, it was noted that the effort invested in these months to identify training resources will be key in facilitating the acquisition of essential knowledge by public workers. On the other hand, it has been highlighted that there is a large number of free and open training resources with a basic level of specialization. However, the need to develop more advanced materials to train the professionals that the administration needs today has been identified.

The third panel discussion, moderated by Vicente Rubio from the Diputación de Castellón, focused on public policies based on data to improve the living environment of its inhabitants.

At the end of the meeting, it was emphasized how important it is to continue working on and shaping different challenges related to the functions and services of open data portals and data opening processes. In the III National Open Data Meeting to be held next year in the Province of Castellón, progress in this area will be presented.