Conference THE FUTURE IS DATA Panel: Leaders of the European Open Data Maturity Assessment - exchange of good practices

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Conference THE FUTURE IS DATA
Panel: Leaders of the European Open Data Maturity
Assessment - exchange of good practices
Miguel A. Amutio
Warsaw (Poland) 18.04.2023
https://dane.gov.pl/pl/promotion/the-future-is-data-przyszosc-to-dane-r2023?lang=en
Good morning, everyone...
On behalf of the Secretary of State for Digitisation and Artificial
Intelligence, I thank you for the opportunity to speak here today
at this Conference “The future is data”, and to be able to share with
what we are working on in Spain in relation to data and its reuse.
Spain and the data economy
We understand that data is the backbone of the digital
transformation of our economic and productive model.
And that data is the great asset of this digital revolution, as well as
an essential pillar of Spain’s digitization strategy...
So, Spain pursues a data economy with the aspiration to work on a
strong data sovereignty aligned with European values and principles.
Consequently, the Government of Spain is working hard, along
the time, to create the best conditions in terms of principles and
rights; Regulatory framework; governance, cooperation, and
community; capabilities; talent; as well as funding.

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This effort is developed through initiatives that are included in a
series of strategic documents promoted by our Ministry of
Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, such as the strategies
Digital Spain 2025 and 2026, the National Strategy of Artificial
Intelligence, and the Plan of digitization of public administrations,
among others. All these instruments are part of the Recovery Plan
that seizes the opportunity of the NextGen EU funds.
Since 2021, the digital rights charter was published, the legislation
on the reuse of public sector information was updated in
accordance with the new directive of 2019, the Data Office was
launched, the figure of the Chief Data Officer was created and the
National Security Framework was updated, among other initiatives.
Spain’s leadership was also promoted in the creation of the
European tourism data space, the creation of the Spanish hub of
the European Association of Gaia-X, and Spain was appointed as
the Chair of the Governmental Advisory Board of Gaia-X.
Reuse of data
Now turning the focus into the reuse of data…In the “Open Data
Maturity Report 2022” Spain ranks seventh (7º) in the global
ranking, remaining in the Trend-Setters group.
Of the four dimensions analyzed, Spain stands out especially in
the “Policy” dimension, where it achieves the highest score. While in

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all dimensions Spain scores above the average of the countries of the
European Union. These results have not been achieved overnight.
Rather, they are the result of a collective, multidisciplinary effort,
sustained in time, based on the dynamic interaction and evolution of
three main pillars: a favorable regulatory framework; governance,
cooperation, and community; together with capabilities; as well as
funding.
Let’s see some perspective. The Aporta Initiative began in 2009 to
promote the openness of public information and the development
of advanced data-based services. It is promoted by the Ministry of
Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation and the Public Enterprise
Entity Red.es.
This initiative, Aporta, is being developed along the time in the
context of the existing regulatory framework; it is articulated in
seven lines of action that I will explain later; and it promotes the
platform that is the meeting point between administrations, private
sector, academia and citizens, that shape the open data ecosystem in
Spain, according to an inclusive governance model.
The Initiative and the platform target all the agents of the data
ecosystem:
1. Users, citizens or professionals who demand data, news,
applications or services.

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2. Public bodies that provide and use public data, and that want
to be aware of developments in the sector.
3. Re-users and infomediaries that need data sources to create
new products and services.
The development of the following seven lines of action that I
describe below is the key to the results in the four dimensions
assessed in the Open Data Maturity Report 2022 (policy, impact,
portal and quality):
1. Awareness: the opening of quality information and the re-use
of public and private data are encouraged for the development
of advanced data-based services.
Actions are developed according to the Communication
Strategy to generate relationships, create awareness, guide
publishers and re-users, identify business models, etc.
2. Analysis and Statistics: a thorough monitoring of data activity
in Spain is carried out.
It is reported promptly through the National Observatory of
Telecommunications and the Information Society, and a Study
of the Infomedia Sector is prepared periodically.
The existing open data initiatives are shown through the “Map
of Open Data Initiatives in Spain”; a catalog of applications is
permanently enriched; as well as a catalog of companies that
provide data management and analysis services.

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In addition, ASEDIE, the association of infomedia companies,
analyses annually the economic and social value of companies
that reuse data from the public (and private) sector to develop
value-added products.
3. Regulation: The entities participating in the Aporta initiative
contribute so that in Spain there is a favorable regulation to
achieve a wide and easy access to quality public sector
information, enabling the creation of new products and services
based on data for the benefit of citizens.
But the important thing now is that the updated legislation on
the reuse of public sector information in accordance with the
new directive of 2019 means the following:
The public sector in Spain will have to open its data, by design
and by default, as well as its reuse. The main obligations include
the following three:
• All Public Administrations will have their own catalogues
that will interoperate with the National Catalogue
following the technical standard of the National
Interoperability Framework.
• Public administrations should contribute to the national
catalogue through federation processes.

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• All public administrations should have a unit in charge of
coordinating activities, resolving requests, promoting that
the data are offered with the precise quality and carry out
the actions that encourage its use.
4. National cooperation: Cooperation actions at national level are
key to achieving greater progress and impact in the opening
and re-use of public sector information, adapting to the
different relevant actors, as referred to in the Governance Model
linked to the Aporta Initiative.
5. International Cooperation: The entities that make up the
Aporta initiative cooperate to participate and monitor the reuse
of public sector information in the international arena.
Participating in forums such as the Public Sector Information
Group of the European Commission; the OECD Open
Government Data Group; and Groups of the European Data
Portal.
6. The National Catalogue, housed in data.gob.es, is the
meeting point between administrations, companies and citizens
interested in the opening of public information and in the
development of advanced data-based services. It is a single
channel of communication with the European data portal.

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It presents multiple mechanisms for locating and accessing data
of interest: free text search, filters, web services (API+ SPARQL
point), massive downloads...
Spain plans to implement additional functionalities that will
highlight short lists of high-value datasets and enable searches.
7. Innovation: Supporting innovation for the generation of new
data-driven products and services is an essential element to
ensure the greatest final impact of the openness of public sector
information, both economically and socially.
The actions to support innovation are aimed at any of the
areas of the data value chain, from the organization and
approach of opening and making available data, data
processing, to models for the subsequent supply of products
and services. Different approaches are being used, such as:
o Open competitions of ideas for innovation.
o Awards for innovative ideas and projects.
o Dissemination of novelties linked to disruptive
technologies and data.
Closing
The recent regulation of high value data sets published last December
opens new challenges.
In any case, there is a long way to go, and the amount of work and
opportunities ahead are huge.
Thank you very much for your attention.