The document discusses best practices in open data across Europe, with a focus on Belgium, outlining the European Data Portal's offerings, including metadata and training for data publishers. It highlights Belgium's progress in open data maturity, the impact of open data on various sectors, and examples of successful implementations in different countries. Furthermore, it addresses barriers faced by publishers and re-users of open data and provides information on recent reports and resources related to open data.

1. Best practices in Open Data across Europe
Special focus on Belgium
Heleen Vollers
12 March 2018, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

2. We harvest open data
from
public administrations
across Europe

3. What does the European Data Portal have for me?
We offer metadata, visualisations, quality checks
We train data publishers via eLearning and workshops
We showcase events, news, best practices, reports
We measure open data maturity across Europe
We convene meetings, webinars, events
We collect open data stories, feedback
We share our source code and promote open source

4. The European Data Portal
- facts & figures -
810,000
datasets
Metadata in
24 Languages
34 countries
79 catalogues

5. The categorisation of countries in groups, indicating their maturity
level, illustrates a clear increase compared to previous years

6. Belgium – Open Data fast-tracker
✓Many regional
data initiatives
✓All regional
portals integrated
Χ No national
guidelines
Coordination
✓Policy encourages
to use a Creative
Commons license
✓75-89% open
licensed
✓90-99% free of
charge
Licensing Norms
Open Data Policy
✓Possibility to give
feedback
✓Search data sets
✓Download data sets
✓API accessible
✓70-89% of the datasets
are machine readable
Χ Contribute to portal
Usability
Overview Belgium
▪ Belgium
▪ EU average
Presence Open
Data Policy 77%
Use of
Open Data
68%
Impact of
Open Data
35%
▪ Most downloaded data set: not
known in 2017
▪ Top 5 most consulted domains:
1. Statistics
2. Transport
3. Companies
4. Science and research
5. Education
Top data set & domains
✓Open Data policy in place
✓National 5 year strategy
✓Multiple priority domains
identified
✓Pre-defined approach to
ensure data sets are up-to-
date
✓Between 3-5 events held
annually
✓100% data uploaded
automatically 74%
81% 86%
0
25
50
75
100

7. Examples how to measure Open Data – political impact
France: Publishing of money allocated to Members of
Parliament as Open Data allowing more accountability
Norway: the Grade Calculator helps make sure that a student
can get into the desired study programme without wasting time,
based on chosen subjects and grades attained

8. Examples how to measure Open Data – social impact
Spain: GeoSpatiumLab is a pesticide finder helps agricultural companies
and individual farmers choosing the most suitable pesticides for their
crops avoiding potential risks to human health and environment.
Finland: accessible GPS app developed for the blind and
visually impaired. BlindSquare uses Open Data of services and
places and describes the environment, announces
points of interest and street intersections as you travel.

9. Examples how to measure Open Data – economic impact
Ireland: The Monitor, published
free of charge on-line every
quarter, tracks developments
in the Dublin economy (2017)
Spain: detailed analysis
of the activities and impact
of the infomediary
industry (2017)
EDP: report on the economic
impact of Open Data (2015)

10. € 325 Billion
Direct Market Size
2016 – 2020 for
the EU 28+

11. Open Data has both a direct and an indirect impact on the
economy
Indirect economic benefits are i.e. new goods and
services, time savings for users of applications
using Open Data, knowledge economy
growth, increased efficiency in public
services and growth of
related markets.
Direct benefits are monetised benefits that are
realised in market transactions in the form of
revenues and Gross Value Added (GVA),
the number of jobs involved in
producing a service or product,
and cost savings.
73%
27%
> € 1.7 Bn in
savings in Public
Administration
> 2,549
hours
wasted finding
parking
> 16% less
energy used
> 25,000 Jobs
created in Open
Data in 2020
Copyright EDP
CC BY

12. Open Data matters because it represents value for businesses,
citizens and public administrations
Geospatial
25.8%
Statistical
27.3%
Companies
19.5%
Top 3 Open Data domains re-used most
Clear popularity of three types of Open Data domains
Domains expected to have the highest economic impact
More data on companies requested most
Transport
Regions & Cities
Environment
Population &
Society
Top 4 combinations of Open Data categories
Regions & Cities data is often combined with the other 3
categories
On average companies use 5 categories of Open Data
36% of the companies aggregate the data, regardless of its
nature
St

13. Businesses see Open Data leading to innovation and efficiency as
well as a source of revenue
Selling services most important source
of revenue
Nearly half of the Open Data re-use is for
selling services
34% of these services are based on
software
25% of these services are consulting
Sources of revenue
Selling products
& services
21%
Selling services
42%
Selling
products
10%
Main benefits of working with Open Data
0% 10% 20% 50%
Innovation
Reduced costs and
increased efficiency
Data harmonisation
15%
47%
26%
6%
Reliability
6%
Enhanced business
model
40%30%
Frequency

14. Barriers for Open Data publishers and re-users
Figure 1: Barriers for Open Data publishers and barriers for re-users of Open Data
Main barriers for publishers:
Financial: main barrier for 71% of EU countries
Legal: 2nd most important barrier for 58%
Technical: 3rd barrier for 52%
Political: 4th barrier for 45%
Other, such as organisational barriers and lack
of awareness
Main barriers for re-users:
Lack of awareness: main barrier for 68%
Low availability: 2nd most important for 42%
Technical: 3rd barrier for 32%
Legal: 4th barrier for 26%
Financial: 5th barrier for 19%
Other, such as political barriers

15. Latest EDP reports
Report: Open Data and Entrepreneurship – February 2018
Report: Ensuring the economic sustainability of Open Data Portals: Understanding impact and
financing – February 2018
Report: The economic benefits of Open Data - December 2017
Report: Open Data maturity in Europe 2017 - November 2017
Report: The future of Open Data Portals - October 2017
Report: Open Data in the EU neighbourhood - July 2017
eLearning: 15 eLearning modules on Open Data – 3 new modules since July 2017 and can be
linked to your own national ODP
Report: Open Data and Cities 2 – June 2017
Report: Barriers in working with Open Data – March 2017
Report: Recommendations for Open Data Portals: from setup to sustainability – February 2017
Report: Re-using Open Data – January 2017

16. Go and try it out.
data.europa.eu/europeandataportal