OpenGovIntelligence Pilot Showcase: The Estonian Pilot
The OpenGovIntelligence Project is running six pilot projects on different aspects of improving public services with multidimensional statistical data. This is the second of a series of interviews with partners involved in each pilot; aimed at showcasing the vision of the pilot and its focus audiences. Here I speak with Keegan McBride, Research Assistant at Tallinn University of Technology’s Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance about the Estonian pilot, which is a collaboration between Tallinn University of Technology and the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication.
Hi Keegan, can you tell us a bit about the role of the Estonian pilot in the project?
The aim of the Estonian Pilot program, Innovation in Real Estate, has always been to include as much end-user input as possible. We have worked with many different public sector agencies to get their feedback on the proposal, obtain data sets, and validate ideas. We have also worked with private sector companies to improve the appeal of our pilot program. For example, with the support of Teleport we were able to get access to over 3,500 user responses in regards to what was important to them when moving to Tallinn, Estonia. With this information, and information generated by our user workshops, we were able to pinpoint the ideal data sets and initial target group for our pilot program.
In Estonia data should be, legally, open by default. However, what we are seeing is that their are many barriers to accessing this data. One of the main goals of the Estonian pilot program will be to demonstrate how to get access to open data sets within this country, as well as how these datasets can be used to generate public value.
When the pilot program has been presented at different workshops, work groups, and hackathons the overall reception has been quite positive.
Which audience do you want to reach with your pilot?
One of the most important aspects of any new software, business, or service is understanding who your user is going to be. To this end, we have worked diligently to generate user stories and use cases so that the initial target group and functionality may be better understood. As a result of the workshops and studies we have done, we have decided that the initial target group of users will be individuals from outside of Estonia who are looking to move to Tallinn, such as students or young professionals. We’ve also learned that the five most important data sets which could be presented to users of this service were: price, safety, transport, points of interest, and property information.
How are you going to reach your target audience for the pilot?
The greatest asset we have in Estonia is that there is a growing movement for more access to open data. Due to this, we are constantly in communication with others about our project and we believe that word will spread rapidly once it is officially launched. So, if I had to name a few marketing channels the most obvious would be via social media and through word-of-mouth marketing.
How are you going to ensure user engagement?
User engagement is a must for the success of our pilot, so we plan on reaching out to potential end users and getting them involved in the process through the use of workshops and community knowledge sessions. You can read more about our recent co-creation workshop in my post Data Driven Public Service Creation; an Estonian Example.
What do you feel are the main advantages of using multidimensional statistical data?
Multidimensional statistical data helps fight information asymmetry in the real estate market and allows individuals who use our data to make more informed decisions.
