#CeDEM13 day 1, morning, Track: Open Data, Transparency (..)

(Guerilla knitting by @anked still here from #CEDEM12 !! :-))

Here you’ll find minutes of the Open Data Session on the first day of CEDEM13. Presentations: 4. Room occupancy: full. Weather report: Lovely late morning sunshine.

Re-Designing Open Data 2.0

Alon Peled
At the moment, open data is moving forward. This contribution is dealing with a categorisation of criticism towars Open Data (named “Open Data 1.0 Criticism) like bad design or unrealistic goals, technology obsession etc. Beside the need of conceptualising this criticism, there is certainly a place for Open Data, but open does not neccessarily mean free. There could also be an intern arena created between agencies we have to be aware of.

Towards an e-infrastructure to support the provision and use of open data

Anneke Zuiderwijk, Marijn Janssen, Keith Jeffery
The presentation deals with requirements for open data infrastructure (based on a design science research methodology for information system research according to Peffers et al. 2008).
A questionnaire with more than 300 respondants and 4 workshops were conducted.
There was a matching of requirements across key functionalities (providing open data that is understood in context).
95 requirements of open data users in 12 categories were identified and linked to functionalities. ENGAGE is designed to interoperate within the general e-infrastructure framwork of the European Commission.

Money for nothing – data for free. Hard facts about the power of and the effects of Open Government Data

Gregor Eibl, Brigitte Lutz
Sometimes data is published which is sold, but in most cases it is published “out of nothing” as it’s in the drawer of public agencies desks anyway… In the last two years there was a success story in the City of Vienna, however, these success needs to be measured. Presenters scanned theoretical papers to find out about the theoretical econoic implications of open government data. An example for such an implication would be free data as a source in a value nework, which can be used for innovations by start-up companies and is related to economic growth through innovation. Based on a study from the EU, the main economic benefits for stakeholders are actual econoic benefits and potentials for a special region. However, standard measurements are still missing. The paper presents a dense collection of these benefits, that were clustered as follows: Save of costs, benefit, value, taxes amount and growth in sale.

In Vienna there were many benefits to observe with the open data portal – according to the presenters clear benefits for the citizens and added value for the business location.

Licence management for Public Sector Information

Vasily Bunakov, Keith Jeffery
The PSI Directive (2003) on the re-use of public sector information was revised 2011. It is aimed at information re-use, from data licenses to laws. There are a few challenges in managing regulation in e-infrastructure, for example a problem of updates: if one publishes some data sets in an infrastructure and the licence was okay in this moment, the owner could still decide to update data sets or licence for it. Others are specific clauses that prevents complete openness – and as we know, there are always different kinds of openness 🙂 Specific clauses include citation format requirements (title, year…), copyright requirements and presentation requirements (no frames or other visual altering tools). One possibility to overcome those challenges is by designing or re-engineering pieces of regulation in a structured manner, and supply them with API – see linkedcontentcoalition.org for instance.