What's new in the open data ecosystem (winter 2021-2022)

The end of winter is approaching and, with the change of season, comes the time to compile the main developments of the last three months.

Autumn ended with the approval of Royal Decree-Law 24/2021, which includes the transposition of the European Directive on open data and re-use of public sector information, and now we end the winter with another regulatory advance, this time at European level: the publication of the draft Regulation on the establishment of harmonised rules on access and fair use of data (Data Act), applicable to all economic sectors and which proposes new rules on who can use and access data generated in the EU and under what conditions.

These regulatory developments have been joined by many others in the area of openness and re-use of data. In this article we highlight some examples.

Public data and disruptive technologies

The relationship between open data and new technologies is increasingly evident through various projects that aim to generate improvements in society. Universities are a major player in this field, with innovative projects such as:

• The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) has launched the project "Bots for interacting with open data - Conversational interfaces to facilitate access to public data". Its aim is to help citizens improve their decision-making through access to data, as well as to optimise the return on investment of open data projects.
• The UOC has also launched, together with the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), OptimalSharing@SmartCities, which optimises the use of car sharing in cities through intelligent algorithms capable of processing large amounts of data. They are currently working with data from the Open Data BCN initiative.
• Researchers from the University of Cantabria are participating in the SALTED project, aimed at reusing open data from IoT devices, the web and social networks. The aim is to transform them into "useful" information in fields such as urban management or agriculture.

Public bodies are also increasingly harnessing the potential of open data to implement solutions that optimise resources, boost efficiency and improve the citizen experience. Many of these projects are linked to smart cities.

• The Cordoba Provincial Council's 'Enlaza, Cordoba Smart Municipalities' project seeks to intelligently manage municipal electricity supplies. A proprietary software has been developed and different municipal facilities have been sensorised with the aim of obtaining data to facilitate decision-making. Among other issues, the province's infrastructures will be used to incorporate a platform that favours the use of open data.
• The eCitySevilla and eCityMálaga projects have brought together 90 public and private entities to promote a smart city model at the forefront of innovation and sustainability. Among other issues, they will integrate open data, renewable energies, sustainable transport, efficient buildings and digital infrastructures.
• One area where data-driven solutions have a major impact is in tourism. In this sense, the Segovia Provincial Council has created a digital platform to collect tourism data and adjust its proposals to the demands of visitors. The visualisation of updated data will be obtained in real time and will make it possible to learn more about the tourism behaviour of visitors.
• For its part, the Consell de Mallorca has set up a Sustainable Tourism Observatory that will provide permanently updated information to define strategies and make decisions based on real data.

To boost the use of data analytics in public bodies, the Andalusian Digital Agency has announced the development of a unit to boost Big Data. Its aim is to provide data analytics-related services to different Andalusian government agencies.

Other examples of open data re-use

Open data is also increasingly in demand by journalists for so-called data journalism. This is especially noticeable in election periods, such as the recent elections to the Castilla y León parliament. Re-users such as Maldita or EPData have taken advantage of the open data offered by the Junta to create informative pieces and interactive maps to bring information closer to the citizens.

Public bodies themselves also take advantage of visualisations to bring data to the public in a simple way. As an example, the map of the National Library of Spain with the Spanish authors who died in 1941, whose works become public domain in 2022 and, therefore, can be edited, reproduced or disseminated publicly.

Another example of the reuse of open data can be found in the Fallas of Valencia. In addition to the classic ninot, this festival also has immaterial fallas that combine tradition, technology and scientific dissemination. This year, one of them consists of an interactive game that uses open data from the city to pose various questions.

Open data platforms are constantly being upgraded

During this season we have also seen many public bodies launching new portals and tools to facilitate access to data, and thus its re-use. Likewise, catalogues have been constantly updated and the information offered has been expanded. The following are some examples:

• Sant Boi Town Council has recently launched its digital platform Open Data. It is a space that allows users to explore and download open data from the City Council easily, free of charge and without restrictions.
• As part of its Smart City project, Alcoi City Council has set up a website with open data on traffic and environmental indicators. Here you can consult data on air quality, sound pressure, temperature and humidity in different parts of the city.
• The Castellón Provincial Council has developed an intuitive and easy-to-use tool to facilitate and accompany citizens' requests for access to public information. It has also updated the information on infrastructures and equipment of the municipalities of Castellón on the provincial institution's data portal in geo-referenced formats, which facilitates its reuse.
• The Institute of Statistics and Cartography of Andalusia (IECA) has updated the data tables offered through its BADEA databank. Users can now sort and filter all the information with a single click. In addition, a new section has been created on the website aimed at reusers of statistical information. Its aim is to make the data more accessible and interoperable.
• IDECanarias has published an orthophoto of La Palma after the volcanic eruption. It can be viewed through the GRAFCAN viewer. It should be noted that open data has been of great importance in analysing the damage caused by the lava on the island.
• GRAFCAN has also updated the Territorial Information System of the Canary Islands (SITCAN), incorporating 25 new points of interest. This update facilitates the location of 36,753 points of interest in the archipelago through the portal of the Spatial Data Infrastructure of the Canary Islands (IDECanarias).
• Barcelona Provincial Council offers a new service for downloading open geographic data, with free and open access, through the IDEBarcelona geoportal. This service was presented through a session (in Catalan), which was recorded and is available on Youtube.
• The municipal GIS of the City Council of Cáceres has made available to citizens the free download of the updated cartography of the city of Extremadura in different formats such as DGN, DWG, SHP or KMZ.

New reports, guides, courses and challenges

These three months have also seen the publication and launch of resources and activities aimed at promoting open data:

• The Junta de Castilla y León has published the guide "Smart governance: the challenge of public service management in local government", which includes tools and use cases to boost efficiency and effectiveness through participation and open data.
• The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) has updated the ranking of open access portals and repositories worldwide in support of Open Science initiatives. This ranking is based on the number of papers indexed in the Google Scholar database.
• The commitment of local councils to open data is also evident in the implementation of training initiatives and internal promotion of open data. In this sense, L'Hospitalet City Council has launched two new internal tools to promote the use and dissemination of data by municipal employees: a data visualisation guide and another on graphic guidelines and data visualisation style.
• Along the same lines, the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) has launched the Course on Open Data Treatment and Management in Local Entities, which will be held at the end of March (specifically on 22, 24, 29 and 31 March 2022). The course is aimed at technicians without basic knowledge of Local Entities.

Multiple competitions have also been launched, which aim to boost the use of data, especially at university level, for example The Generalitat Valenciana with POLIS, a project in which students from three secondary schools will learn the importance of understanding and analysing public policies using open data available in public bodies.

In addition, the registration period for the IV Aporta Challenge, focused on the field of Health and Wellbeing, ended this winter. Among the proposals received we find predictive models that allow us to know the evolution of diseases or algorithms that cross-reference data and determine healthy habits.

Other news of interest in Europe

In addition to the publication of the Data Act, we have also seen other developments in Europe:

• JoinUp has published the latest version of the metadata application profile specification for open data portals in Europe, DCAT-AP 2.1.
• In line with the European Data Strategy, the European Commission has published a working document with its overview of common European data spaces.
• The Publications Office of the European Union has launched the sixth edition of the EU Datathon. In this competition, participants have to use open data to address one of four proposed challenges.
• The EU Science Hub has published a report presenting examples of use cases linked to data sharing. They explore emerging technologies and tools for data-driven innovation.

These are just some examples of the latest developments in the open data ecosystem in Spain and Europe. If you want to share a project or news with us, leave us a comment or write to dinamizacion@datos.gob.es.