What is the maturity level of open data in Spain?

In 2010, Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web, suggests a system to measure the quality of open data according to their reusability. This system, known as 5 stars, establishes a series of levels, ranging from lower to higher ease of reuse. Here is a detail of each level:

• One star: this level is reached by just the publication of the data, regardless of its format. Here we would find open unstructured data (documents in pdf format, images, videos, etc.), difficult to manipulate and reuse by users.
• Two stars: at this level, data are available in a structured format, using proprietary software. That would be the case of Excel spreadsheets.
• Three stars: in this case, structured open data are available in a non-proprietary open format, such as OpenOffice, or CSV.
• Four stars: this level supposes the existence of structured data with URIs to denote resources. They use the RDF standard, recommended by W3C to facilitate interoperability.
• Five stars: it is the level of higher maturity, where the data, in addition to fulfilling all the previous requirements, are linked to other similar data published by other organizations, in order to provide context and optimizes searches, facilitating reuse.

Based on this classification, the different initiatives identified by datos.gob.es in Spain have been catalogued. The result shows a positive outlook, since just 7% of the open data portals identified offer datasets according to the first two stages. The fact that the vast majority of the identified initiatives facilitate the reuse of data, ranking at the top 3 stages of this classification, highlights the interest of publishing authorities to promote the reuse of their open data.

Most of the initiatives (around 80%) have datasets that are in the third level, that is, they offer open data structured in open formats, so users can manipulate the data, without limitation of characteristics or functionalities, and create with them services that add value to society. In addition, many of these initiatives are incorporating different functions to help users, such as advanced search engines, applications catalogues or training resources, among others. However, as we have seen previously, reuse could be further promoted if URIs and linked data were incorporated.

In Spain we find many pioneering initiatives that have already followed these steps, and have opted to offer data according to the last two levels. Among the examples of portals with 5 star data, we find diverse initiatives, promoted by local, regional and state publishers, and even initiatives linked to universities. Aragón Open Data, Portal Dades Obertes CAIB (Government of Balearic Island), Linked Data Portal of Spain National Library, Opendata Cáceres, Transparency Portal of Diputació de Castelló, Open Data Portal of Extremadura University, Open Data Portal of Gijón and Open Data Portal of Zaragoza city are some examples of these initiatives.

These data show that open data initiatives no longer focus only on access to information, but also on its reuse. In this way, citizens and companies have the opportunity of being an active part of the community, generating new products and services that add value to all society.

If you want to know more about URIs and linked data, we recommend you: Linked data as a data model and Good practices in the design of APIs and Linked Data.