topic report: local and regional data

7/29/2019 Topic Report: Local and Regional Data

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Local and regional level informaton archiecure and open

daa initatves

Keywords

PSI, Public Secor Informaton, Cites, Municipalites, Local and Regional Daa, Local and

Regional Governmen, Smar Cites, Informaton Sysems, Daa Caalogues

Abstract

Cites around he world are developing local daa caalogues and opening up PSI resources

ePSIplatform Topic Report No: 2012/10 October 2012 Page 2

European Public Secor Informaton Plaorm

Topic Repor No. 2012 / 10

Local and regional level informatonarchiecure and open daa

initatves

Auhor: An Poikola

Published: Ocober 2012


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daa initatves

for re-use. Ciy organizatons are also focusing on inernal archiecure work including

informaton and applicaton archiecures. These wo sreams of developmen, open daa

and good informaton managemen, are no inegraed in mos cites.

When cites rs sar o open up heir informaton resources, hese eors are oen

separae from heir general ICT sraegies. Is i possible o inegrae hese sreams? If so,

here migh be a brigh fuure for re-use of open municipal daa.

In order o fully undersand he exen of he value of open municipal daa we need o

know wha kind of informaton resources are produced by ciy organizatons (including

hose ha are no open). This queston is imporan no only from he informaton re-users

perspectve, bu for he cites inernally as well.

By reviewing only currenly open daa ses i is impossible o have he big picure on

municipal daa. For example, mos daa porals only lis he daa sources ha are publicly

available, no hose ha are for inernal use only.

The bes overall undersanding of a ciy's vas informaton resources can be go from he

people who work wih he ciys informaton archiecure and daa managemen. However,

even hey oen sruggle wih a fragmened landscape of hundreds of ICT sysems and

housands of daa sources.

This opic repor helps in building a big picure on PSI resources of European cites by

reviewing he conen of currenly actve local and regional daa porals and by covering a

case sudy from Helsinki where over 500 ciy organizatons ICT sysems were caegorized

and mapped based on heir domain of use and informaton conen. This repor underlines

he imporance of inegratng daa managemen and archiecure actvites (especially

informaton archiecure) of a ciys organizatons wih heir open daa actvites.

We sugges ha by using he knowledge gahered by inernal informaton archiecure

actvites, opening up of daa could be done wih a clear sraegy, insead of he usual low-

hanging-frui sraegies employed by so many cites now.



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daa initatves

Table of Contents

Abstract......................................................................................................................................... 5

1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................. 5

2 Municipal and regional data................................................................................................. 7

2.1 Benefits o opening up local data ...................................................................................................... 7

2.2 The priority challenge: what to open up first?............................................................................. 8

3 Mapping municipal data...................................................................................................... 10

3.1 Comparing the data portals .............................................................................................................. 11

3.2 Inormation asset registers ................................................................................................................16

3.3 Inormation architecture as part o the citys enterprise architecture................ .......... 16

4 Case: Helsinki city organization 500 ICT systems mapped......................................174.1 What kind o ICT systems does the City o Helsinki have?.................................................... 18

4.2 From inormation system listing to a visual map .................................................................... 19

5 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................. 21



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daa initatves

Abstract

Cites around he world are developing local daa caalogues and opening up PSI resources

for re-use. Ciy organizatons are also focusing on inernal archiecure work including

informaton and applicaton archiecures. These wo sreams of developmen, open daa

and good informaton managemen, are no inegraed in mos cites.

When cites rs sar o open up heir informaton resources, hese eors are oen

separae from heir general ICT sraegies. Is i possible o inegrae hese sreams? If so,

here migh be a brigh fuure for re-use of open municipal daa.

In order o fully undersand he exen of he value of open municipal daa we need o

know wha kind of informaton resources are produced by ciy organizatons (including

hose ha are no open). This queston is imporan no only from he informaton re-users

perspectve, bu for he cites inernally as well.

By reviewing only currenly open daa ses i is impossible o have he big picure on

municipal daa. For example, mos daa porals only lis he daa sources ha are publicly

available, no hose ha are for inernal use only.

The bes overall undersanding of a ciy's vas informaton resources can be go from he

people who work wih he ciys informaton archiecure and daa managemen. However,

even hey oen sruggle wih a fragmened landscape of hundreds of ICT sysems and

housands of daa sources.

This opic repor helps in building a big picure on PSI resources of European cites by

reviewing he conen of currenly actve local and regional daa porals and by covering a

case sudy from Helsinki where over 500 ciy organizatons ICT sysems were caegorized

and mapped based on heir domain of use and informaton conen. This repor underlines

he imporance of inegratng daa managemen and archiecure actvites (especially

informaton archiecure) of a ciys organizatons wih heir open daa actvites.

We sugges ha by using he knowledge gahered by inernal informaton archiecure

actvites, opening up of daa could be done wih a clear sraegy, insead of he usual low-

hanging-frui sraegies employed by so many cites now.

1 Introduction

Because of he number of municipalites and oher public secor bodies, racking and

comparing he progress of local level PSI and open daa policies is harder han comparing

he progress a he level of member saes. An earlier European PSI Plaorm Topic Repor:

Local and regional PSI re-use open daa initatves, wrien by Rob Davies, describes he

siuaton as i was in lae 2010 and early 2011.

The Open Daa Scoreboard on he Openlylocal.com sie1

showed ha in December 2010

1 UK Councils Open Daa Scoreboardhp://openlylocal.com/councils/open

http://openlylocal.com/councils/openhttp://openlylocal.com/councils/openhttp://openlylocal.com/councils/open


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daa initatves

only 37 ou of 434 local auhorites in he Unied Kingdom were publishing open daa, of

which 31 could be considered ruly open. A year and half laer, in June 2012, he same

scoreboard showed ha 101 local auhorites are publishing open daa and 95 can be

considered ruly open.

In a reasonably shor tme frame (one and half years), he progress has been quie rapid in

UK and elsewhere. This means ha cites are now in a good positon o learn from each

oher. Secton 2 summarizes he benes of opening up local and regional daa and covers

he sraegies ha can be used o prioritze wha daa resources should be opened up rs.

More and more municipalites have sared o publish a leas some open daa, bu i can

be argued ha he progress has been more wide han deep. Many of he ough questons

ha were apparen a he tme of he earlier opic repor are stll valid:

1. Wha business models and income sreams for developers are achievable from he

re-use of local daa?

2. Is here likely o be an exensive (or measurable) expansion of he commercial

marke?

3. How can public (publishable) daa be ecienly separaed from daa ha canno be

opened up in order o avoid infringemens of individual privacy?

4. How can he value of public invesmens in mainaining open daa be

demonsraed?

5. How can access be provided o hose who wish o nd daa for re-use from morehan one localiy across local and natonal borders?

For re-users, he fragmened eld of local and municipal daa is challenging. A he momen

i is exremely dicul o make any daa-based applicaton work in multple cites: i is hard

o nd comparable daa from multple localites, and even if found, he varying licensing

and pricing models make i hard o access. Finally, because of he lack of ineroperabiliy

and sandards, he work load relaed o re-formang he daa multplies by he number of

localites involved.

This opic repor addresses he queston of access and discovery of municipal daa, by

presentng ways o achieve beer overall undersanding on wha informaton resources

cites generally have. Furhermore, we sugges ha inegratng he open daa initatves

wih sysematc developmen of a ciy's informaton archiecure migh bring additonal

inernal value which would also justfy he public invesmens in open daa.

Improving he discovery of public secor informaton for exernal re-users requires ha

public secor bodies rs have a comprehensive overall picure of he daa and informaton

sysems inernally. Secton 3 inroduces he conceps of open daa porals (informaton

abou he published open daa), informaton asse regisers (informaton abou daa ha is

no ye published) and, nally, he ciy organizatons informaton archiecure actvites

(organizatons inernal knowledge abou heir informaton resources) as ools for mapping



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daa initatves

wha daa cites generally have.

The case sudy covered in Secton 4 gives an overview of he informaton resources

possessed by he Ciy of Helsinki. The sudy also reveals ha a presen nobody knows

exacly all he daa and informaton sysems ha he ciy organizaton has in is dozens of

dieren deparmens and public service corporatons. I has been estmaed ha

alogeher he Ciy of Helsinki has abou a housand informaton sysems.

2 Municipal and regional data

A large share of all public secor informaton is produced a local and regional levels. When

we alk abou public secor informaton, he well-known basic regisers usually come o

mind, such as he populaton regiser, he propery regiser and perhaps also satstcal

daa and weaher informaton. Maps and geospatal informaton are quie well known and

some people also menton a variey of rac informaton. Local and regional auhorites,

however, end o have a slighly dieren se of daa. Daa relaed o cites partcularly

includes informaton on living, public ranspor, safey, social aairs and healh, and oher

services.

The ciy daa can be abou schools, cachmen areas and propery prices; abou bus tmings

and bus-sops, axi ranks, car parks and rac congeston; abou energy use and CO 2

emissions; abou decision making and public spending and so forh. This lis can be

lenghened and made more specic, bu undersanding he overall picure is noneheless

dicul.

2.1 Benefits o opening up local data

There a number of benes o opening up local daa. The mos imporan caegories are:

(i) ransparency and local democracy, (ii) economic benes and (iii) eciency of local

governmen services suppored by beer ICT solutons. We explore each of hese

caegories below.

Transparency and local democracy:

Publicly available and undersandable informaton is a prerequisie for a properly

functoning modern democracy. Access o relevan and fuure-oriened informaton

conribues o beer decision making and beer lifesyles in erms of liveable cites,

compettveness and susainabiliy.

Economic benes:

The economic imporance of local governmen informaton as well as PSI in general comes

hrough direc and indirec benes. There is a boh a poental and acual demand for

some elds of local PSI such as land, propery, urban planning and environmenal daa.

Opening up of local informaton resources may also lead o beer services and cos savings

for he auhorites. Daa-based applicatons developed by he communiy can cover he

small niche requiremens of citzens, when municipal resources are insucien or when i

makes no sense o use hem for ha purpose. For example, in cites where public ranspordaa was open, he rs mobile journey planner applicatons appeared wihou public



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daa initatves

secor invesmen soon aer he rise in he peneraton of he iPhone TM and Android

devices.

Eciency of local governmen:

However, i is no jus abou ransparency and accounabiliy or commercial re-use and

mobile apps, imporan hough hey are. Inernal benes for he ciy organizaton are

equally imporan. An open daa policy is a mechanism for cites o help hemselves o

gain more eciency and beer use he existng informaton resources. Informaton sysems

and he operatons of a ciy are closely conneced. Knowing wha daa and wha

informaton sysems he ciy has would help o undersand he ciy. Having a clear picure

of he ciys informaton landscape is a prerequisie for developing ICT-based smar

solutons.

Traditonally he las caegory, efciency o government services supported by beer ICT

soluons, has no been a very srong motvaton o open up local informaton resources,

since he ciy organizaton may develop is own ICT infrasrucure bu wihou opening up

he daa. This may be he reason why PSI re-use and open daa initatves oen sar as

separae actons ha are no closely conneced o he ciy organizatons general ICT

sraegies. Over tme he open daa policy may evolve o be a more inegral componen of

he municipal echnology sraegy. An example of his kind of inegraed hinking is Chicago

CTO John Tolva's inenton o urn he ciy ino an ineractve plaorm where open daa is

used o increase he eciency of governmen services2.

2.2 The priority challenge: what to open up first?

The bigges advanages of open daa are realised hrough well-described, sandardized

daa, disribued hrough reliable inerfaces. However, opening up daa akes boh tme

and resources, and everyhing canno be buil up a once. In order o have an impac, a ciy

should look for actons ha signicanly increase he utliy of daa.

The queston herefore is: Which municipal daases are of high value o re-users?

Weaher daa and geospatal daa, for example, are oen mentoned as cases ha have a

clear business poental for re-use of he daa. Bu value can be measured in oher ways as

well. The number of people whose day-o-day lives can be changed by opening up he daa

(public utliy), he value o scientc research or any of he oher benes mentoned

above.

One approach is o deermine which daa resources have he highes demand. However,

his oen leads o a chicken-and-egg problem. A represenatve for a municipaliy says:

Tell us, wha kind of informaton you wan and in which forma, and we will see wha we

can do abou i. The re-users reply: Tell us, wha kind of informaton you have, and we

will ell you wha we wan.

There migh be also hidden demand for cerain informaton, only revealed once he daa

se has goen publiciy. For example, discussion on spatal daa legislaton has made spatal

daa ses beer known and, herefore, has increased he demand.

2 Governmen Technology May 31, 2011. hp://www.govech.com/policy-managemen/Repor-

Chicago-CTO-John-Tolva-Open-Daa.hml

http://www.govtech.com/policy-management/Report-Chicago-CTO-John-Tolva-Open-Data.htmlhttp://www.govtech.com/policy-management/Report-Chicago-CTO-John-Tolva-Open-Data.htmlhttp://www.govtech.com/policy-management/Report-Chicago-CTO-John-Tolva-Open-Data.htmlhttp://www.govtech.com/policy-management/Report-Chicago-CTO-John-Tolva-Open-Data.html


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daa initatves

Insead of guessing he poental demand, i is beer o ask re-users, lean on experimens,

encourage daa utlizaton and see wha happens. Even a single applicaton ha gains

publiciy may lead o increased demand for cerain daa and, herefore, change he

siuaton in a very shor period of tme.

One way o approach he queston is o ask citzens, businesses or programmers, wha daa

hey wan. Prior o opening he Berlin open daa poral (daen.berlin.de), he Ciy of Berlin

polled is citzens3 o nd ou which PSI hemes i should initally release as open daa. In

he poll, people chose hree hemes ou of a lis of 20 optons. The resuls show ha he

op-voed six hemes (when he rs, second and hird optons were couned ogeher)

were: (1) ciy planning, (2) adminisraton, (3) environmen, (4) conrolling,

(5) infrasrucure and (6) populaton.

When polling poental re-users in his way we do ge useful insighs, bu some do no show

in he resuls. We should keep in mind ha: (a) wha will be popular in he fuure migh no

be popular oday, (b) popular is no always he same as imporan even if some daa is

no used by many i may lead o developmen ha has a high socieal value and (c) re-users

may indicae as inerestng only hose daa ses ha hey know of.

The Civic Commons wiki page liss four sraegies for seng open daa priorites: evidence,

feedback, low-hanging frui and high reurn on invesmen (ROI)4.

(i) Evidence: Websies and informaton managemen processes oen inherenly rack

demand for requess of cerain kinds of informaton. Freedom of informaton laws usually

esablish informaton requestng processes ha can be analysed o deermine where he

demand is. Also websie usage, search logs and search engine analysis (i.e. Google Insigh)can be used o analyse he ypes of informaton ha people are looking for on governmen

websies. Naurally when a daa poral is opened up, he download and usage satstcs

provide informaton on he demand for dieren daa ses.

(ii) Feedback: An obvious sraegy is simply o ask he poental and acual daa re-users

wha hey are ineresed in, as was done in he Berlin poll. I is helpful o provide also an

on-going open feedback channel specically cenred on open informaton. These feedback

channels are oen associaed wih open daa porals. A relaed sraegy is o ask similar

governmenal bodies wha demand hey have seen in earlier open daa initatves. In he

case of cites, for example, i is likely ha citzens will have a similar demand forinformaton in many cites.

(iii) Low-hanging frui: Some daa ses are easier and cheaper o publish han ohers. If he

daa is readily available inernally and here are no echnical or legal challenges in opening

up he daa, hen i should be made available online even if he demand for i is no huge.

Exposing he "low-hanging frui" helps esablish a process for oher daa o be released as

well. Additonally, many obscure daases ha are easy o release can prove o have an

unpredicably signican public ineres. An example of his is he sree ree daa ha was

3 hp://epsiplaorm.eu/conen/rs-resuls-berlin-survey-open-daa

4 Civic Commons: Open Daa Priorites hp://wiki.civiccommons.org/Open_Daa_Priorites

http://epsiplatform.eu/content/first-results-berlin-survey-open-datahttp://epsiplatform.eu/content/first-results-berlin-survey-open-datahttp://wiki.civiccommons.org/Open_Data_Prioritieshttp://epsiplatform.eu/content/first-results-berlin-survey-open-datahttp://wiki.civiccommons.org/Open_Data_Priorities


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daa initatves

opened up in New York.

(iv) High reurn on invesmen: There are some daases which can be deermined o have

a high reurn on invesmen by enabling public utliy, safey, cos savings or economic

actviy. Examples of his are weaher daa and geospatal daa where a small invesmen in

making he daa available can enable a relatvely huge range of uses and value. Special

consideraton should be given o daa wih his poental. However, some of he mos

obscure daa can have some of he highes value. For example, seemingly random

environmenal daa migh provide an imporan correlaton o cancer cases.

The above-mentoned sraegies can and should be used simulaneously o decide from

where o sar and how o prioritze. If only one sraegy, les say he low -hanging frui,

is used, he resuls (how much he opened-up daa is acually used) may no be as good.

These sraegies indicae which daa is probably inerestng for he re-users, bu hey do

no help he hidden demand problem and, herefore, should no be used o exclude any

daa ses from he open daa initatves.

3 Mapping municipal data

A he level of his digial informaton, cites may be more similar o each oher han a rs

glance; for example, when comparing he organisatonal srucures of cites. Alhough here

are dierences in he municipal organizaton and he service producton, he needs of

citzens are, however, quie he same everywhere. Everyone needs healh care, educaton,

waer, elecriciy, heatng, he opporuniy o move from one place o anoher, ec.Because of his, organisatons responsible for municipal services be hey he ciys

inernal bodies or oher acors record largely similar daa in heir informaton sysems.

Digial informaton oers a very inerestng way o view he ciy as whole. Such an overall

digial picure would be valuable for every ciy.

The PSI Directve requires member saes o ensure ha practcal arrangemens5 such as

asse liss and poral sies are in place o faciliae he search for documens available for

re-use. For example, Porugal has implemened his requiremen of he directve so ha all

public secor bodies have an obligaton o publish (elecronically when possible) liss of he

archives of documens available for re-use, boh independenly as well as in a poral, assoon as possible6. The asse liss mentoned in he directve should include boh published

and unpublished informaton being held by he public secor bodies.

The local and regional daa porals ha have proliferaed in dieren cites in recen tmes,

such as Helsinki regional Infoshare (daa.hri.) and he Ciy of Londons London Daasore

5 Directve 2003/98/EC on he re-use of public secor informaton, Artcle 9: Practcal

arrangemens hp://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?

uri=OJ:L:2003:345:0090:0096:EN:PDF

6 Tom Kroneburg, Topic Repor 7/2011 Sae of Play: PSI Re-use in Porugal

hp://epsiplaorm.eu/conen/opic-repor-7-psi-re-use-porugal



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daa initatves

are promising initatves ha could be used for building general undersanding and

mapping daa resources beween he cites. A he momen he daa caalogues mosly lis

daases ha are already published online and do no menton wha daa is no available.

The realm of possibly publishable daases (daa ha is no sensitve by naure, i.e. for

privacy or securiy reasons) ha local governmens ypically have is large bu no unlimied

and could be herefore presened in he daa porals.

In order o avoid he chicken-and-egg problem, mentoned in he previous secton, and o

faciliae he discussion on he open daa priorites, i would be logical o rs publish a lis

of he daa ses ha he organizaton has, even if he daa is no ye available. Unlike daa

porals, informaton asse regisers (e.g. he "inforoue" service of he UK Oce of Public

Secor Informaton7) focus usually on informaton resources ha have no ye been, or will

no be, formally published.

Opening up of daa for re-use is relaed o he developmen of an organizatons

informaton sysems and he developmen of informaton archiecure in partcular.

Organizatons need o know wha informaton resources hey have in order o manage

hose resources well. In he case of public secor bodies he same knowledge of he

informaton asses is valuable for poental re-users of he informaton. Opening up of daa

can be seen as a suppor measure for informaton archiecure developmen, sysem

design and cross-organizatonal sandardizaton of daa resources. The daa caalogues and

informaton asse regisers should bene he organizaton inernally as well.

3.1 Comparing the data portals

Open governmen daa caalogues are web porals ha oer access o governmen daa

ses. The aim is o make i easy for he public o nd relevan governmen informaton in a

single regiser insead of having o search various sies or use multple search engines. Daa

caalogues have exised in oher secors of sociey for many years; for example, in scientc

communites, where here are many comprehensive daa caalogues.

The rs governmen daa caalogue was he regional daa poral of he Disric of

Columbia (daa.dc.gov) in he Unied Saes, which was launched in Ocober 2008. Since

hen we have winessed a wave of natonal, regional, ciy-wide and independen daa

caalogues being launched all over he world. The number of daa porals has creaed

ineres in analysing he conen, comparing he caalogues and building unifying search

inerfaces8,9 o hem.

The mos comprehensive lis of public secor daa porals can be found on he

daacaalogs.org sie, which is curaed by a group of leading open daa expers from

around he world. A he tme of writng his repor, more han 200 daa caalogues were

7 hp://www.opsi.gov.uk/iar/index.hm

8 Guardian world governmen daa APIhp://www.guardian.co.uk/world-governmen-daa

9 CTIC - Public Daase Caalogs Faceed Browser

hp://daos.fundacionctc.org/sandbox/caalog/faceed/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world-government-datahttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world-government-datahttp://datos.fundacionctic.org/sandbox/catalog/faceted/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world-government-datahttp://datos.fundacionctic.org/sandbox/catalog/faceted/


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daa initatves

lised worldwide. We focused on he sub group called Ofcial EU Data Catalogues10, which

is curaed by he EPSIplaorm eam. There are currenly over 60 local or regional daa

porals (and 15 natonal porals) in he EU member saes, which is more han riple

compared o he numbers a he end of 2011.

Figure 1: Official EU Data Catalogues from the datacatalogs.org organised by

launching year. The orange background indicates a national data portal, and the

yellow background, a local or regional data portal.

Koumenides e al (2010)11 researched he keyword annoatons in four natonal level daa

caalogues (daa.gov, daa.gov.uk, OPSIs Informaton Asse Regisers12 and

ausralia.gov.au). They observed noeworhy variatons in he four caalogues. In

10 Ocial EU Daa Caalogues hp://daacaalogs.org/daase?groups=eu-ocial

11 Koumenides, Chrisos, Alani, Harih, Shadbol, Nigel and Salvadores, Manuel (2010) Global

Inegraton of Public Secor Informaton. In, Web Science Conference 2010, Raleigh, NC, USA, 26

27 Apr 2010.hp://eprins.soon.ac.uk/271025/

12 OPSIs Informaton Asse Regiserhp://www.opsi.gov.uk/abou/

http://datacatalogs.org/dataset?groups=eu-officialhttp://eprints.soton.ac.uk/271025/http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/271025/http://www.opsi.gov.uk/about/http://www.opsi.gov.uk/about/http://datacatalogs.org/dataset?groups=eu-officialhttp://eprints.soton.ac.uk/271025/http://www.opsi.gov.uk/about/


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daa initatves

daa.gov.uk, erms such as healh and social care were prevailing annoaors, he

daa.gov caalogue had more environmen-relaed annoatons, e.g. oxic release,

chemical release and facilites. Ausralias caalogue gives emphasis o educaton and

environmenal managemen. And he OPSI concenraes on governmenal aairs, e.g.

oce services, supplier conracs and complains. More recenly, Cyrille Vincey

benchmarked13 he French, UK and US natonal daa caalogues (daa.gouv.fr, daa.gov.uk,

daa.gov) and did a quantatve analysis on he daa domains, daa producers and daa

qualiy.

Figure 2: Benchmarking study by Cyrille Vincey compares the most typical

categories of published data sets in the French, UK and US national data

catalogues. In the French catalogue, the most typical category was the economy at

42%, in the US catalogue the economy had only a 17% share and in the UK

catalogue it had a 26% share.

To our knowledge here is no similar conen analysis ha has been done for local and

regional level daa caalogues. As a sample we did a ligh-weigh review of he conen of

six European local or regional daa caalogues: Berlin, Helsinki, London, Paris, Torino and

Wien. The aim was o shed ligh on he queston: Wha general caegories of informaton

do he cites have and how are hey similar? For comparison and benchmarking purposes

more deailed analysis would need o be carried ou.

Daa porals are usually organised so ha individual daa ses are caegorized (one caegory

13 Cyrille Vincey: Opendaa benchmark FR vs UK vs US, Qunb, July 10, 2012.

hp://www.slideshare.ne/cvincey/opendaa-benchmark-fr-vs-uk-vs-us

http://www.slideshare.net/cvincey/opendata-benchmark-fr-vs-uk-vs-ushttp://www.slideshare.net/cvincey/opendata-benchmark-fr-vs-uk-vs-us


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daa initatves

per daa se), agged (multple ags per daa se) or boh. If he daa poral uses caegories,

here are ypically around ve o weny main caegories. The number of ags may be in he

hundreds. We focused on he general caegories and found 21 caegories ha were used in

more han one of he caalogues ha were reviewed (see Table 1).



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Table 1: List of 21 general categories that were used in at least two local data

catalogues out of six. In the specific name column, the translated versions of the

original category names are listed, which were interpreted to mean the same as the

general category.

General Category Specifc names Berlin Helsinki London Paris Torino Wien

Culure Ar and CulureCulure

1 1 1 1 1 1

Educaton EducatonNurure

1 1 1 1 1

Environmen Environmen, Environmen and Cli-mae, Environmen, Polluton,

Recycling and Wase1 1 1 1 1

HealhHealh 1 1 1 1 1

Land use and urban planning Ciy planning, Geography and Urbanplanning, Land use, Planning, Town

planning, Urban developmen1 1 1 1 1

Social and demographic in-

formatonDemographics, Family, Livelihood, Liv-

ing conditons, Social indicaors1 1 1 1 1

Adminisraton Adminisraton, Adminisratve unis,Public adminisraton, Budge and Tax,

Social adminisraton1 1 1 1

Democracy, ransparency

and partcipaton

Cusomers consultng, Democracy and

Partcipaton, Electons, Minues and

Resolutons, Transparency1 1 1 1

EconomyEconomy 1 1 1 1

Services Opening hours, Oher services, Publicfacilites, Public services, Services

1 1 1 1

Transpor Public ranspor, Road works, Trac,Transpor

1 1 1 1

Business informaton Business and EconomyCommercial actvites

Companies1 1 1

Geographic informatonArea, Base maps, Maps, Terriory 1 1 1

Housing HousingHousing and Real Esae

Living conditons1 1 1

Labour Employmen and SkillsLabour marke

1 1 1

Populaton Citzen, People, Populaton, Populatonand Populaton changes

1 1 1

Securiy and crime Conrol, Cours and Securiy, Crime,Crime and Communiy safey, Public

safey

1 1 1

Public nances and spending BudgeMunicipal nances

1 1

Spors and physical actviy SporSpors and Recreaton

1 1

Tourism and evens EvensTourism

Travel1 1

Young people Young peopleYouh work

1 1



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daa initatves

3.2 Inormation asset registers

Informaton asse regisers (IARs) are regisers specically se up o capure and organise

meadaa abou he vas quanttes of informaton held by governmen deparmens and

agencies. A comprehensive IAR would include daabases, old ses of les, recen elecronic

les, collectons of satstcs, research, ec. An IAR does no provide direc access o heinformaton holdings. IARs can include informaton ha is held by public bodies bu ha

has no ye been and maybe will no be proactvely published. Hence hey are he

means of alertng he public o he exisence of he unpublished informaton and leng

hem know whom o conac.

The practce of keeping IARs is done mainly a he natonal level in a few counries (a leas,

UK, US, Canada and Ausralia). In Finland, for example, such regisers are no kep, bu he

legislaton requires keeping records of public secor informaton sysems (see Secton 4)

insead. Even if publicly available IARs are no kep, he organizatons need o know, for

inernal purposes, wha informaton hey have and where.

In an EPSIplaorm discussion paper14from 2008, John Sheridan shares one lesson learned

from he UK practce of keeping IARs: or most ofcials a more compelling case can be

made or IARs in terms o immediate benet to public sector inormaon holders

themselves. An IAR gives an organizaon corporate knowledge o what inormaon assets

they hold. It is typically o secondary importance to the inormaon holder, that by sharing

that inormaon with others, be they other public bodies, private companies or individuals,

they can provide a way to let others know what inormaon they may make available or

re-use.

3.3 Inormation architecture as part o the citys enterprise architecture

Many challenges regarding informaton archiecure revolve around he same issue:

informaton is produced inconsisenly and in grea quanttes. The original ools were, in all

likelihood, no designed o conrol curren masses of informaton. The sandardizaton of

daa is a key issue, boh wihin he organizatons and in co-operaton wih oher

organizatons. In he wors case scenario, here is no knowledge of wha informaton is

saved on which sysem. Every acor looks a hings from a perspectve relevan o

hemselves, daa is scaered in dieren sysems and he informaton is gahered and

updaed in several places.

The descripton of daa ses and deniton of informaton managemen mehods are aimed

o solve and preven problems wih compatbiliy, as well as creae an overall view on he

informaton resources in dieren organizatons. The goal is o sandardize informaton

archiecure and o nd common ways of depictng informaton boh wihin and beween

organizatons.

14 John Sheridan, The role of Informaton Asse Regisers, 10 Sepember 2008, Oce of Public

Secor Informaton, UK. hp://epsiplaorm.eu/sies/defaul/les/ezpublish_media/Informaton

%20Asse%20Regisers%20(OPSI%20Discussion%20Paper)%2010%20Sep%2008.pdf

http://epsiplatform.eu/sites/default/files/ezpublish_media/Information%20Asset%20Registers%20(OPSI%20Discussion%20Paper)%2010%20Sep%2008.pdfhttp://epsiplatform.eu/sites/default/files/ezpublish_media/Information%20Asset%20Registers%20(OPSI%20Discussion%20Paper)%2010%20Sep%2008.pdfhttp://epsiplatform.eu/sites/default/files/ezpublish_media/Information%20Asset%20Registers%20(OPSI%20Discussion%20Paper)%2010%20Sep%2008.pdfhttp://epsiplatform.eu/sites/default/files/ezpublish_media/Information%20Asset%20Registers%20(OPSI%20Discussion%20Paper)%2010%20Sep%2008.pdf


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daa initatves

Compiling of informaton archiecure requires tme, hard work and co-operaton beween

he partes. The wider he inended view, he harder he work. Despie he hard work, a

good archiecure is rewarding: sysems are easier o updae, working hours are saved, he

daa resources are of a beer qualiy and, mos imporanly, daa can be re-used even

more widely.

4 Case: Helsinki city organization 500 ICT

systems mapped

This case sudy was originally published in a repor: Inormaon navigaon in the city

(Viljanen, Poikola and Koponen 2012)15. As par of his opic repor, he case sudy is re-

published in a summarized form in order o give an inital answer o he queston "Wha

informaton resources migh a European ciy have?"

The sudy was done by collectng and analysing basic descriptons of ICT sysems of over

500 ciy organizatons. The ICT sysems were caegorized and mapped based on heir

domain of use and informaton conen.

The resultng informaton sysem map is a visual presenaton of hundreds of informaton

sysems. I is helpful in undersanding and discussing he Ciys digial informaton

resources and gives insigh on wha kind of informaton sysems oher cites migh have.

For practcal reasons he sudy was a mapping of he ICT sysems and no a mapping of he

informaton resources direcly. The Ciy of Helsinki does no have as ye a cenralized

informaton asse regisry or oher daabase where he meadaa of all published and non-

published informaton resources would be sored (There is an open daa poral hri. which

conains he meadaa of published daa ses.), bu he basic descriptons of he ICT

sysems were available since hey are required by he law.

From he sysem level mapping, he domains of municipal daa can be seen indirecly.

Inerestng questons like how oen was daa opened up or which daa ses are shared

beween several ICT sysems could only have been answered by mapping also he acual

informaton resources, which was no done in his case.

Process:

Finnish law requires an informaton sysem descripton for all public secorinformaton sysems. To receive he mos up-o-dae informaton on he sysems, a

freedom of informaton reques was made a he municipal Regisrars Oce.

By collectng hese descriptons from 33 municipal agencies in Helsinki, an overviewwas creaed of he informaton sysems of he Ciy of Helsinki.

The informaton sysems were hen caegorized based on heir informaton conenand visualized using a nework graph.

The law may no require municipalites and cites o provide similar informaton in oher

15 Kim Viljanen, An Poikola, Pekka Koponen: Informaton navigaton in he ciy, Ciy of Helsinki &

Fireball projec, April 20, 2012.

hp://www.hel./hel2/ajankohaisa/kavo/informaton_navigaton.pdf

http://www.hel.fi/hel2/ajankohtaista/kavo/information_navigation.pdfhttp://www.hel.fi/hel2/ajankohtaista/kavo/information_navigation.pdf


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daa initatves

counries. However, a leas some informaton on every ciys informaton sysems will

probably exis for adminisratve purposes and similar analysis could be done elsewhere.

4.1 What kind o ICT systems does the City o Helsinki have?

The number of informaton sysems varied widely from agency o agency. On an average,

he agencies had approximaely 18 caalogued informaton sysems. A few had only onesysem caalogued. The Por of Helsinki had he larges number of sysems (54). To form an

overview, he informaton in he various documens was compiled ino one overall lis.

Aer fauly enries and duplicaes were removed, i included a oal of 595 informaton

sysems.

Many of he sysems are conneced o he running of he municipal adminisraton. These

sysems are ypical of all agencies: for insance, he sysems relaed o sa, access conrol,

monioring of working hours, ravel managemen and nancial adminisraton. However,

he sysems relaed o producton of services are oen agency specic. Among he more

specialised sysems are he rac ligh conrol sysems, he daabase on nancial

assisance for building of elevaors and he regisry of rees planed in he ciy srees. Thefollowing able includes more examples of informaton sysems and heir conens ha do

no come o mind very easily.

Table 2: Examples of the systems found by charting the ICT systems of the

City of Helsinki.

Agency Name of sys-tem

Intended use Information content

Port of Helsinki Vessel diary Reporting of traffic by ves-sels

Information on vessels leavingand arriving at the Port of Helsinki

City Museum MediaKsi Management system for the City Museums collec-tions and content informa-tion

Information on cataloguing andacquisition of the museums col-lections

Helsinki Philhar-monic Orchestra

Opas Tool for preparing sheetmusic and planning pro-grammes

Information on composers, com-positions and line-ups for sheetmusic; information on concerts;work lists

City PlanningDepartment

Traffic light controlsystems

Direction of traffic Use of traffic lights

Real Estate De-partment/ Hous-ing Division

Database on financialassistance for the in-stallation of lifts

Database software used tocompile statistics on muni-cipal 10% lift assistancegranted by the City of Hel-sinki

Information on the recipients ofassistance and their agents,amounts of assistance granted,expenditures

Youth Depart-

ment

Hobby search Facilitation of hobbies for

youth

Information on hobbies, hobby ar-

rangers, facilities; information onyouth found in personal registrydescriptions

Education De-partment

Camera surveillancesystem

Camera surveillance The system records images ofpeople moving in the camerasarea of operation; dates and timesare also recorded, but speech isnot recorded

Rescue Depart-ment

Merlot Medi Web Re-porting

Reporting of paramedicstasks

Information on clients and meas-ures taken during paramedicsemergency calls

Public WorksSurveillance De-partment

Facta registry of mu-nicipalities Factabuilding surveillance

Granting of building per-mits, surveillance duringbuilding work, continuous

surveillance, etc.

Building and building permits; in-formation on surveillance duringbuilding work and continuous

surveillancePublic WorksSurveillance De-

Comet parking feesystem

Loading of money intoparking fee meters



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daa initatves

partment

The general feaures, informatonal conen and purpose of he informaton sysems were

described wih free-form keywords, such as economy, billing and purchase bill. Proper

names, names of agencies and words referring o geographic areas were avoided o make

he keywords as comparable as possible wih oher cites. Housing, rac, healh,educaton, adminisraton and many oher similar conceps describe cites around he

world, alhough organisatons and areas of responsibiliy may vary.

4.2 From inormation system listing to a visual map

A lis of informaton sysems is inerestng, bu i is no ye in an easily undersandable

forma. I is hard o see how sysems or daa ses are linked o each oher, or o ge an

overview of everyhing ha belongs o he digial eld formed by he Ciys informaton

sysems

The accompanying image shows he map formed ou of he liss of Helsinkis informaton

sysems. The visualisaton helps one o see he areas in which he sysems are groupedaccording o heir conen and purpose. On he map, he keywords used o describe he

sysems form clusers. These can easily be inerpreed as larger functonal wholes, such as

healh or environmen. The key functonal domains have been named in he overall

picure. Underneah is an enlargemen of he group of keywords relaed o surveillance

and securiy.

Technically, he map is based on a nework graph; he keywords describing he informaton

sysems are is nodes. Two keywords (nodes) have been linked wih a curved line where an

informaton sysem has been described wih boh words.



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daa initatves

Figure 2: A map formed out of the keywords describing the information systems of

the City of Helsinki. The key groups of keywords have been marked on the map.

A: Social services, B:Health, C: Economic administration/billing, D: Clients,

E: Environment

Figure 3: Translated enlargement of Surveillance and security (group H above).

High-resolution version of the original image where the tags are in Finnish can be

found in attachment 1.

The Helsinki informaton sysem map presened above is a rs skech of wha a map of a

ciys virual realiy could be. The map gives an overview of he Ciys informaton sysems

ha ranscends organisatonal borders. Currenly, he nancial adminisraors are familiar

wih nancial soware and he geographic informaton people wih geographic informaton

sysems; bu nobody knows he whole. The informaton sysem map could help he personsresponsible for he sysems of he various agencies o see hem as pars of a larger whole.



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daa initatves

In developing he archiecure of he informaton sysems, he map can be compared o a

ciy map used in ciy planning. I is a picure of he curren sae ha makes i possible o

plan he fuure.

5 Conclusions

When local level daa is susainably opened up, i is no only a service ha a ciy is

obligaed o oer, bu an inegral par of he ciy's digial sraegy. Opening up of daa can

be seen as a suppor measure for informaton archiecure developmen, sysem design

and cross-organizatonal sandardizaton of daa resources.

The public secor informaton holders as well as he re-users face he same challenge: hey

boh need o know wha informaton asses he organizatons are holding. Organizatons

need o know wha informaton resources hey have in order o manage hose resources

well and he re-users need o discover wha exiss so ha hey may use i or reques access

o i if i is no ye openly available.

Currenly he informaton landscape of cites is fragmened and obscure. I is hard (bu no

impossible) o build an overall picure on wha informaton resources even exis for one

ciy. The siuaton ges more complex, however, when cites are compared or when he

same informaton resource, le's say daa on public spending, is ried o access from more

han one ciy. For he informaton re-users, improving discovery and access across localites

and borders remains he key challenge.

There are currenly over 60 local or regional daa porals (and 15 natonal porals) in he EU

member saes, which is more han riple compared o he numbers a he end of 2011.

The daa porals grealy faciliae he discovery and use of he daa, which is alreadypublished online, bu usually hey do no say wha daa is no available. However, IARs

include informaton ha is held by public bodies bu ha has no ye been and maybe

will no be proactvely published. Public IARs however are no common practce a he

local and regional levels. The bes overall knowledge on wha informaton asses cites have

may be gahered as par of he ciy's informaton archiecure work, bu usually kep for

inernal use only.

To conclude, we oer a fuure vision where he practces of mainaining IARs of non-

published daa ses and open daa porals of he already-published daa ses could be

converged ino one service. This would simulaneously bene he daa re-users in

discovery and serve he organizatons inernally in heir eors o sysematcally developinformaton archiecure and daa managemen. Furhermore, his kind of holistc daa

regisers would faciliae ciy-o-ciy learning and benchmarking and oer a sartng poin

for harmonizaton work so ha, in he fuure, i would be easier o access similar daa

resources in multple cites.



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daa initatves

About the Author

An Poikola is an independen consulan a HILA Open Ld. and eam member of he

ePSIplaorm. Before becoming a full-tme enrepreneur he worked as a researcher in

media echnology a Aalo Universiy. He is actve and widely conneced in ePartcipaton

and Open Daa movemens in Europe. He specialises in he exploiaton of social media, he

developmen of collaboratve solutons beween citzens and public adminisraton and he

esablishmen of operatng models based on openness. He was he main auhor of he

guidebook: Public daa an inroducton o opening he informaton resources [1], which

was published by he Finnish Minisry of Transpor and Communicatons 2010. Recenly he

focused on he cites and has co-auhored he repor on "Informaton navigaton in he

ciy"[2] for he Ciy of Helsinki as par of he EU-funded Fireball projec 2012.

[1] Poikola, A., Kola, P., & Hintkka, K. A. (2010). Julkinen daa. Publicaton of he Minisry of

Transpor and Communicatons. hp://www.julkinendaa./.

[2] Viljanen, K., Poikola, A., & Koponen, P. (2012). Informaton navigaton in he ciy. Ciy of

Helsinki & Fireball projec.

hp://www.hel./hel2/ajankohaisa/kavo/informaton_navigaton.pdf.

Copyright information

2012 European PSI Plaorm. This documen and all maerial herein have been compiled

wih grea care. However, he auhor, edior and/or publisher and/or any pary wihin he

European PSI Plaorm or is predecessor projecs he ePSIplus Nework projec or ePSINe

consortum canno be held liable in any way for he consequences of using he conen of

his documen and/or any maerial referenced herein. This repor has been published

under he auspices of he European Public Secor Informaton Plaorm.

The repor may be reproduced providing acknowledgemen is made o he European Public

Secor Informaton (PSI) Plaorm. The European Public Secor Informaton (PSI) Plaormis

funded under he European CommissioneConenplus programme.
http://www.julkinendata.fi/http://www.hel.fi/hel2/ajankohtaista/kavo/information_navigation.pdfhttp://www.hel.fi/hel2/ajankohtaista/kavo/information_navigation.pdfhttp://www.google.co.uk/http://www.google.co.uk/http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/econtentplus/index_en.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/econtentplus/index_en.htmhttp://www.julkinendata.fi/http://www.hel.fi/hel2/ajankohtaista/kavo/information_navigation.pdfhttp://www.google.co.uk/http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/econtentplus/index_en.htm

topic report: local and regional data

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