What's new in the open data ecosystem (autumn 2021)

Autumn is coming to an end and, as every time we change season, we would like to summarize some of the main news and developments of the last three months.

One of the main advances of open data in our country has occurred in the legislative field, with the approval of the transposition of the European Directive on open data and reuse of public sector information. It has been included in the Royal Decree-Law 24/2021, validated last December 2 by the Congress. You can read about the new features here.

It is expected that, under the protection of this regulation, the Spanish open data ecosystem will continue to grow, as shown by the new developments in recent months. In the case of datos.gob.es, we have reached 160 public administrations publishing data this fall, exceeding 50,000 datasets accessible from the National Catalog. In addition, many organizations and reusers have launched new projects linked to open data, as we will see below.

La Palma volcano, an example of the value of public data

This autumn will be remembered in our country for the eruption of the volcano on the island of La Palma. A situation that has highlighted the importance of the publication and use of open data for the management of natural emergencies.

The open data portal of La Palma has offered -and offers- updated information about the eruption in Cumbre Vieja. Data on perimeters, photogrammetries, thermographs or terrain models can be consulted and downloaded from its website. In addition, the Cabildo Insular has created a unified point to collect all the information of interest in real time in a simple way. It is also important the data and tools made available to the public by the National Geographic Institute. In addition, the Copernicus Earth Observation Program offers data and maps of interest, as well as management support.

All these data have allowed the development of 3D viewers and tools to compare the situation prior to the eruption with the current one, which are very useful to understand the magnitude of the event and make decisions accordingly. The data have also been used by the media and reusers to create visuals to help transmit information to the public, such as this visual tour of the tongue of fire from the recording of the seismic activity to its arrival at the sea or this animation that shows in just 30 seconds, the 5,000 seismic movements recorded in La Palma to date.

Growing use of open data and new technologies

In addition to emergency management, open data is also increasingly being used by public agencies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their activities, often in conjunction with disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence. Some examples are shown below:

• The Murcia City Council has announced that it is developing new sustainable mobility management models using data from the Copernicus Earth Observation Program. The information obtained will make it possible to offer new intelligent mobility services oriented to citizens, companies and public administrations of the municipality.
• Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has presented a Sustainable Tourism Intelligence System. It is a digital tool that provides updated data from multiple sources for decision-making and improving competitiveness, both for companies and for the tourist destination itself.
• The Vigo City Council plans to create a 3D model of the entire city, combining open data with geographic data. This action will be used to develop elements such as noise, pollution and traffic maps, among others.
• The Junta de Castilla y León is working on the Bision Project, a Business Intelligence system for better decision making in the field of health. The new system would automatically allow the development of instruments for evaluating the quality of the healthcare system.  It is worth mentioning that the Junta de Castilla y León has received an award for the quality and innovation of its transparency portal during the pandemic thanks to its open data platform.
• The massive Artificial Intelligence system of the Spanish language MarIA, promoted by the State Secretariat for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, is making progress in its development. Based on the web archives of the Spanish National Library, a new version has been created that allows summarizing existing texts and creating new ones based on headlines or words.

What's new in open data platforms

In order to continue developing this type of projects, it is essential to continue promoting access to quality data and tools that facilitate their exploitation. In this regard, some of the new developments are:

• The Government of Navarra has presented a new portal in a conference at the University of Navarra, with the participation of the Aporta initiative. Cordoba, which has also approved the implementation of a new open data and transparency portal, will soon follow.
• Aragon's open data portal has released a new version of its API, the GA_OD_Core service. Its aim is to offer citizens and developers the ability to access the data offered on the portal and integrate them into different apps and services through REST architecture. In addition, Aragón has also presented a new virtual assistant that facilitates the location and access to data. It is a chatbot that provides answers based on the data it contains, with a conversational level that can be understood by the receiver.
• The Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda has published a viewer to consult the transport infrastructures belonging to the Trans-European Transport Network in Spain (TEN-T). The viewer allows the downloading of open data of the network, as well as projects co-financed with CEF funds.
• The Madrid City Council has presented Cibeles+, an artificial intelligence project to facilitate access to urban planning information. Using natural language processing techniques and machine learning, the system responds to complex urban planning questions and issues through Alexa and Twitter.
• The geoportal of the IDE Barcelona has launched a new open geographic data download service with free and open access. Among the information published in vector format, the topographic cartography (scale 1:1000) stands out. It includes urban and developable areas and sectors of interest in undeveloped land.
• The Valencia City Council has developed a data inventory to measure efficiency in the implementation of public policies. This tool will also allow citizens to access public information more quickly.

It should also be noted that the Pinto City Council has confirmed its adherence to the principles of the international Open Data Charter (ODC) with the commitment to improve open data policies and governance.

Boosting reuse and data-related capabilities

Public bodies have also launched various initiatives to promote the use of data. Among them, datos.gob.es launched at the end of November the fourth edition of the Aporta Challenge, focused on the field of health and welfare. This seeks to identify and recognize new ideas and prototypes that drive improvements in this field, using open data from public bodies.

This season we also met the winners of the V Open Data Contest organized by the Junta de Castilla y León.  Of the 37 applications received, a jury of experts in the field has chosen 8 projects that have emerged as winners in the various categories.

Also, increasingly popular are the courses and seminars that are launched to increase the acquisition of data-related knowledge. Here are two examples:

• The City Council of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat has launched a training program on the use of data for municipal workers. This plan is structured in 22 different courses that will be taught until May next year.
• The Open Cities project has delivered a cycle of workshops related to open data in Smart cities. The complete video is available at this link.

Other news of interest in Europe

At the European level, we have ended the autumn with two major actions: the publication of the Open Data Maturity Index 2021, prepared by the European Data Portal, and the celebration of the EU Open Data Days. In the first one, it should be noted that Spain is in third position and is once again among the leading countries in open data in Europe. For its part, the EU Open Data Days were made up of the EU DataViz 2021 conference and the final of the EU Datathon 2021, where the Spanish company CleanSpot came second in its category. This app raises awareness and encourages recycling and reuse of products through gamification.

The European portal has also launched the Open Data Academy, with all available courses structured around four themes: policy, impact, technology and quality (the same as those assessed by the aforementioned maturity index). The curriculum is constantly updated with new materials.

Other new features include:

• The DCAT Application Profile for Data Portals in Europe (DCAT-AP) has been updated. The preliminary version of DCAT-AP version 2.1.0 was available for public review between October and November 2021.
• Asedie has been selected by the Global Data Barometer (GBD) and Access Info Europe, as "Country Researcher" for the elaboration of the 1st edition of the Global Data Barometer 20-21. This is a research project that analyses how data is managed, shared and used for the common good.
• The OpenCharts map catalog of European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which offers hundreds of open charts, has been updated. This RAM magazine article tells you what's new.
• The UK government has launched one of the world's first national standards for algorithmic transparency. This follows commitments made in its National Artificial Intelligence Strategy and its National Data Strategy.

Do you know of other examples of projects related to open data? Leave us a comment or write to dinamizacion@datos.gob.es.