Balance of Iniciativa Aporta in 2017

The end of the year is approaching and it is time to review the goals achieved in this year by the Iniciativa Aporta, as part of its labour to boost open data and reuse of public sector information Spain.

Appart from more than 16,300 datasets published by 111 organizations, the portal datos.gob.es has been designed as the hub where all the materials created by the Initiative are gathered to disseminate and raise awareness. Thus, the user has access, from a single access point, to a large number of resources, which help the publisher and the data reuser:

• Reports and guides ellaborated with the help of different experts, among which include:

  • The value of open data for the Government

  •  Open Data and Smart Cities Report: an alternative legal perspective

  • International open data best practices

  • Data visualization: definition, technologies and tools

  • Open Data as a tool for Smart Cities

  • Guide to publish open data quickly and easily (with CKAN)

  • Practical Manual to improve Open Data Quality

• Real cases of reuse that show the potential that open data holds for different areas.

• Applications and visualizations from public sector information.

• Training materials that include eight online modules to explain the basic concepts and good practices in the implementation of open data policies.

Moreover, the portal provides a news section that weekly collects the latest trends in open data so the Spanish community can know the advances that take place in the world. In this regard, it is worth highlighting in 2017 three pieces of news that recorded the highest ratio of visits:

• Open data, big data and open government: six subtypes of data

• Role and challenges of open data standards

• The 5 most common strategic problems to plan an open data initiative

Among the different lines of action, the Initiative has been consolidated as a solid link between the different agents that make up the national open data ecosystem. Thus, through its social channels on Twitter and LinkedIn,, Aporta shares with its digital community the latest news, projects, initiatives and news about open data. A constant work of listening and dialogue that has reached a mass of more than 12,400 followers on Twitter and 2,100 followers on LinkedIn.

Beyond this daily work, the Aporta Initiative plays a catalytic role to encourage the talent of the open data reusers in Spain. This year, the focus has been on open data as a raw material for the improvement of public services. In this context, last June, the first call of Challenge #Aporta2017 took place. Under the title "The value of data for the Administration", 45 applications were submitted, of which 10 prototypes were selected according to their relevance, quality and usefulness. Among the finalists, the jury awarded the three most innovative ideas shown below: