Open Data Technologies in FP7

Stefano BertoloEuropean Commission

DG INFSO, E2, Technologies for Information Management

8 April 2010, Vienna, Austriadata.gv.at - meetup

Our view

• Re-use of government data is increasingly being recognized as an opportunity for economic growth and job creation, and as a way to bring Governments closer to citizens, more democracy, greater accountability, increased transparency, etc.

What will this bring?

• Wider access to government data• New products and services• Greater choice for consumers• New businesses• New jobs• Economic growth

The role of the European Commission

• A common EU legislative framework (PSI Directive in 2003; review in 2009; more legislation in 2012?)

• Monitoring its implementation and application (SW, IT and POL infringements)

• Funding of projects • Economic analysis• ePSIplatform • PSI Group

More information on policy

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/psi/index_en.htm

www.epsiplatform.eu

Where are we?

• Legislation in place: PSI Directive • Very active group of MS (UK, ES, NL, DK, FR)

…but…

• Limited number of success stories

UK - http://data.gov.uk/DK - http://digitaliser.dk ES – http://www.aporta.es

What have these initiatives in common?

• Recognition of the big potential value of government data

• Key political support and commitment • Promises (and actions) to provide

better services to citizens and business

Why is this not happening (yet) elsewhere?

• Limited political support• Resistance to change (traditions)• Financial issues (cost recovery; no

money for PSI portals)• Market position of “commercial” PSBs

vs. Reusers• Practical issues (where is the data?)

Technical difficulties

• Coordination • Conceptual modelling • Quality • Integration • Scalability• Documentation, training

Coordination

• http://www.okkam.org–Reusing identifiers–Entity centric web http://sig.ma

• http://www.neon-project.org–Reusing ontologies

Conceptual modelling

• http://www.okkam.org–Reusing identifiers

• http://www.neon-project.org–Reusing ontologies

Quality

Curation problemhttp://blog.freebase.com/2010/03/26/preview-freebase-gridworks/

Linking problem: sparseness, precision, freshness

–Anonymous 1• Linking, lots of EU PSI linking

–Anonymous 2• Linking, lots of EU national PSI linking

Integration

• Push: RDF publishing of pre-existing resources (e.g. databases, corpora)–http://www.neon-project.org–Anonymous 2

• Pull: Working with established software stacks–http://www.iks-project.eu (Salzburg!!)

Scalability

• Reasoning at web scale–http://www.larkc.eu (Innsbrück!!)

• Bridging the RDF performance gap–Anonymous 2

Documentation, training

• Anonymous 1• Obligatory section of all projects we

fund

The near Future

• ICT 2010 Brussels 26-29 Septhttp://ec.europa.eu/information_society/events/ict/2010/

• PSI open data networking

session

The FP7 Future

• FP7 Work Programme 2011-12 • To be unveiled at ICT 2010• DG INFSO/E2

–Focus on technology, performance• DG INFSO/H2

–Government applications

Conclusion 1

• Large funding investment in FP6, FP7: we are glad to see it used

• Uneven state of open data developments across EU countries: we’d like to see it reduced

• Hopes for a EU-wide data commons as a foundation for transparency, understanding and services

Conclusion 2

• We are always interested in your ideas: get in touch

• We talk to a lot of people: we can help you find partners

• Get involved in our operations: you may discover opportunities, people, ideas

Thank youstefano.bertolo@ec.europa.eu