Supporting the digital transformation of the society with APIs (@Polimi)

Supporting the digital
transformation of the society
with APIs
Presentation for the Architecture of Smart Cities course of Polimi,
Piacenza (IMM designlab, prof. Massimo Tadi)
Lorenzino Vaccari
20th April 2020

• What is an APIs?
• Why APIs?
• APIs4DGov study
• Landscape
• Costs and benefits
• Framework and policy recommendations
• Tooling
Summary

Research environment
The Joint Research Centre (JRC)
• European Commission's science and knowledge service
carrying out research to provide independent scientific advice
and support to EU policy
The JRC B6 Digital Economy Unit
• Investigate how the on-going digital revolution and ICTs are
affecting the economy and the digital transformation of
Governments
The APIs4DGov study
• Started in 2018, a two years study that gathers evidences to
support the evaluation of EU-policy requirements related to APIs
(e.g. for the adoption of the recent PSI revision)

• Have you heard about APIs?
• Time: a couple of minutes
Mentimeter (www.menti.com 224545)

What is an Application Programming Interface
(API)?
‘I need energy’ ‘I need a service/data’
API
API is a software interface that allows
applications to communicate with one another
Everything can connect

Software API to a human eye?
An extremely simple example
{
return a * b;
}
myFunction(10, 2);
function myFunction(a, b)

Different from a web site: machine-to-machine
interface
Request: API URL + parameters
Response: A set of records with the history of the address
E.g.: ‘https://dawa.aws.dk/historik/adgangsadresser?id=45380a0c-9ad1-4370-84d2-50fc574b2063’
Web app
API

Compose and reuse: Skyscanner APIs
…
End-user of
Skyscanner
End-user of
the application
Application created
by using Skyscanner API
Skyscanner apps
Flight companies APIs

Scale: Google map APIs
Source: https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/

The API value chain
API consumerDigital
assets provider
API providing
access to assets
API provider
Application created
by using the API
End-user of
the application
Roles
Products
Data,
Information
Functionalities
Other assets
Digital assets

1. All teams will henceforth expose their data and functionality through
service interfaces.
2. Teams must communicate with each other through these interfaces.
3. There will be no other form of interprocess communication allowed:
no direct linking, no direct reads of another team's data store, no shared-
memory model, no back-doors whatsoever. The only communication
allowed is via service interface calls over the network.
4. It doesn't matter what technology they use. HTTP, Corba, Pubsub,
custom protocols -- doesn't matter. Bezos doesn't care.
5. All service interfaces, without exception, must be designed from the
ground up to be externalizable. That is to say, the team must plan and
design to be able to expose the interface to developers in the outside
world. No exceptions.
6. Anyone who doesn't do this will be fired.
Thank you; have a nice day!
Web APIs have been
used in the private
sector since many
years ago
Source: https://gist.github.com/chitchcock/1281611

• Check your knowledge about smart cities
• Do you think API are important for smart cities and why?
• Timing: 10 minutes

Why APIs?
The first law of ecology
is that
everything is related
to everything else
Barry Commoner (1917– )
Environmentalist
Columbia College 1937
Source: http://c250.columbia.edu/c250_celebrates/remarkable_columbians/barry_commoner.html

Why APIs in smart cities?
Source of images: Architecture of Smart Cities course (IMM designlab)

Digital transformation in governments
is extremely challenging
• Citizens expectations from governments
• Create robust digital ecosystems
• Dealing with privacy issues and cyber-
security
• Oversee the behaviour of external digital
ecosystems
APIs ‘connects’.
They are the key technical enablers
of digital transformation of
governments
Why APIs in government?
Source: Licenced from AdobeStock.com

API in governments connects many
stakeholders
Source: own elaboration based on (Lacheca, 2016)
Government as API provider
• API strategies can support
organizational change management
along their transformation process
• APIs facilitate flexible, effective,
inclusive, accountable public service
provision
• APIs enable government interactions
of different digital ecosystems
• Internal (G2G)
• External (G2G, G2B, B2G)
Source: Monica Posada, JRC

• Government as API provider
• Government as API consumer
E.g. G2G interactions (x-Road) Denmark & use of AirBnB private sector APIs
• Government as ecosystem owner/controller
e.g. E015 Regione Lombardia
• Government as ecosystem regulator
Open Data directive
eHealth directive
PSD2
Roles in API-enabled digital ecosystem
Government perspective

APIs in public service provision
Source: Monica Posada, JRC

• EMT test (trasportation Madrid):
• https://openapi.emtmadrid.es/v1/hello/
• French watercourse stations:
• https://hubeau.eaufrance.fr/api/v1/tempe
rature/station?station_code=1001336&si
ze=1000&format=json
Try out a couple of government
APIs (with Firefox, if possible)

• Check out the presentations at the workshop we did in October 2018 at
the JRC*
• APIS Simplified, David Berlind, Editor in Chief, ProgrammableWeb, United States
of America
• From API Economy to Programmable Economy, Mehdi Medjaoui, co-founder of
worldwide APIdays conferences series, France
• City Government APIs Trends and Forecasts, Mark Boyd, API and Smart Cities
Expert
• My API journey, Kin Lane, API Evangelist, United States of America
To know more about APIs
* https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/event/workshop/assessing-government-api-strategies-across-eu

What about a [x] minutes break?
Photo by Vicky Gu on Unsplash

Policy instruments
• European Commission, Communication from the
Commission to the European Parliament, the
Council, the European Economic and Social
Committee and the Committee of the regions - A
European strategy for data, COM/2020/66, 2020
(https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/communic
ation-european-strategy-data-19feb2020_en.pdf)
• European Union, Directive (EU) 2019/1024 of the
European Parliament and of the Council of 20
June 2019 on open data and the re-use of
public sector information, OJ L 172, 2019, p.
56–83
(http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/1024/oj/eng)
‘A Europe fit for the
Digital Age’ and API

1. Whether and why should governments adopt APIs?
2. Which government actions should be taken in developing government
APIs?
APIs4DGov study
What?
• Definitions, glossary, policy context
• Landscape: cases, strategies, standards,
best practices
• Key enablers, drivers, barriers, risks
Why?
• Costs and challenges
• Benefits
• Social highlights
How?
• EU API framework
• Thematic areas and technologies to focus on
• Policy recommendations

Research methodology
(Source: ICT Impact Assessment Guidelines, ISA2 Program)
• API strategies
• INSPIRE hack
• APIdays Helsinki
• APIdays Barcelona
• APIdays Paris
• 7 Case studies
• API experts
• Private companies
• Pilot
Governments sites
EU Policy web sites
Previous studies
ProgrammableWeb
Data catalogues
•
•
•
•
•
API strategies
FW validation
INSPIRE conference
Online framework
•
•
•
•
• Cases
• Standards
• Best practices
• Trends
• Domains
• Technologies
• Costs
• Benefits
• Drivers
• Enablers
• Barriers
• Risks
• Strategies
• Recommendations
• Private sector
• Metrics
• Technologies
• Internal issues & gains
• State of the art in EU
• Technical issues
• Private sector solutions
• Knowledge transfer
• Validation
• Community building

Trends
Source: JRC, own elaboration based on ProgrammableWeb.com

Quite a huge gap between the private and the
public sector
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
• ProgrammableWeb directory is a rich source of information
• The registration is volunteer, so this is probably a subset of the available APIs
• It contains more than 21000 registered APIs
• Of which less of 500 have ‘Government’ as a primary keyword
• And less of 100 are registered as government European APIs
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018

Government API cases in EU
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
AT BE BG CZ DE DK EE EL ES EU FI FR IE IT NL PL SE SI SK UK
EU Country
Numberofcases
Administrative distribution
City
36
European Union
44
National
116
Regional
10

State of the art: API best practices
Source: JRC, own elaboration

When implemented, the API uptake is huge!
Approx. 5000 IT
systems which draw
data from DAWA
Unique point of access
for addresses for
everybody (OOP)
2500 developers
registered in the System
Around 50 apps developed
925 institutions and
enterprises connected, including
706 public sector institutions
99% of government services
covered
Circa 52,000 organisations as
indirect users of X-Road services
350m requests per year
Visitors per month: 8000,
average time spent using the data
interface: 20 minutes
10713 registered Map
Requester Initiators
(MRI), made up of 1502
companies and 1258
citizens
200,000 map requests a
year, for each request 6-7
utility company involved
Denmark’s Addressers Web
API (DAWA): A unique access
point for the addresses in
Denmark
Amsterdam city data:
a single portal providing
developers with a ReST
API
Flanders Underground
- Cable and Pipe
Information Portal
(KLIP): was created in
2007 following a gas
explosion in 2004 caused
loss of life
Madrid MobilityLabs:
an open and
interoperable API based
platform
Future Internetware
(FIWARE): is an open
platform which can be
harnessed by developers to
create and deliver smart, data-
driven solutions, applications
and services
Estonia X-Road: is an API driven
data exchange ecosystem platform
that was initially developed
between 1998 and 2001
Italian Digital
Transformation
Team: building a
specific API project
Three years national
ICT plan ‘API-first’
EU Standard
Based platform for
IoT and Smart
Cities

The French government public API registry
Source: national API French catalogue

Regione Lombardia
API-enabled Digital Ecosystem – Regional level
Source: Regione Lombardia, E015 website

• Reduction of costs
• Improve the quality of digital
assets
• Improve internal processes and
digital public services
• Enhance reporting flows in
government processes
• Improve Open Data
Benefits: Efficiency gains

• Fostering innovation in the public
sector
• Enablement of digital
ecosystems
• Economic opportunities
• Help SMEs reducing costs of establishing
and running business
• Easier access to Open Data can further
stimulate new economic development
Additional benefits
(Source: Marco Panebianco, Regione Lombardia)
(Source: Patrick Amarelis, DINUM, France)

• Implement a whole of government
platform vision and re-engineering
existing systems towards APIs
• Cultural change, need to acquire
new skills
• Increase the cyber-security
• Adhere to legislation (e.g.
adoption of GDPR)
• Improve the policy understanding
and support
Costs
Challenges
(Figure: A conceptual model for a digital information supply chain. Source: (Brenton et al., 2018)
(Source: DINUM - France)

API standards and specifications
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Test
Performance
Licence
Design
Documentation
Security
Protocol
Resource Representation
Number of documents (tot. 80)

Demanded EC support
0
5
10
15
20
25
Identify best
practices
Events (e.g.
workshops)
API catalogue Common
Guidelines
Research
projects
EU API
community
EU API
platform
Promote
networking
EU Legislation API training
Recommendations, standards, legislation
Community building
Infrastructure

The APIdays conferences
Hi, this is Lorenzino working
on a study on APIs for the
EC, I have found this picture
on the API landscape…
Hi Lorenzino, this is
Mehdi, the founder of
the APIdays series of
conferences…
(Source: https://www.apidays.co/)

How to implement APIs in
governments?
Policy
support
Platform
and
ecosystems
People Processes
API
strategy
1. Align APIs
with policy
goals
2. Define the
government API
platform
3. Create API
governance
structures
4. Form guiding
principles for API
processes
API tactics
5. Design
metrics and
prioritize API by
policy goals
6. Harmonize
data models and
other
platform/ecosyst
ems assets
7. Establish
cross-
competency
teams
8. Follow an API
product
approach
API
operations
9. Measure
policy impacts of
APIs
10. Build API
platform
components
11. Appoint API
product
manager(s)
12. Adopt an API
lifecycle
approach

Source : Architecture of Smart Cities course (IMM designlab)

• Transversal
• Public service provision and
Open Data
• Geospatial and Statistics
• Smart cities and Citizen science
• Vertical
• Health
• Environment and Earth
observation
• Mobility
• Meteorology, Agriculture
• Companies and Financial
• Energy, Industrial
Thematic areas
(Source: https://documenter.getpostman.com/view/10808728/SzS8rjbc?version=latest )

Multi-access Edge Computing deployment across different enterprise networks. (Source: IEEE)
Datafication paradigm (Source: JRC, own elaboration
• Artificial Intelligence
• Internet of Things
• Edge computing
• Digital twins
• Autonomous things
• Big Data and Cloud
computing
• Microservices
• Blockchain
Technologies

• Explicitly adopt APIs in governments
• Create and improve the ‘API culture’
in governments
• Utilize and validate our API
framework
• Become digital ecosystem aware:
Engage both public EU governments
actors and the private sector
Policy recommendations

APIs4DGov: to know more
Ongoing publications
(June 2020)

APIs4DGov Open Data
(Source: https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/collection/id-0097)

Relevant digital transformation publications

The future of cities
Source: https://urban.jrc.ec.europa.eu/thefutureofcities/

Cities are complex socio-technical
systems
• Artificial intelligence
• Autonomous systems
• Open and Big data
• Digital twins
• Digital government
• Citizens participation
Cognitive cities:
putting all together?
https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319337975

How to build a dashboard for a Smart City
Source: https://www.slideshare.net/RusselChowdhury/building-a-city-dashboard

Google data studio + French government APIs?
https://datastudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/0B5FF6JBKbNJxOWItcWo2SVVVeGc/page/DjD

• APIs are useful also for not-
developers
• With Zapier, for example, you
can create your workflows
without writing a line of code
• Check how at:
https://zapier.com/learn/gettin
g-started-guide/
APIs for non
developers? Yes!

e.g. for Europa Terzo Mondo web site

• Your feedback is important (10 minutes)
• Positive and negative,
• Things to improve,
• Topics to explain better,
• Things that are not interesting for this course
• …

Thank you*
Questions?
* The majority of the material and findings presented in this presentation has been created within the European Commission study ‘APIs4DGov’. Thanks to the whole ’APIs4DGov extended team’
(Vaccari L., Posada M., Boyd M., Gattwinkel D., Mavridis D., Smith R. S., Santoro M., Nativi S., Medjaoui M., Reusa I., Switzer S., Friis-Christensen A.) and to many colleagues and external experts
that contributed in various ways to the study.
“Data is vital for modern digital ecosystems. Like
water for the biological ecosystems, it sustains
them and can be used in a huge number of ways.
But data without APIs is like water in a well: to
use water you have to go there, load your bucket
and bring it home.
With APIs data will come to your tap.”
@lvaccari
lorenzino.vaccari@outlook.it
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorenzovaccari/

Bibliography
• Boyd, M. and Vaccari, L. (2020), API best practice documents relevant to governments: comprehensive literature review, European
Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) [Dataset], PID: http://data.europa.eu/89h/7340ab8a-ef73-459b-a2d9-b64e1a5bb680.
• European Commission (2019), 'Survey on APIs4DGov API framework validation' (https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/ab936330-03ee-
5669-4d2f-81ed90066c14) (accessed 16 January 2020).
• Santoro, M., Vaccari, L., Mavridis, D., Smith, R., Posada, M. and Gattwinkel, D. (2019), 'Web Application Programming Interfaces (APIs):
general-purpose standards, terms and European Commission initiatives', EUR 29870 EN, Publications Office of the European Union,
Luxembourg, 2019, ISBN 978-92-76-11713-1 (online), doi:10.2760/85021 (online), JRC118082
(https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/web-application-programming-interfaces-apis-general-purpose-standards-terms-and-european-
commission) (accessed 20 November 2019).
• Vaccari, L. (2020), Government publicly available API cases - APIs4DGov, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) [Dataset],
PID: http://data.europa.eu/89h/45ca8d82-ac31-4360-b3a1-ba43b0b07377.
• Vaccari, L. and Santoro, M. (2019), API standards and technical specifications - APIs4DGov, European Commission, Joint Research
Centre (JRC) [Dataset], PID: http://data.europa.eu/89h/5a431f38-1e2c-449a-898e-34f2a3234c3b.
• Vandecasteele, I. et al., 'The future of cities', EUR 29752 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2018, ISBN 978-92-
76-03847-4, doi:10.2760/375209, JRC116711, 2019.
• Williams, M. (2018), Digital Government Benchmark - API study, Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission, Ispra (VA), Italy
(https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/document/digital-government-benchmark-api-study) (accessed 19 March 2019).

• European Commission, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the
Committee of the regions - A European strategy for data, COM/2020/66, 2020 (https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/communication-european-strategy-
data-19feb2020_en.pdf).
• European Union, Directive (EU) 2019/1024 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on open data and the re-use of public sector
information, OJ L 172, 2019, p. 56–83 (http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/1024/oj/eng).
Committee of the regions - European Interoperability Framework – Implementation Strategy, COM/2017/134, 2017a (https://eur-
lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:2c2f2554-0faf-11e7-8a35-01aa75ed71a1.0017.02/DOC_1&format=PDF).
Committee of the regions - Building a European data economy, COM/2017/09, 2017b (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM%3A2017%3A9%3AFIN).
• European Commission, Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Digital Europe programme for the period
2021-2027, COM/2018/434, 2018 (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM%3A2018%3A434%3AFIN).
• European Union, Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information
in the European Community (INSPIRE), OJ L 108, 2007, p. 1–14 (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02007L0002-20190626).
• European Union, Decision (EU) 2015/2240 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 establishing a programme on interoperability
solutions and common frameworks for European public administrations, businesses and citizens (ISA2 programme) as a means for modernising the public
sector, OJ L 318, 2015a, p. 1–16 (http://data.europa.eu/eli/dec/2015/2240/oj/eng).
• European Union, Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2015 on payment services in the internal
market, amending Directives 2002/65/EC, 2009/110/EC and 2013/36/EU and Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010, and repealing Directive 2007/64/EC, OJ L 337,
2015b, p. 35–127 (https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/payment-services-psd-2-directive-eu-2015-2366_en).
• European Union, Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 2 October 2018 establishing a single digital gateway to
provide access to information, to procedures and to assistance and problem-solving services and amending Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 (Text with EEA
relevance.), OJ L 295, 2018 (http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2018/1724/oj/eng).
Main EU policy instruments

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