The Beyond Data Event was held on 29 March 2018 for the 9th time in Eindhoven. As part of the event, so-called round table sessions, were organised, in which participants could join an open discussion in a small group on a specific topic. Dr. Frederika Welle Donker of the Knowledge Centre Open Data was invited to facilitate a round table session on the governance of open data as part of the E-GOS Local project. The half-hour session was well attended by participants mainly from municipalities, provinces and research institutes. The discussion centred around the deliberations municipalities have to make to assess which data can or cannot be published as open data. Municipalities collect much data, but can the data be published as open data? How about privacy concerns? How about incomplete or imperfect data quality? How can municipalities move from one-way data portals to two-way communication and data exchange with citizens and companies? And how can citizens get access to data that may be politically sensitive, e.g. locations of crimes or actual air quality data? Experiences were shared and viewpoints exchanged. Half an hour proved to be too short to discuss all governance issues. It did provide a lively platform to air concerns.
An article on ‘Assessing the Openness of Spatial Data Infrastructures‘ has been published as part of the INSPIRE Section of IJSDIR. The article by Glenn Vancauwenberghe, Kotryna Valečkaitė, Bastiaan van Loenen and Frederika Welle Donker, introduces the Open Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) Assessment Framework as a new approach for assessing the openness of SDIs. Open SDIs are SDIs in which non-government actors such as businesses, citizens, researchers and non-profit organizations can contribute to the development and implementation of the SDI, use spatial data with as few restrictions as possible and benefit from using these geographic data. A pilot application of the new framework resulted in the Map of Open SDI in Europe, which aims to show the level of openness of national SDIs in Europe. The map could become a relevant and practical tool that shows the status of Open SDIs in Europe and supports decision makers and practitioners in making their own SDI more open.
On March 2 2018, the Knowledge Centre Open Data will present the status of open geographic data at the Open data day in Croatia. For more information see:
The Knowledge Centre Open Data is one of the organizers of the AGILE 2018 Pre-conference workshop ‘SDI Research and Strategies towards 2030: Renewing the SDI Research Agenda’. Aim of this Workshop is to initiate the definition of a renewed Spatial Data Infrastructure Research Agenda for ‘SDI Research and Strategies towards 2030’, incorporating both technical and non-technical perspectives and research challenges. The workshop will take place on Tuesday 12 June 2018, in Lund (Sweden).
On Saturday January 27th, knowledge center’s Lorenzo Dalla Corte co-chaired the Privacy Law Scholars Conference Europe (PLSC-Europe) as part of the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection conference. In the workshop work in progress papers were discussed. In the context of the General Data Protection Regulation and the draft e-privacy regulation, From data-driven profiling to digital stereotyping to new forms of discrimination, The rise of infomediaries and the privatization of data protection enforcement, Privacy in the era of machine learning, and Counterfactual Explanations without Opening the Black Box: Automated Decisions and the GDPR were among the appealing topics that were discussed.
On Friday 15 December 2017, the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK) organised another ‘Data.overheid.nl’ User Meeting. Aim of these User Meetings is to allow users and providers of open data in the Netherlands to exchange ideas and experiences. More than one hundred participants attended the meeting in December. During this meeting, KCOD researcher Frederika Welle Donker presented the results of her research on the costs and benefits of open data. In her presentation, Frederika showed that costs of open data are different between organizations and between types of data. Benefits of open data mainly include efficiency gains, in both the public sector and in businesses. There are also societal benefits of open data, which, however, are difficult to measure.
A book chapter on the ‘Governance of open spatial data infrastructures in Europe‘ by Glenn Vancauwenberghe en Bastiaan van Loenen was published in the book ‘The Social Dynamics of Open Data’. The chapter provides an analysis of how several European member states have been dealing with the governance of their open spatial data infrastructures since the adoption of the INSPIRE Directive in 2007. In recent years several countries and public administrations started to make a shift towards the establishment of a more ‘open’ spatial data infrastructure, in which also businesses, citizens and non-governmental actors are considered as key stakeholders and beneficiaries of the infrastructure. This move towards more open spatial data infrastructures also created additional challenges related to the governance of the SDI, as new and additional governance approaches and instruments had to be implemented. In order to engage different stakeholder groups, including data users and producers outside the public sector, and take into account their needs and requirements, the scope of traditional governance structures, mechanisms and processes had to be expanded.
To switch to an open data policy may pose a challenge to the business model of National Mapping & Cadastral Agencies (NMCAs), especially if they are required to generate sufficient revenue to cover a substantial part of their operating costs. This research, carried out for EuroSDR, aims to assess the effects of open data policies on the business models of NMCAs and which adaptations have been made to cope with revenue losses due to open data supply. In March and April 2017, we surveyed European NMCAs to find out which strategies NMCAs employ to be able to (re)finance operational costs and to ensure long-term sustainability of (open) data. This report provides the initial outcomes of the survey.
Researchers of the Knowledge Centre have contributed to the book ‘GEOValue: The Socioeconomic Value of Geospatial Information’, edited by Jamie B. Kruse, Joep Crompvoets and Francoise Pearlman and published by CRC Press. The book explores the different steps in the geospatial information value chain from the viewpoint of domain experts spanning various disciplines.
In their chapter on business models for geographic information (GI), Glenn Vancauwenberghe, Frederika Welle Donker, and Bastiaan van Loenen examine the process of creating value from geographic information using the foundational format of business model theory. The chapter investigates how organizations use a broad variety of models to create, deliver, and capture value, and contributes to the understanding of the diversity of business models of organizations dealing with GI.
GeoBuzz is the annual conference and exhibition organised by GeoBusiness Netherlands (umbrella organisation of geosector companies) and GIN – Geo-Information Netherlands. This year, GeoBuzz was held on 21st and 22nd of November in Den Bosch. On 22 November, Frederika Welle Donker of the Open Data Knowledge Centre led a session on effective governance of open geodata at municipal level. This session was held as part of the E-GOS Local project. The E-GOS Local project, co-funded by AMS – Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions, is an extension of the E-GOS project carried out by Glenn Vancauwenberghe. The E-GOS Local will investigate the governance and performance of open geodata policies at organizational (or micro) level, as well as the link between national and organizational policies (or between macro and micro). A detailed investigation will be made of the open geodata policy of the City of Amsterdam, in which the governance instruments and mechanisms adopted by the City will be assessed as well as the impact of these instruments and mechanisms on the performance of the open geodata policy of the City. In addition, a comparative analysis will be made of the governance model applied in the City of Amsterdam and the governance models of four other municipalities in the Netherlands.