The Prefecture of Central Greece has developed a strategy called Smart Sterea to promote the use of Open Data in services for citizens and provide them with access to public policy and local political life.

With Smart Sterea, the goal of the prefecture is “to combine open data with better services for citizens and businesses, to create innovative applications for the everyday life of citizens, to become more effective, to pay more attention to problems and to bring together municipalities, regions, citizens, businesses and citizens' actions for the common good”, the project website notes.

Basically, Smart Sterea can be seen as a set of technological tools. Central Greece deployed a data visualisation portal, which mixes data for budgets, political projects and public consultations. This “Open Dashboard of Central Greece” makes use of Open Data to allow citizens to monitor public revenue and expenditure, political programs and their progress, and allocations – among other types of information. Data are updated in real-time.

Three platforms as a foundation

Data accessible from the dashboard platform are collected from other platforms and from public information systems. At the heart of it, the region developed a foundation called the “0-engine” which serves as the engine of the open data portal of the region. Data are in machine-readable format. It also provides services to private and public entities in the Greek region.

The other platforms are the “CrowdDeliberation platform” through which citizens can monitor the work of their authority and its effectiveness, and the “Open Budget Platform” which provides economic data.

The Prefecture of Central Greece is composed of five administrative areas: Evrytania, Phocis Boeotia, Euboea and Phthiotis. Data are detailed for each of these five areas in the dashboard. This project is an Open Government initiative and illustrates “the right of every citizen to have access to public information”, the website says.