Open data in Barcelona
Xu Yedan   Apr 27.2016

Introduction

Open data is public sector information that is made available to everyone in standard, open, digital formats with a clear structure, so it can be understood. This facilitates access to information and encourages people to reuse it.In this way society — the public, businesses or any institution — can access data easily, to find out information or create new services that add to their social value and may also add to their commercial value.Open data, or making public information available in open formats so everyone can use it, goes beyond the simple process of allowing it to be reused. It returns public data to society and encourages people to reuse the data in whatever way they to.

Reason to Be Selected

The BCN Open Data Portal aims to open up all public data (that is not subject to any legal restriction) so society can use them in any way they want to, provided they respect the terms of use.This initiative fosters the creation of services based on public information by the private sector, as both citizens and companies, as well as other institutions, can use public information to develop free or paid services that complement those provided by the public authority.It is therefore possible to create all kinds of services, ranging from what is known as data journalism
to applications that complement public services.In the case of similar projects run by other public authorities, transport and personal mobility-related services have been created (for example, InfoCarretera, a free mobile service with information on the state of traffic on roads and in cities in the Basque Country). Also, education-related services (one example
being Schoolscope, a simple service with information on the quality of education in every school in England, so people can compare and contrast them). There are health-related services (one interesting American initiative being Apps for Healthy Kids, an application competition designed to foster healthy living among children), public safety services (one very well known American application for mobiles is AreYouSafe? which gives you crime levels according to where you are) and others dealing with public sector transparency (for example, Dónde van mis impuestos?, which offers a very visual explanation of the annual expenditure of Spain's Central Administration and Social Security, as it appears in the general budgets. There are endless possibilities.In short, open public data are data that can be reused to generate a limitless number of services and applications that, basically, deliver a better service to the public, which is what it is all about.

Details

For Barcelona City Council open data means making public data in the hands of the City Council (whatever the degree of aggregation) available to everyone in standard, open, digital formats, that are clearly structured and comprehensible. At the same time it facilitates access to this data and encourages their reuse.We define a public data item as one which has been registered, compiled or generated, using any means, by Barcelona City Council (or third parties on its behalf), excluding those subject to privacy, property or security restrictions, data whose publication would infringe Act 15/1999, of 13 December, on Personal Data
Protection, and data whose publication is covered by a government regulation.
Barcelona City Council is committed to expanding its open data in an ongoing process. Which data and in what order will be decided according to social utility, availability and cost criteria, taking the European Commission's recommendations on this into account.The various players in society - citizens, businesses and institutions - have the right to use these information resources, to access them easily, in order to consult them or create new services and increase their social value. Also, if they want, to obtain commercial benefit from them (provided this is in accordance
with their terms and conditions of use).


The main goals of this open data project are to:

·Increase the transparency of the City Council by putting public data within reach of all the players in society - citizens, businesses and institutions - so these players can utilise them to create services and develop applications.

·Analyse society's open data needs.

·Reinforce the open data initiative and promote the reuse of these public data.

·Promote the economic fabric by means of this initiative.

Ultimately the aim is to universalise data access in the same way the current website has universalised document access.

 



Lat: 41.3948
Lng: 2.14877
Type:
Region: Europe
Scale: City
Field: Economy
City: Barcelona