The Knowledge Centre Open Data received an Erasmusplus grant for the SPIDER: open SPatial data Infrastructure eDucation nEtwoRk project. In the 3-year project, the Knowledge Centre will collaborate with Bochum University of Applied Sciences, KU Leuven, Lund University and the University of Zagreb. Its overarching objective is to promote and strengthen active learning and teaching towards Open spatial data infrastructures.

In the past 20 years, European public authorities have invested considerable resources in the development of spatial data infrastructures (SDIs). With the European INSPIRE Directive as an important driver, national SDIs were developed throughout Europe to facilitate and coordinate the exchange and sharing of geographic data. These SDIs initially focused on data sharing among public authorities as a closed system. Currently, SDI education around the globe is characterized by single disciplinary or siloed views missing out on opportunities of a holistic, multidisciplinary view on SDIs. In addition, the recent Open SDI trend has not been implemented in any SDI curriculum yet. Moreover, teaching methods are still limited to traditional teaching in the classroom. As a consequence, there is barely an international exchange of educational material and approaches on open SDI among universities. An overview and detailed analysis of existing SDI education is unavailable and an international platform facilitating the SDI education is lacking. The SPIDER project aims to overcome these shortcomings.

The KNAW published on 20 June 2019 the report “Hergebruik van publieke data;** **Meer wetenschap en beter overheidsbeleid”. The summary of the report reads:

“Data uit overheidsadministraties leveren een schat aan kennis op voor wetenschap en overheidsbeleid, maar ze worden daarvoor nog niet ten volle benut. Het gaat om data uit administraties van het Rijk, provincies, gemeenten, zorgverzekeraars, waterschappen, scholen en andere organisaties die publieke taken uitvoeren. Deze publieke data kunnen, natuurlijk met inachtneming van alle privacyregels, meer worden gebruikt en hergebruikt voor onderzoek.  De KNAW ziet daarbij een belangrijke rol voor een Chief Public Data Officer. “

KCOD’s Ploeger and Van Loenen see an important role for the notary public in authorising data and algorithms. On June 25, at the Royal Notaries Association in Utrecht Ploeger and Van Loenen presented their paper “De slimme, open stad: de menselijke  maat in de datagedreven stad van 2050”. The paper introduces the concepts of data dictatorship and data democracy in the context of the open city. They see an important role for the public notary as the independent authority to support the citizens in cities to handle the ever increasing influence of data and algorithms in their daily lives. 40% of the audience agreed with the proposition that the Dutch notary public has a role to play in the data and algorithm ecosystem, which is fundamental to the performance of the open city.

The article Scoping Personal Data: Towards a Nuanced Interpretation of the Material Scope of EU Data Protecton Law by KCOD’s Lorenzo Dalla Corte is published in the European Journal of Law and Technology.

The concept of personal data – any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person – is a cornerstone of the European data protecton framework since its very inception. The processing of personal data is a condito sine qua non for the applicability of EU data protecton law. Despite the crucial importance of the notion, the boundaries of the concept are often blurry. Ascertaining whether data is personal frequently depends on each individual processing’s concrete context and characteristics. As a result of the contextual and relative character of the notion of personal data, in cases dealing with indirect identifiability, much is left to the discretion of the interpreter.

On the 16^th of May, Lorenzo spoke at the panel “European Data Economy and Regulation of Data” about regulatory convergences and recent developments in the EU Data Economy at TILTing Perspectives 2019. The other panellists were Dr. Martin Husovec and Dr. Inge Graef, assistant professors as Tilburg University, Prof. Teresa Scassa from the University of Ottawa, and Prof. Estelle Derclaye from the University of Nottingham. The panel discussed regulatory convergence (e.g. “how should the PSI Directive and the Database Directive interact?”) and recent developments in policy (e.g. the Building a EU Data Economy and Towards a Common European Data Space communications from the Commission) and law (e.g. the recast of the PSI Directive). Lorenzo’s main arguments involved: