WILL UK BE OPEN ON 2020?

The recent decision of British people about leaving the EU introduces lots of uncertainties. One of them, and I am rather sure that it will not be on the core of the discussions is about opening their research. it is a brave decision of the EU research program to force every entity using their public funds of research and development to open access their results and to release as open data the underlying data.

It is true that UK is possibly one of the leaders of the open movement around the world, but now nobody will force them to adopt such measure and I am afraid that there will be rather busy with other ‘minor’ issues about leaving the EU.

However the EU has to face a challenge. The 80.000 M€ (current budget of the Horizon 2020 R+D programme) will produce a huge amount of data, even beyond those that naturally are emerging from those projects that voluntary are releasing data.

opendata_sources (source Opendatainception.io)
How will we manage so many data? And most important, how are we going to standardised those data in order to make them easily available for the creation of new knowledge and social and economic impact? What will be effectively reusable?

Currently the Pan-EU open data portal aggregates more than a quarter of a million datasets. They are struggling to connect the 61 sources of data. Unless we face it NOW we will be wasting our efforts to change the society. It is true that the recent DCAT 1.1 standard is helping to ‘show’ their data and make it available in a comprehensive way, but it does not mean that the data are easily connected. the initiatives of GeoDCAT and StatDCAT are on its way but I am afraid that we need much more than this.

As my 2 cents contribution I would like to see a conference between open data repositories across the world to boost this kind of standardisation, even as a draft while standardisation bodies are doing their work (rather slow for the needs of this market). We need a quick access to bring about those topics needed to be discussed. Maybe the coming open data world conference in Madrid on the 6 and 7th of October could be the right place to launch such initiative. At very local level initiatives like ‘initiative Barcelona Open Data’ will do its part.

Alberto Abella

Cofounder Initiative Barcelona Open Data

20 Comments

  1. Wonderful beat ! I would like to apprentice while you amend your web site, how
    can i subscribe for a blog site? The account helped me a
    acceptable deal. I were tiny bit familiar of
    this your broadcast offered shiny transparent idea

  2. Hi, I do believe this is an excellent web site. I
    stumbledupon it 😉 I will return yet again since i have book
    marked it. Money and freedom is the greatest way to
    change, may you be rich and continue to help others.

  3. When I originally left a comment I appear to have clicked on the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and from now on each time a comment is added I
    get 4 emails with the exact same comment. Perhaps there is an easy method
    you are able to remove me from that service? Appreciate it!

  4. certainly like your web-site but you need to test the spelling on quite a few of your posts.
    Many of them are rife with spelling issues and I to find it very bothersome to
    inform the reality nevertheless I’ll certainly come again again.

  5. I blog often and I seriously thank you for your information. This article has truly peaked my interest.
    I’m going to book mark your blog and keep checking
    for new details about once a week. I opted in for your RSS feed as well.

  6. Today, while I was at work, my sister stole my iPad and tested to see
    if it can survive a 30 foot drop, just so she can be
    a youtube sensation. My apple ipad is now broken and she
    has 83 views. I know this is totally off topic but I had to share it
    with someone!

  7. Magnificent items from you, man. I’ve remember your stuff previous to and you’re just too great.
    I actually like what you have got here, certainly like what you are stating
    and the best way during which you say it. You are making it enjoyable and you continue
    to take care of to stay it wise. I can’t wait to
    read far more from you. This is actually a terrific site.

  8. Today, while I was at work, my sister stole my iphone and tested to see if it can survive a 40 foot drop, just
    so she can be a youtube sensation. My iPad is now destroyed and she has 83 views.
    I know this is completely off topic but I had to share it with someone!

Comments are closed.