Share-PSI 2.0 - Encouraging open data usage by commercial developers - 3-4 December 2014

http://www.w3.org/2013/share-psi/workshop/lisbon/

The open data movement, and the PSI Directive, are promoted as being good for government transparency, government efficiency and economic growth. In this, the second Share-PSI 2.0 workshop, we want to focus on that last point.

Let's look at some examples in public sector open data portals. A popular use of open data across Europe follows from the Bathing Water Quality Directive. Spain has Balnearios de Espana, produced by the State Agency for Management of Innovation and Technology Tourism SA (SEGITTUR). The UK has its official Bathing Water Quality explorer and a mobile app produced by a firm of architects (Arup) called Beach Selecta. France has its official bathing water quality site that allows you to explore French bathing water quality but the data is not published separately and therefore is not used in applications such as Vamos a la Playa.

All these bathing water quality applications are free to use and, with the exception of Beach Selecta, created by the relevant ministry. These are a few simple examples of government efficiently providing information to citizens, certainly, but there's no economic stimulation here (except for the ministries' contractors). Hackathons, such as Flood Hack are often organised to stimulate creativity around newly opened data sets and they are certainly effective at doing that – but do they lead to commercial success? Well, in the case of events like Denmark's AFSNIT, the prizes are substantial (100,000 DKK is over €13,000) but finding examples of profitable exploitation of open data can be hard.

Notable examples include DataMarket, the Transport API and Xpresslegal. Sites like Open Data Forum.info list a lot of applications but many of these, like the bathing water examples, are not commercial. So what is the reality of the commercial services built on (free) open data that the PSI Directive foresees? Companies like Skobbler, Cloudmade, ENAIKOON and Naviki all make commercial use of a single open data source: Open Street Map, but are they and the ones presented in these 60 second video pitches from the Open Data Institute the tip of the iceberg or the exceptions to the rule? What happens to all the other open data?

Workshop Aims

Hosted by the Portuguese Agency for Public Services Reform, AMA, the Lisbon workshop provides an opportunity for a wide variety of stakeholders to come together to discuss and build the relationship between the public and private sectors in the context of Europe's revised PSI Directive.

From the public sector we look forward to examples of successful, and perhaps less successful, attempts to engage with small and big enterprise who have (re)used public sector data in their business model, and commercial developers who (re)use open data in their products.

From the private sector we're seeking case studies of commercially successful use of public sector data and to identify the most pressing demands and the barriers to greater commercial use of public sector data.

By considering both sides we aim to offer pragmatic advice on how to achieve a productive and prosperous supply and demand relationship.

Expected Participants:

Public/private sector.