Presentation at the Meeting of Swiss Cultural Agendas, Fribourg, 23 June 2023

1. Opendata.ch – Open Event Data Manifesto
Beat Estermann, Opendata.ch Association
Rencontre des plateformes de communication culturelle, Fribourg, 23 June 2023
Swiss Open Cultural Data Hackathon 2018, Swiss National Museum, Zürich. Wikimedia Commons, User:TomBo79, CC BY-SA 4.0

2. The Opendata.ch Association

3. Activities: Advocacy
Dialogue with Government
Representatives and Public Officials
Parliamentary Initiatives
Participation in Public Consultations

4. Activities: Promoting Innovative Applications

5. Activities: Community

6. Activities: Awareness Raising

7. Personal Background

8. ▶ Bern University of Applied Sciences: E-Government / Public Sector Transformation
(2007-2022)
▶ Opendata.ch Association: Open GLAM (cultural heritage data)
▶ Association Digitale Allmend / « Creative Commons »
▶ Wikimedia / Wikipedia / Wikidata
▶ Relevant Cooperations / Mandates:
• Swiss Archive of the Performing Arts (SAPA) – Production Database
• Wikidata Projects Performing Arts / Cultural Venues
• Canadian Arts Presenting Association (CAPACOA) – Linked Digital Future Initiative, LODEPA Network
• Swiss Data Alliance – Whitepaper Chapter Data Space for Cultural and Cultural Heritage Data
• Fugu GmbH / Hinto – Linked Open Event Data
Personal Background Beat Estermann

9. Common orientation framework of
the EU and EFTA States for the
digital transformation of public
administration
Digital transformation of public
administration not only as a
national, but also as an international
coordination task
Link: original text of the declaration

10. The Five Principles of the Tallinn Declaration (1/3)
In order to increase the efficiency and user orientation ("user centricity"), the
services of public administrations should be digital, inclusive, accessible and barrier-
free by default ("digital by default", "inclusiveness", "accessibility").
Source: Marti, M., Estermann, B., Neuroni, A. (2022): Die Tallinn-Prinzipien als Wegbereiter der digitalen Transformation des öffentlichen Sektors in der Schweiz.
In: Mertes, A., Pleger, L. E. (2022): Digitale Transformation der öffentlichen Verwaltung in der Schweiz. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler.
1
For central services of the public sector, the principle applies that citizens or
businesses need to provide the same information to the public administration only
once ("once only"); the administration takes care of the internal transfer of the
information at the behest of citizens or businesses.
2
Public services must be trustworthy and secure ("trustworthiness", "security"),
whereby privacy is to be respected and national eID solutions are to be used.
3

11. The Five Principles of the Tallinn Declaration (2/3)
In the spirit of openness and transparency ("openness", "transparency"), citizens
and companies should be enabled to manage data concerning them in base regi-
stries themselves and to exercise a certain degree of control over their use.
Furthermore, administrative data that is useful for the economy or society should
be made available as open data for free further use ("open by default") and linked
to reference databases ("automatic linkages to databases"). In addition, long-term
digital preservation of public sector data and information must be ensured (“long-
term preservation”).
4
Source: Marti, Estermann, Neuroni (2022)

12. The Five Principles of the Tallinn Declaration (3/3)
IT applications of the public sector should be interoperable ("interoperability by
default"). In addition, open source solutions and open standards should be used
to increase the reusability of IT applications – both within the public administra-
tion and beyond ("make ICT solutions available for reuse"). When setting up
service infrastructures, duplications should be avoided ("avoid sectoral
duplication of service infrastructures").
5
Source: Marti, Estermann, Neuroni (2022)

13. Several accompanying measures are intended to promote the digital transformation of the
public sector:
▶ Promotion of “digital skills” within the public administration at all levels
▶ Promotion of “digital leadership skills” among top civil and public servants
▶ Broader use of data by the public administration itself (“widen and deepen the use of
data and analytics”)
▶ Faster innovation cycles (“more and faster innovation”)
▶ “Agile ways of developing and deploying digital technology”
Tallinn Declaration: Accompanying Measures
Source: Marti, Estermann, Neuroni (2022)

14. ▶ Switzerland has taken the principles into account in the relevant strategies and has –
with a few exceptions – the necessary basis for their implementation.
▶ There is however still room for improvement in the actual implementation, namely in the
following areas:
• The principle of “digital by default” has not yet been implemented across the board; the lack of identity
and authentication services complicates end-to-end digital administrative procedures.
• The necessary legal and organisational prerequisites for widespread implementation of the “once
only” principle are still lacking.
• Consistent implementation of the principle “open by default” is still pending at the federal level, while
the picture is mixed in the cantons and cities. A cultural change and legal adjustments are still needed
here.
• Further efforts are needed with regard to establishing semantic interoperability of government data.
State of Implementation of the Tallinn Principles
in Switzerland

15. “Open Event Data” Manifesto
Draft 0.1

16. • Events play an important role in the public life of a society. Ensuring the visibility of events and availability of
event data in the digital space plays a crucial role in the digital age.
• There is a high potential in automatizing the data transfer and in establishing a culture of sharing in order to
facilitate the dissemination of event data.
• A distributed data infrastructure based on the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable,
Reusable) has the advantage for producers, organizers, and other stakeholders along the value chain of
having to enter their data only once, without having to deal with the lock-in problems resulting from dominant
event and ticketing platform providers.
• Open Data: “A piece of data or content is open if anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it — subject
only, at most, to the requirement to give credit to the author and/or making any resulting work available
under the same terms as the original work.”
Vision / Rationale

17. 1. Share your event data through an open, publicly documented API.
2. Release factual data about your events into the public domain using an appropriate legal tool such as the
Creative Commons Zero Waiver.
3. When publishing copyrighted material, such as images, video recordings, or longer descriptions, make an
explicit and robust statement by means of a standard copyright license of your wishes and expectations
with respect to reuse and repurposing. Seek prior consent of the people concerned (e.g. individuals
depicted on a photo), respecting their right to digital self-determination.
4. When publishing data about your events, make use of unique identifiers and refer to shared authority files
or base registers wherever possible.
5. Promote the accessibility of your events by making accessibility-related information about the venues and
the events themselves available in a standard format.
Principles

18. Contact
Beat Estermann
Opendata.ch
Member of the Board
beat.estermann@opendata.ch