Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
13.1 introduction
Over the past few years, we have witnessed a transition from closed to open data,
across scientific domains as well as administrative levels and sectors. In June 2013,
the G8 boosted the topic in a charter (G8, 2013), and the Open Government
Partnership (OGP) unites over 60 partners to make governments more open and
accountable. The U.S. and Australian governments, together with the European
Commission (EC), complement this initiative with the Research Data Alliance
(RDA)* to ease research data sharing and exchange. Although common goals
emerge, we see different interpretations and developments all over the globe.
As a major example, the Europe 2020 strategy—the EC's response to the eco-
nomic crisis—asks to remove barriers for data reuse to generate economic benefits
and lead to greater transparency in public administrations, as well as promotes social
and political engagement. At its core, open data are introduced as an engine for inno-
vation, economic growth, and transparent governance (EC, 2011). Recent case stud-
ies demonstrate the feasibility of implementing the requested open data strategies and
illustrate how they enhance transparency in the public sector (U.K. Cabinet Office,
2012). It can be concluded that concrete actions on critical data-related issues—such
as data governance, societal engagement, data licenses and regulations, and data
usability—can help governments to unleash the potential of public data (their main
asset) to empower a clear and transparent governance model. Likewise, open data can
help in preventing errors, abuses, and inefficiencies through continuous collaboration
between citizens and the government, and it may be a main driver to increase trust
between public administrations and their stakeholders (Domingo, Bellalta, Palacin,
Oliver, & Almirall, 2013; Fioretti, 2011). Open data initiatives are thus crucial to
stimulate the reuse of government data by public and private stakeholders alike, to
create new, innovative, added-value services and applications and to enhance effi-
ciency, effectiveness, and cost savings (Domingo et al., 2013).
This chapter addresses open data in the context of public sector information (PSI)
and other government-funded data in conjunction with public-funded research data.
It focuses particularly on the case of Europe, including also related programs at a
global level. We identify the current status and challenges to derive future pathways
for coupling PSI and public-funded research data. As a topic chapter, this work is not
foreseen to give a detailed academic review of the state-of-play. Instead, it provides an
initial overview of major European activities to novices in the field, as well as entry
points for further studies to those with a deeper interest in particular facets. It equally
addresses practitioners from academia and public administration by highlighting
some of the implications that open data strategies might have on their daily work, as
well as researchers who are eager to learn about the underlying scientific challenges.
The remainder of this chapter is structured as follows. Section 13.2 reviews
major ongoing open data initiatives, in the public sector and in the scientific
*
https://rd-alliance.org.
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