Open Data Framework Research Articles

Overlooking digital collusion risks in the EU's agenda for a single European data space(s)

ABSTRACT The EU aims to drive the data and platform economy by establishing a single European Data Space(s) vision, envisioning it as a catalyst for innovation, novel services, enhanced competition and consumer welfare. It involves implementing existing and forthcoming horizontal and sectorial data-sharing laws to overcome technical, legal, and ethical barriers to (personal and non-personal) data access and achieve specific data-driven policy targets. The initial spaces will cover nine economic sectors, few established and others in development. The study assesses the possible oversight of competition law collusion concerns in these initiatives, using the example of the EU Mobility Data Space (EMDS). By employing competition law qualitative doctrinal methods, it emphasizes the risks of digital collusion within these EU-wide open data frameworks, and it indicates that they could severely harm one or several parameters of competition. It concludes by offering policy recommendations to prevent or minimize collusion risks for the EMDS and suggests further research in other sectors.

Use of publicly available data to create a dataset for data-driven urban commercial building energy intensity classification: Model accuracy, interpretation, and implications of an open data framework in Hong Kong

Previous studies relied on structured databases containing energy use intensity (EUI) and building features to develop data-driven urban building energy models (D-UBEMs). However, such databases are not available in most cities. In Hong Kong, energy audit is required for commercial buildings, but only EUI is publicly released without any building information. We assessed the adequacy of input features collected and integrated from public sources to develop a precise D-UBEM. We separated Hong Kong commercial building samples into “below-median” and “above-median” EUI categories based on the bimodal distribution of log10EUI and developed a data-driven binary classifier to predict the category. Using publicly available input features, the average classification accuracy is 78.73%. We used the D-UBEM to reveal the association of “above-median” EUI category with input features, and spatially visualize floor areas of Hong Kong commercial buildings belonging to the “above-median” EUI category. In the discussion, we examined the causes of misclassified buildings and highlighted the limitations of our database from public sources in developing accurate and useful D-UBEMs. We suggested an open-data policy framework for releasing building information alongside EUI data and establishing a central database that contains more precise values for building geometries, usage, and thermal performance in Hong Kong.

Quantifying and overcoming Darwinian shortfalls to conserve the fish tree of life

Knowledge shortfalls of the evolutionary history of bony fishes hamper phylogenetically informed conservation approaches. To direct future research efforts and phylogenetically based conservation actions, we calculated Darwinian shortfalls for taxonomic clades (genus, family and order-level) and countries, as well as derived a phylogenetic based prioritization metric for bony fishes. We built a synthesis phylogeny for 32,870 bony fishes using a global backbone phylogeny and inserting absent species by their taxonomic hierarchies (supertree approach). Then, we quantified knowledge shortfalls as the sum of inserted branch lengths divided by the total sum of branch lengths. The Darwinian shortfall was generally higher in diverse clades and countries with the lowest gross domestic product per capita and higher number of species and proportion of freshwater species. Clades and countries with the highest deficits should be prioritized for future research efforts, such as the Gymnotiformes from Brazil. By weighing species' evolutionary distinctiveness and vulnerability, we highlighted species that should be prioritized for best conserving the fish tree of life. Our study provides an open-data framework for prioritizing future efforts toward advancing biodiversity knowledge and conservation.

A fourth way to the digital transformation: The data republic as a fair data ecosystem

Abstract To harness the promises of digital transformation, different players take different paths. Departing from corporate-driven (e.g., the United States) and state-led (e.g., China) approaches, in various documents, the European Union states its goal to establish a citizen-centric data ecosystem. However, it remains contentious the extent to which the envisioned digital single market can enable the creation of public value and empower citizens. As an alternative, in this article, we argue in favor of a fair data ecosystem, defined as an approach capable of representing and keep in balance the data interests of all actors, while maintain a collective outlook. We build such ecosystem around data commons—as a third path to market and state approaches to the managing of resources—coupled with open data (OD) frameworks and spatial data infrastructures (SDIs). Indeed, based on literature, we claim that these three regimes complement each other, with OD and SDIs supplying infrastructures and institutionalization to data commons’ limited replicability and scalability. This creates the preconditions for designing the main roles, rules, and mechanisms of a data republic, as a possible enactment of a fair data ecosystem. While outlining here its main traits, the testing of the data republic model is open for further research.

Feasibility of a national open data policy in Zimbabwe.

A study on the feasibility of a national open data policy in Zimbabwe was done to document open government data globally and in Zimbabwe. The study showcases the benefits of open government data and the opportunities and challenges toward the development of a national open data policy. Web content analysis and document analysis were used to collect data concerning the readiness of the country in implementing open data activities. The open data barometer was used to gather qualitative data which is essential in assessing the preparedness of the country in opening up government and research data. Content analysis was used to analyse the data which was presented thematically based on the objectives of the study. The findings indicated that the Government of Zimbabwe has endorsed a couple of open data frameworks though some projects are done by non-governmental organizations. The major challenge is implementation of these conventions and commitment to make the data accessible. The results indicated that open data must be made available and accessible within Zimbabwe as a matter of national policy. The author recommends the need for advocacy and continuous awareness creation among the stakeholders so that a national open data policy can be crafted and enacted. The enactment of a national open data policy would guide the use of and access to government data and research data which is valuable in research.

Permissioned Blockchain Approach using Open Data in Healthcare

Digital health records play a key role in the area. However, it is difficult to obtain a unified view of your data, as it is distributed among different providers, spread over several places, and is not integrated. To address these problems, blockchain technology and the openEHR interoperability standard have emerged. Blockchain is a new wave of disruption that has come to redesign interactions that involve any form of exchange of values, with the potential to improve healthcare, bringing a new perspective on security, resilience, and effectiveness of systems. In turn, with the use of openEHR, the standardization of electronic records is guaranteed, offering fine-grained access permissions for stakeholders. In addition to the use of archetypes as a reference to make the templates, where they are integrated to build a module with compatible standards.Based on an open data framework, OpenEHR, and blockchain technology, this paper has conceptualised a proposed two architectures that will be implemented within a Portuguese hospital, at the ICU, to increase and provide support for clinical decision-making, ensuring interoperability between systems, as well as the veracity, privacy and security of the data being used.

A probabilistic approach to estimating residential losses from different flood types

Residential assets, comprising buildings and household contents, are a major source of direct flood losses. Existing damage models are mostly deterministic and limited to particular countries or flood types. Here, we compile building-level losses from Germany, Italy and the Netherlands covering a wide range of fluvial and pluvial flood events. Utilizing a Bayesian network (BN) for continuous variables, we find that relative losses (i.e. loss relative to exposure) to building structure and its contents could be estimated with five variables: water depth, flow velocity, event return period, building usable floor space area and regional disposable income per capita. The model’s ability to predict flood losses is validated for the 11 flood events contained in the sample. Predictions for the German and Italian fluvial floods were better than for pluvial floods or the 1993 Meuse river flood. Further, a case study of a 2010 coastal flood in France is used to test the BN model’s performance for a type of flood not included in the survey dataset. Overall, the BN model achieved better results than any of 10 alternative damage models for reproducing average losses for the 2010 flood. An additional case study of a 2013 fluvial flood has also shown good performance of the model. The study shows that data from many flood events can be combined to derive most important factors driving flood losses across regions and time, and that resulting damage models could be applied in an open data framework.

Open Data for Sustainable Development on a Knowledge-Based Economy: The Case of Botswana

A review of sustainable economic development perspectives reveals a lack of data-driven approaches that meet the needs of knowledge-based economies. This paper presents a conceptual design artefact, a theoretical framework that maps the open data pathway toward the achievement of a knowledge-based economy and sustainable economic development with a specific reference to Botswana. The proposed framework models the transition from open data to open knowledge. It further establishes the potential impact of that transition on the realisation of a knowledge-based economy, sustainable economic development, and the attainment of a knowledge society. The method adopted in the development of the framework involves three processes: 1) review of literature on key research concepts; 2) identification of relationships between research concepts; and 3) design and development of the proposed open data framework. The proposed framework will serve as a point of reference in open data-driven economic transitions and transformations in Botswana. This design artefact can be customised to meet the economic needs of other developing countries.

Linked Open Data Framework for Ethnic Groups in Thailand Learning

The key significant worldview of the Semantic Web is Linked Open Data, another period of the World Wide Web that capacities to carry suggestions to information. An enormous number of both public and private foundations have dis-tributed their information following the Linked Open Data philosophies, or have done as such with information from different associations. To this degree, since the generation and production of Linked Open Data are thorough designing procedures that require high consideration so as to achieve high caliber, and since experience has uncovered that current general guidance is not constantly adequate to be applied to each area, this paper presents a lot of guidance system for creating and distributing Linked Open Data with regards to ethnic groups in Thailand to outside (TEG-LOD Framework). This framework offers an exhaustive depiction of the undertakings to perform, including a rundown of steps, tools that help in accomplishing the errand, different alternatives for achievement of the assignment, and best practices and proposals. Also, this paper exhibits a pilot model on the generation and distribution of Linked Open Data about ethnic groups in Thai-land, adhering to the available guidance, where the ethnic groups in Thailand are the property of the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Center (SAC) have been made and distributed as Linked Open Data.

Comments on the `Report by the Committee of Experts on Non-Personal Data Governance Framework'

This paper contains our comments to the Ministry of Electronics and IT, Government of India, on the Report by the Committee of Experts on Non-Personal Data Governance Framework. The Report seeks to draft policy to facilitate the development of a framework for non-personal data governance in India. To this end, the Report suggests (a) enacting a law that will enable the State to access NPD for various public purposes, (b) mandating relatively free exchanges of data in the private sector, to be supervised by a Non-personal Data Authority, (c) providing greater control over NPD to citizens, while recognising certain new concepts such as that of community harms that may arise from processing of NPD. We argue that while many of the recommendations in the Report are seemingly well intentioned, they may be tough to actualise. Specifically we comment on (a) the lack of clarity of certain basic concepts and definitions, (b) the need for a more decentralised system of data governance, (c) the need to revisit extant open data frameworks, (d) the problems that may arise in the State-citizen relationship such as enhanced surveillance, (e) implementation of data localisation norms, and (f) establishment of a non-personal data authority. We suggest that the issues that arise in the context of governance of NPD require a deeper exploration of the problems, solutions and potential consequences before undertaking regulatory intervention at the scale proposed.

The Politics of Open Government Data: Understanding Organizational Responses to Pressure for More Transparency

This article contributes to the growing body of literature within public management on open government data by taking a political perspective. We argue that open government data are a strategic resource of organizations and therefore organizations are not likely to share it. We develop an analytical framework for studying the politics of open government data, based on theories of strategic responses to institutional processes, government transparency, and open government data. The framework shows that there can be different organizational strategic responses to open data—varying from conformity to active resistance—and that different institutional antecedents influence these responses. The value of the framework is explored in two cases: a province in the Netherlands and a municipality in France. The cases provide insights into why governments might release datasets in certain policy domains but not in others thereby producing “strategically opaque transparency.” The article concludes that the politics of open government data framework helps us understand open data practices in relation to broader institutional pressures that influence government transparency.

A linked open data framework to enhance the discoverability and impact of culture heritage

Cultural heritage institutions have recently begun to consider the benefits of sharing their collections using linked open data to disseminate and enrich their metadata. As datasets become very large, challenges appear, such as ingestion, management, querying and enrichment. Furthermore, each institution has particular features related to important aspects such as vocabularies and interoperability, which make it difficult to generalise this process and provide one-for-all solutions. In order to improve the user experience as regards information retrieval systems, researchers have identified that further refinements are required for the recognition and extraction of implicit relationships expressed in natural language. We introduce a framework for the enrichment and disambiguation of locations in text using open knowledge bases such as Wikidata and GeoNames. The framework has been successfully used to publish a dataset based on information from the Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, thus illustrating how semantic enrichment can help information retrieval. The methods applied in order to automate the enrichment process, which build upon open source software components, are described herein.

Connecting Medieval and Renaissance Manuscript Collections

This article examines issues affecting the reuse of data relating to collections of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in libraries, museums and archives. These manuscripts are increasingly being made available in digital formats, although the extent is perhaps less than expected; a recent report on the situation in Germany estimated that only about 7.5% of the country’s 60,000 manuscripts had been digitized. Discovering these manuscripts is heavily dependent on the quality and consistency of descriptive data about them, but the current situation is very mixed and inconsistent, despite several national programmes (such as Manuscriptorium in the Czech Republic, e-codices in Switzerland, and Biblissima in France) and a major international effort by Europeana. This article reports on recent work in manuscript studies, drawing on two major international projects. The first, funded by the European Union between 2014 and 2016, focused on the manuscript collection assembled in the nineteenth century by Sir Thomas Phillipps. It investigated ways of reconstructing the history of this vast, but now-dispersed collection, by bringing together data from a range of digital and non-digital sources. The second project, Mapping Manuscript Migrations, funded by the Trans-Atlantic Platform under its Digging into Data Challenge from 2017 to 2019, extends the earlier work to a much larger scale, and implements a Linked Open Data framework for combining and managing data related to medieval and Renaissance manuscripts. It enables large-scale analysis and visualization of their history and movements over the centuries.

Open government data (OGD) in six Middle East countries: an evaluation of the national open data portals

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to do provide an overview of open government data (OGD) frameworks in six Middle East countries (Cyprus, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon and Jordan) and to underscore the barriers in using the open data sets.Design/methodology/approachOGD framework offered by Sieber and Johnson (2015) is deployed for the present purpose. Primarily, documentary analysis is being used for substantiating the study and the national portals of the six countries are investigated.FindingsIn line with the frameworks chosen for this study, OGD initiatives across the six Middle East countries are at an emerging phase. All the six countries qualify for the “data over the wall” model as advanced by Sieber and Johnson (2015), wherein there are basic provisions of “data aggregation.” Furthermore, the data are incomplete and outdated, which serve as barriers in using these data sets for analysis and interpretation. Therefore, there are a number of barriers in using the open data sets. However, there are many prospects for using these data sets which would improve public accountability and transparency in the long run.Practical implicationsBesides helping in improved decision-making, the governments may be in a better position to appreciate the relevance of adopting a robust OGD initiative in facilitating the economic growth of their country.Social implicationsThis study is relevant for ensuring that citizen engagement is promoted and there is co-creation of public value.Originality/valueHitherto, OGD has been investigated in the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) but the other countries in Middle East have not been investigated. This study selects six countries outside the GCC ambit and investigates the nature and scope of OGD initiatives in each of them apart from underlining the barriers in using the open data sets.

An interoperable open data framework for discovering popular tours based on geo-tagged tweets

In this paper, we introduce an original approach that exploits timestamped geo-tagged messages posted by Twitter users through their smartphones when they travel to trace their trips. A clustering approach is applied to group similar trips to identify tours, and an interoperable framework is used to share the popular tours on the web, in order to analyse them in relation with local geo-located territorial resources. Tools developed to reconstruct and mine the tours of tourists within a region are described, which identify, track, and group the tourists' trips through a knowledge-based approach, exploiting timestamped geo-tagged information associated with Twitter messages sent by tourists while travelling. The collected tracks are managed and shared on the web in compliance with OGC standards so as to be able to analyse the characteristic of localities visited by the tourists by spatial overlaying with other open geo-spatial data, such as maps of points of interest (POIs) of distinct type. The result is a novel interoperable framework, based on web-service technology.

Metadata and semantics research: a case of an international conference paving toward a data-driven future

This paper provides an overview of the 11th international conference on Metadata and Semantics Research (MTSR-2017) which was held in Tallinn, Estonia from November 28th to December 1st, 2017. The paper contextualises this with existing literature and concludes by offering insight toward the future of metadata. MTSR-2017 brought metadata experts from various domains including libraries, museums, archives, higher education and agriculture. The conference provided an opportunity for participants to share their knowledge and novel approaches in the implementation of metadata and semantics technologies across diverse types of information environments and applications. In libraries, it is indicated that contemporary standards-based metadata approaches fail to describe the ever increasing size of digital resources as well as the changing technologies and dynamic user requirements. The paper shows the need to re-conceptualise existing metadata principles and technical formats with emerging Linked Open Data frameworks. This is where, the theory of metadata enriching and filtering (Alemu & Stevens, 2015) fits in. It emerges that the future of metadata, ontologies and semantics is enriched, linked, open and filtered. In addition, ontologies need to reflect the diversity of interpretations inherent in human beings and the existence of multi-lingual, cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary content – hence they should be designed, developed and maintained with diversity, scalability and interoperability in mind.

Metadata and semantics research: a case of an international conference paving toward a data-driven future

This paper provides an overview of the 11th International Conference on Metadata and Semantics Research (MTSR-2017) which was held in Tallinn, Estonia from 28 November to 1 December 2017. The paper contextualises this with existing literature and concludes by offering insight toward the future of metadata. MTSR-2017 brought metadata experts from various domains including libraries, museums, archives, higher education and agriculture. The conference provided an opportunity for participants to share their knowledge and novel approaches in the implementation of metadata and semantics technologies across diverse types of information environments and applications. In libraries, it is indicated that contemporary standards-based metadata approaches fail to describe the ever-increasing size of digital resources as well as the changing technologies and dynamic user requirements. The paper shows the need to re-conceptualise existing metadata principles and technical formats with emerging Linked Open Data frameworks. This is where the theory of metadata enriching and filtering fits in. It emerges that the future of metadata, ontologies and semantics is enriched, linked, open and filtered. In addition, ontologies need to reflect the diversity of interpretations inherent in human beings and the existence of multi-lingual, cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary content - hence they should be designed, developed and maintained with diversity, scalability and interoperability in mind.

How to assess the success of the open data ecosystem?

ABSTRACTOpen data are currently a hot topic and are associated with realising ambitions such as a more transparent and efficient government, solving societal problems, and increasing economic value. To describe and monitor the state of open data in countries and organisations, several open data assessment frameworks were developed. Despite high scores in these assessment frameworks, the actual (re)use of open government data (OGD) fails to live up to its expectations. Our review of existing open data assessment frameworks reveals that these only cover parts of the open data ecosystem. We have developed a framework, which assesses open data supply, open data governance, and open data user characteristics holistically. This holistic open data framework assesses the maturity of the open data ecosystem and proves to be a useful tool to indicate which aspects of the open data ecosystem are successful and which aspects require attention. Our initial assessment in the Netherlands indicates that the traditional geographical data perform significantly better than non-geographical data, such as healthcare data. Therefore, open geographical data policies in the Netherlands may provide useful cues for other OGD strategies.

Open data framework for sustainable assessment of project-based learning experiences

Purpose In a project-based learning experience, the detailed monitoring of the activities in which team members participate can be useful to evaluate their work. However, the project activity produces a large amount of data that can be hardly assessed by a single project supervisor. This poses a scalability issue if the number of users or projects size increases. In this vein, the purpose of this paper is to make the assessment of online learning experiences more sustainable. Design/methodology/approach This paper describes a learning-oriented collaborative assessment method, supported by an open data framework. Also, an architecture for the extraction of different indicators to facilitate the assessment process is presented. Findings The assessment method and the open data framework were applied to a project-based course on web engineering. This experience has provided positive evidences because the grade measurement was backed up with assessment evidences and calculated with less effort. Research limitations/implications At the moment, results indicate that apparently there are no significant evidences against the sustainable evaluation practices for students’ summative evaluation. Nevertheless, when more data become available, a more statistically significant analysis could be made to determine the influence of the assessment practices in the final result of the evaluated skills. Originality/value In contrast to various existing proposals for e-assessment, the strategy focuses on assessing learning experiences in software development projects. Also, the approach is based on the reuse of information from external process supporting tools by integrating a number of metrics in a non-intrusive way.

Introducing BASE: the Biomes of Australian Soil Environments soil microbial diversity database.

BackgroundMicrobial inhabitants of soils are important to ecosystem and planetary functions, yet there are large gaps in our knowledge of their diversity and ecology. The ‘Biomes of Australian Soil Environments’ (BASE) project has generated a database of microbial diversity with associated metadata across extensive environmental gradients at continental scale. As the characterisation of microbes rapidly expands, the BASE database provides an evolving platform for interrogating and integrating microbial diversity and function.FindingsBASE currently provides amplicon sequences and associated contextual data for over 900 sites encompassing all Australian states and territories, a wide variety of bioregions, vegetation and land-use types. Amplicons target bacteria, archaea and general and fungal-specific eukaryotes. The growing database will soon include metagenomics data. Data are provided in both raw sequence (FASTQ) and analysed OTU table formats and are accessed via the project’s data portal, which provides a user-friendly search tool to quickly identify samples of interest. Processed data can be visually interrogated and intersected with other Australian diversity and environmental data using tools developed by the ‘Atlas of Living Australia’.ConclusionsDeveloped within an open data framework, the BASE project is the first Australian soil microbial diversity database. The database will grow and link to other global efforts to explore microbial, plant, animal, and marine biodiversity. Its design and open access nature ensures that BASE will evolve as a valuable tool for documenting an often overlooked component of biodiversity and the many microbe-driven processes that are essential to sustain soil function and ecosystem services.