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Many public and private organizations worldwide publicly share the data they create as part of their daily processes. This data can be used and reused without any restrictions and is provided free of charge.  

Ideally, open data is provided and used in “cyclical, sustainable, demand-driven environments oriented around agents that are mutually interdependent in the creation and delivery of value from open data”. This is what we refer to as open data ecosystems. This potential will be lifted if an open data ecosystem becomes user driven, inclusive, and circular. Value creation will be maximised and the sustainability of the ecosystem promoted.

This was the underlying reasoning of the ODECO project. ODECO is a 4-year Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network initiative (H2020-MSCA-ITN-2020, grant agreement 955569). The central aim of the ODECO consortium network is to train the next generation of creative and innovative early-stage open data researchers, to unlock their creative and innovative potential to address current and future challenges in the creation of a user-driven, circular, and inclusive open data ecosystem. During the course of the project, we developed new insights that resulted in a more nuanced and complete view on open data ecosystems.

One could argue that current open data ecosystems are supplier-driven, exclusively building on government data, and are linear, which means that the users of the open government data do not deliver value back to the open data ecosystem. The current situation results in some value, but there is much more potential.

The video below introduces the Open Data Ecosystem.

Video 1: Introduction to the Open Data Ecosystem

Let us start with the first pillar: from supplier-driven to user-driven. We argue that an open data ecosystem should move away from a supplier-driven system towards a user-driven open data ecosystem.

At first glance, one may easily agree: users should be taken seriously by data providers. However, one should bear in mind that most, if not all, data has been collected for or with a purpose. At least for open government data, the data is collected to serve a public task. Be it a map for military purposes or the value of real property for taxation purposes. In these instances, there has been and is a close interaction between the provider and user of the data.

But after opening the data as open data, the user community expanded, resulting in an overwhelming number of new users and user types. With this, the direct connection with these new users became much more loose or is no longer there. As a result, there is now a what is generally considered a provider-driven ecosystem. So the success in attracting these new users is the explanation of the current lack of user involvement. Building on the definition of the EU open data directive and the term re-use, we may argue that open data ecosystems should not only be user-driven but also re-user driven.

The following videos address the topic of user-drivenness of open data ecosystems from different perspectives. Which ones can you identify?

Then the second pillar: towards an inclusive open data ecosystem. The sustainability of an open data ecosystem also depends on how inclusive the ecosystem is. Initially, we argued that an inclusive open data ecosystem is an ecosystem that not only includes open government data but also open data from other actors. Also, here we developed new insights. 

In the ODECO project, we found that inclusivity goes beyond nongovernment actors providing open data. Non-government actors also participate in the open data ecosystem in many different ways and roles. For example, by hosting a platform that provides access to open data, or by organizing hackathons, or by developing teaching material on open data. Of course, these are examples and you may not find them in all open data ecosystems, but the concept of inclusivity entails much more than allowing or stimulating nongovernment actors to contribute their data as open data. 

Another insight we developed is that inclusivity should also concern the content of datasets themselves. Also, these might not present the full picture, for example, by deliberately excluding certain groups or topics in the data.

More insights concerning inclusivity of open data ecosystems are being shared in the following videos. Which insights are new to you?

Finally, we discuss the third pillar: towards a circular open data ecosystem. 

In the ODECO project, circularity is reached when Users of Open Government Data improve that data and provide the new data back to the Ecosystem as open data to ensure a fair distribution of value among data providers, re-users and other actors.

We found that circularity is much more than only providing improved open government data back to the open data ecosystem. If it is not improved Open Government Data that is contributed back, then non-government actors may contribute value by providing newly developed services for the open government data, or developing training material on how to use the OGD, or by providing feedback on the fit for purpose of the OGD. In many other ways, non-government actors contribute to the circularity of the open data ecosystem. You may see the connection or even overlap with the inclusivity pillar.

The following videos address the circularity aspects of open data ecosystems. 

These sixteen videos discussed open data ecosystems from user-drivenness, inclusiveness, and circularity perspectives. Finally, we discuss the concept of a sustainable open data ecosystem. We argue that if an open data ecosystem is user-driven, inclusive, and circular, then it would be sustainable. However, sustainability also has multiple dimensions, such as economic, environmental, and social. The fair distribution of economic value is already a complex puzzle. Adding the environmental and social dimensions makes it a wicked challenge that calls for future research endeavors.

References

Crompvoets, J., C. Santoro, A. Shaharudin, D. Di Staso, G. Papageorgiou, A. Celis Vargas, L. Pilshchikova, H. Ochoa Orti (2024). An approach to steer the behaviour of non-government data holders towards open data through a governance strategy. Deliverable 4.3 ODECO project.

European Commission. (2019). 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 (recast). OJ L172/56. http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/1024/oj  

Ktistakis, M., D. Di Staso, M.E. Lopez Reyes, G. Papageorgiou, A. Celis Vargas, L. Pilshchikova, C. Santoro, H. Ochoa Ortiz, A. Shaharudin,  (2023). Closing the cycle: Understanding potential contributions of open government data users to the open data ecosystem. Deliverable 3.1 ODECO project.

van Loenen, B., Zuiderwijk, A. ., Vancauwenberghe, G., Lopez-Pellicer, F. J. ., Mulder, I., Alexopoulos, C. ., Magnussen, R., Saddiqa, M., Dulong de Rosnay, M., Crompvoets, J., Polini, A., Re, B., & Casiano Flores, C. (2021). Towards value-creating and sustainable open data ecosystems: A comparative case study and a research agenda. JeDEM - EJournal of EDemocracy and Open Government, 13(2), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.29379/jedem.v13i2.644

Shaharudin, A., López Reyes, M. E., Pantazatou, K., Storm, I., Larsen, B., van Loenen, B., & Kronborg Mazzoli, U. (2024). Workshop on Data Ecosystems and Spatial Data Infrastructure - Facilitators for Data Value Creation. European Spatial Data Research (EuroSDR). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11148721