In March 2010, I wrote about the importance of "opening" government and enterprises data to smartphone application developers. I referred to the US Open Government initiative, which was launched on December 8 2009 hoping that the EU would follow this example. The European Commission's December 8th Press Release on launching the “Open Data Strategy for Europe” was great news, especially given that the US has already demonstrated the value of opening the governmental data. On the US Open Government portal you can monitor the number of developed (smartphone) applications using the public data and the progress made so far.
The Open Data Strategy is expected to “deliver a €40 billion boost to the EU's economy each year”. I don't think it is too optimistic. The Open Data will accelerate the speed of innovation in new smartphone applications saving energy consumption and the European citizens' time. It will dramatically increase the transparency (read efficiency) of governmental institutions and enable enterprises and SMEs closer collaboration in the spirit of Open Innovation.
However, it is a long way to get there. The US was in a much better position to start freeing the governmental data thanks to a very mature Enterprise Architecture of Governmental Institutions as a result of the Clinger-Cohen Act. In the European Union an equivalent of the Clinger-Cohen Act still needs to be designed and implemented. The good news is that there are already a number of Open Data initiatives in Europe such as "hack de overheid" which in Dutch means "hack the government" welcoming and supporting the Open Data Strategy.
The Open Data was an important topic during the first European Commission's Innovation Convention which I had an opportunity to attend. Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman Google mentioned in his keynote speech the importance of making data available to SMEs enabling innovation. I found his message to politicians "to start operating from facts, from data. Not from some political view or traditional view.." very remarkable. He stated that that governments own more data than Google! In this case, the quote from the press release “Europe’s public administrations are sitting on a goldmine of unrealised economic potential” is not exaggerated.
The Innovation Convention has demonstrated, that in the middle of the European debt and Euro crisis there is a lot of potential in the European community and institutions which can by unlocked through innovation and opening the data. It is very reassuring that Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes emphasized her commitment to ICT's driven innovation and Open Data Strategy in her New Year's message.
I am positive that Enterprise Architects will play a crucial role in making this happen.
The Open Data Strategy is expected to “deliver a €40 billion boost to the EU's economy each year”. I don't think it is too optimistic. The Open Data will accelerate the speed of innovation in new smartphone applications saving energy consumption and the European citizens' time. It will dramatically increase the transparency (read efficiency) of governmental institutions and enable enterprises and SMEs closer collaboration in the spirit of Open Innovation.
However, it is a long way to get there. The US was in a much better position to start freeing the governmental data thanks to a very mature Enterprise Architecture of Governmental Institutions as a result of the Clinger-Cohen Act. In the European Union an equivalent of the Clinger-Cohen Act still needs to be designed and implemented. The good news is that there are already a number of Open Data initiatives in Europe such as "hack de overheid" which in Dutch means "hack the government" welcoming and supporting the Open Data Strategy.
The Open Data was an important topic during the first European Commission's Innovation Convention which I had an opportunity to attend. Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman Google mentioned in his keynote speech the importance of making data available to SMEs enabling innovation. I found his message to politicians "to start operating from facts, from data. Not from some political view or traditional view.." very remarkable. He stated that that governments own more data than Google! In this case, the quote from the press release “Europe’s public administrations are sitting on a goldmine of unrealised economic potential” is not exaggerated.
The Innovation Convention has demonstrated, that in the middle of the European debt and Euro crisis there is a lot of potential in the European community and institutions which can by unlocked through innovation and opening the data. It is very reassuring that Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes emphasized her commitment to ICT's driven innovation and Open Data Strategy in her New Year's message.
I am positive that Enterprise Architects will play a crucial role in making this happen.
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