Data Visualisation and Open Data

In the context of ISA² the Publications Office of the European Union has embarked on several activities which are contributing to the development of a data culture and data capabilities within the EU institutions and agencies (e.g. the report on reusable data visualisation tools to support data-driven policymaking). The foreseen activities create synergies with existing initiatives of the Commission on participatory decision-making and on data standardisation among others. The focus of the activities for 2016-2017 has been set on:

• Developing capabilities in data visualisation and setting up a community of interest through the creation of a catalogue of reusable data visualisation tools. The outcomes of this work stream will serve the daily data visualisation needs and activities of EU institutions and agencies by:
  • delivering hands-on training session of data visualisation software used within the institutions;
  • Providing examples of visualisations of popular datasets, thus allowing relevant stakeholders to discover and understand underlying patterns of the datasets, as well as to convey complex information to an audience in a manner that can be quickly consumed and easily understood without further explanation; and
  • Encouraging and contributing to the culture of reusing software solutions and knowledge.
• Creating the EU Data Visualisation Catalogue. This catalogue will provide EU staff with support related to the use of data visualisation and data visualisation tools. It is composed of three elements:
  • The catalogue itself, which presents a collection of data visualisation tools and visualisations made available online;
  • The knowledge base of the catalogue, which provides links to relevant documentation, including the data visualisation service definition report, studies, learning resources, user reviews of data visualisation tools etc.;
  • A community around the catalogue comprising EU staff who will exchange knowledge and ideas in an online environment internal to the EU Institutions.

A prototype of the catalogue is available online: Catalogue of Data Visualisation Tools.

• Summarising best practices and on-going initiatives on data visualisation at the European Union Institutions and agencies. In this context, a document (Data visualisation service definition) addressing the following points has been created:
  • The basic steps for creating a data visualisation;
  • A matrix mapping several of the most popular data visualisation tools to the type of skills required to use them;
  • Services and recommendations from the Commission to take into account when creating a visualisation; 
  • A list of existing data visualisation initiatives at the European Institutions and agencies;
  • Key references and information resources in the field of data visualisation.
• Summarising best practices and on-going initiatives on open data at the European Union Institutions and agencies. In this context, a document addressing the following points will be created:
  • A presentation of what is open data;
  • Highlights of the benefits of publishing data as open data; 
  • Guidelines on how to publish data as open data; and 
  • Key references and information resources in the field of open data.
• Creating sample visualisations of high value datasets published on the EU Open Data Portal. In this context three sets of visualisations are currently under development:
  • CORDIS (Community Research and Development Information Service). This dataset contains information about all research projects funded by the European Union under FP6, FP7 and Horizon 2020 Framework Programmes for research and technological development. Three visualisations have been developed: CORDIS visualisations.
  • Transparency register. This dataset provides information about who is engaged in activities aimed at influencing the EU decision making process, which interests are being pursued and what level of resources are invested in these activities. Four visualisations have been developed Transparency Register visualisation.
  • TED (Tenders Electronic Daily). This dataset is a 'Supplement to the Official Journal of the EU' and is dedicated to European public procurement. One visualisation has been developed: TED visualisation.

​The code source of the visualisations, as well as their documentation, is published on GitHub.

• Creating and giving trainings on visualisation principles and tools (Excel, Qlik sense). The material of the trainings are available through this link.
• Supporting the publication of the EU Budget as Linked Open Data on the EU Open Data Portal. The key steps that were undertaken in order to achieve that goal were:
  • Identifing issues and proposed solutions regarding the data structure and the data of the Budget as LOD;
  • Developing and explaining queries in SPARQL querying language, which will help users to understand how to query RDF data (i.e. a format encoding semantic relationships between data);
  • Describing how RDF data from the EU Open Data Portal can be visualised, and creating an interactive dashboard suitable for online publication.

A summary of the work done in the context of this project is available in the following report: Open data publishing and visualisation