FOME Symposium25 October 2011, Bonn

What does the EU do for Data Journalism?

Carl-Christian Buhr

European Commission

(All expressed views are those of the speaker.)http://slidesha.re/euddj2011

http://bit.ly/cc_buhr, @ccbuhr

Nothing directly.

But there is

...media policy

...data policy

...skills policy

The European Union...

...makes Data Policye.g. PSI, INSPIRE

...collects Datae.g. Eurostat, Tenders Electronic Daily

...builds Data Infrastructures

...funds Data Research

http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/

The European Commission...

...and the Co-Legislators

http://europarl.europa.eu/

http://consilium.europa.eu/

European Parliament

Council of the European Union

http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/

Neelie Kroes

Digital Agenda

27 Commissioners......with 27 Portfolios

http://bit.ly/NeelieKroesEU,@NeelieKroesEU

http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda

101 Actions

DAE

http://bit.ly/NeelieKroesEU,@NeelieKroesEU

http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda

Advising on...

Research PolicyOpen AccessICT Standardisatione-Infrastructuresetc.

http://bit.ly/cc_buhr,@ccbuhr

101 Actions

“We are here to serve citizens, and to make the best use of their money. To achieve that, what could be better than handing them back the data already gathered on their behalf, to use and develop as they see fit.” Open Data Challenge Awards, 16 June 2011

Also see Neelie’s blog posts on open data (13 May 2011 and 20 October 2011).

http://bit.ly/NeelieKroesEU,@NeelieKroesEU

Why Open Data?

Data Policy I

DAE, p. 9: “By 2012, review the Directive on Re-Use of Public Sector Information, notably its scope and principles on charging for access and use.” [2003, transposed into national laws]

Innovation Union (COM(2010)546, 06.10.2010)

“The Commission will promote open access ... It will aim to make open access to publications the general principle for projects funded by the EU research Framework Programmes […]”.

Data Policy II: Open Access

http://www.openaire.eu

link

Data Collection2006 Decision on re-use of Commission Information to be adapted in line with PSI Directive

Covered

Translation memoriesAudio-visual material

Excluded

Material with third-party IPRResearch results of the EC’s Joint Research CentreSpecial cases (e.g. in Competition investigations)

link

link

link

Data Research

ICT Challenge 4: Digital Libraries and Content

Semantic Web, Linked Data etc.Last call summer 2011, EUR 50m

Creating Knowledge from Interlinked Data

link

link

link

Linked Open Data Around-The-Clock

Data Infrastructure I

Pan-European data portal workshop (3/11/2010), CIP WP 2011 (p. 46) & tender notice (deadline was 19/9/2011):

Implementation of European Commission open data portalCall for tenders to purchase services:

• “to develop and administer a web portal to act as a single point of access to data sets produced and held by European Commission services (and by extension to data sets produced and held by other European institutions/bodies and other public bodies),

• to assist the Commission with the definition and implementation of a data set publication process,

• to assist the Commission with the preparation of data sets for publication via the portal,

• to assist the Commission in supporting for engaging the community interested in re-using the published data sets.”

Maximum value: 800 000 EUR.

link

Data Infra-

structure II

link

”Our Vision is a scientific e-infrastructure that supports seamless access, use, re-use, and trust of data. [...] the data themselves become the infrastructure – a valuable asset, on which science, technology, the economy and society can advance”.

Skills I

DAE, chapter 2.6: “Enhancing Digital Literacy and Skills”

1. All necessary tools are out there...

2. We need people to see the need

Skills II

What is a table? How to combine two?What can we do with a database?How to best visualise information?E.g. ScraperWiki, Google Refine

Skills III

Aim: Context and technique

EU deserves journalists who understand it

Communicating requires technique

Skills IV

Incorrectly paraphrasing press releases is not enough

Data journalism is hard!

Gap in self-reporting of the EU?

Data = undisputed. Interpretion = ?

Selected PointersThe Digital Agenda for Europe

http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda

Neelie on Open Datahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBUpUD4I1Wo

Material on the PSI Directivehttp://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/psi/index_en.htm

DAE Assembly Workshop on OD: Materialshttp://ec.europa.eu/information_society/events/cf/daa11/item-

display.cfm?id=5963http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/neelie-kroes/2011/05/13/

Eurostat Statistics Portalhttp://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/statistics/

themes

Contacts<web>http://bit.ly/{NeelieKroesEU, cc_buhr}</web>

<twitter>@NeelieKroesEU, @ccbuhr</twitter>

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