The Future Is Data Conference 2020 — the most interesting open data threads
A review of the most interesting topics and statements from The Future is Data Conference on open data, organized by the Ministry of Digital Affairs of Poland on November 19, 2020.
The Future Is Data 2020 Conference
The first international conference of the Ministry of Digital Affairs of Poland, which a few weeks ago was transformed into the digitization department of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, was held under the slogan The future is data, and it was indeed the future of open data in Poland and the EU that was discussed. It must be admitted that although the event took place in a rather unconventional form (completely online, which was not easy with 28 Polish and European experts), many discussions could really quicken the pulse.
You can read more about the conference itself on its official website:
We, in turn, as the social partner of the event, present below our subjective overview of the most interesting threads and statements that appeared on it.
Administration, business and open data — all in one episode #1127
If we collected the most important threads that swept through various panels and lectures in a coherent framework, they would certainly be:
- Data opening and personal data protection, that is, about throwing obstacles, and sometimes even absurdities.
- Business vs. administration — who is to convince whom and how? Will it always be the case that when it comes to open public data, the Americans will show bare chests and Europeans will continue to wear winter coats?
- Open data as the fuel of the economy to pull the EU out of the COVID-19 crisis — where are we now in terms of the European Data Strategy and are the chances really so big?
Open data and personal data protection
The regulatory regime paradox
Panel discussion thread: Data opening versus personal data protection. A business opportunity or a privacy threat?
As aptly noted by Marlena Sakowska-Baryła from Sakowska-Baryła, Czaplińska Chancellery of Attorneys-at-Law, it is worth emphasizing that we are dealing with a certain concept of co-application of the provisions on the protection of personal data and provisions on the re-use of public sector information.
On the one hand, we want to open new data sets and be able to process them, and on the other hand, we are limited by regime of regulations on the protection of personal data. It is impossible to do the first without reconciling it with the second.
Sometimes it even comes to peculiar absurdities, which was perfectly illustrated in his speech by Krzysztof Izdebski from the ePaństwo Foundation, presenting a real case of GIODO intervention received by his organization:
- Portal maintained by the organization processes and displays information about companies, foundations and associations, as well as about people who are members of them.
- All information that appears on the portal comes directly from the open and public Polish National Court Register (KRS), which we all know perfectly well and to which every Polish citizen has access to.
- Nevertheless, a certain person (JK), who was a member of several national associations (responsible, among others, for the organization of the Independence March), complained to the President of GIODO (and he considered the complaint justified) that by disclosing information about his membership in the boards of these associations, the ePaństwo Foundation, reveals his political views (i.e. sensitive data).
- The GIODO President issued a decision that the foundation should refrain from processing the complainant’s data.
- The ePaństwo Foundation did not agree with this decision because it causes great difficulties in the functioning of the portal. Should it therefore also stop processing personal data of board members, e.g. environmental organizations, which are now often also of a political nature? And in general, how to automatically verify which already open data is to be closed on their portal for personal data protection reasons?
- Therefore, the foundation filed a complaint with the voivodeship administrative court and the court agreed with their position, justifying the judgment as follows:
“The disclosure of personal data was not caused by the activity of the foundation, but by the action of the data subject.
JK, expressing consent to perform the function under the above mentioned organization, agreed to make his data public in the National Court Register. “
This case is no exception. All Polish companies that re-process open data from state registers face similar complaints, and so do we at Transparent Data.
Data opening and personal data protection can therefore be narrowed down to 2 main problems:
- Unclear open data sharing rules that make entrepreneurs wonder what data they can process and what not.
- The risk that, for the sake of personal data protection, non-confidential and public economic data will be reduced to a paltry hull, with two consequences:
a) proper management of business risk will become impossible (it will not be possible to verify who is really behind which business, whether or not he has previously established shell companies, etc.),
b) instead of building value on services based on open data, business will have to go back (it will bring losses, not progress).
Bearing in mind that the issue of personal data protection is important, we must be aware that full transparency, and hence the security of economic transactions, requires that personal data in the context of business activity be public.
Business vs. administration — who will open first?
We wear winter coats because we see no benefits
Panel discussion thread: What to open? High value data. Will business convince the administration to open data widely?
Due to the fact that economic information is classified in the European Data Strategy as high-value data, no one was surprised to see a panel devoted to the issue of open data in business — building a business based on open data, as well as the exchange of information between the corporate sector and administration.
“It goes without saying that it is the administration’s responsibility to make the data available.”
Wojciech Szajnar from Digital Poland Project Centre said, and each of the other experts agreed with him. This point was beyond doubt.
Panelists argued that the demand for economic data on the part of business is enormous, and the opening of many still closed data, i.e. enabling it to be used in a machine manner, without limits via API, preferably taking care of their quality (which currently leaves a lot to wishes) will make the economy grow. You should not pay for the access to data itself, but for services built on it.
“More value is generated by services around data, not the data access itself.
Each data category will find someone to squeeze more value out of it. “
- argued A. Hajduk, CEO of Transparent Data.
M. Hetmański from Instrat Foundation additionally aptly pointed out that currently in Poland there are many public authorities that have not opened their data, but have built a monopoly on it (ie they sell the services built around them themselves, instead of giving fair access to society and a chance for the business sector). We, at Transparent Data, also perfectly remember that the National Court Register (KRS) defended itself for a long time against publishing excerpts in PDF format, because it charged a fee of PLN 60 for each copy issued.
However, another question turned out to be a hot and strong thread, namely:
Why doesn’t business share data and what would the administration have to do to encourage this sector?
According to A. Hajduk, the most important issue is trust, because let’s think whether the administration opens data that it is obliged to open? Why should I, as an entrepreneur, share my data, if the administration, for my taxes, should share data and does not do it?
In addition, there is also the still lingering belief in our latitude that “The quieter you go, the further you will go”. We do not live in China, where there are 1,200 e-scooter manufacturers who regularly exchange information to improve their products.
Business always works on the basis of benefits — entrepreneurs will be more willing to share data if they see benefits in it (more data for contractor verification, knowledge exchange, faster application handling, etc.)
Moreover, sharing data with the administration should be easy and fast. Current papermaking is transforming this task into a painful duty that is discouraging not encouraging. Therefore, the method of data sharing still needs to be refined.
Eliza Niewiadomska from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development was of a similar opinion:
“If the data is available in a format that allows it to be used and build new functionalities for their services (entrepreneurs — ed.), sectorally, it may be the most effective.
I would not call it the Mutual Benefit Promoters Club, but this is exactly how it works (…) “I will give the data, I will download the data, my client will be happy, and I will get another client.”
The conviction on the Polish market is that when data is open, it is of poor quality. This is the biggest obstacle to the development of the innovation market. If we take the data that is taken as a service and not to clean it up, then we will have development potential.”
It turns out that this is not just a problem for Poland. The topic of entrepreneurs’ lack of trust in the administration was also raised in another panel discussion by Michal Kubáň from the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic. As he said, there were also skeptical voices among Czech companies about sharing data and concerns that the government as such will not be able to provide good quality data and it is not known whether it will make proper use of the companies or misuse them. The need to build trust in administration by investing in greater data interoperability and data quality seems to be essential.
The European Data Strategy, i.e. open data as the fuel of the economy
A chance for a faster exit from the COVID-19 crisis
The belief that digitization can become a response to today’s problems was shared by the majority of the speakers at the conference and is in line with the direction in which the entire European Union is currently heading.
Let us quote, for example, the statement by Szymon Lewandowski from the European Commission:
“Data is obviously at the heart of the bloodstream of the digital society, the digital economy.
I am convinced that when we create a single data market, we will be able to make a crucial contribution to the recovery of the European economy after the COVID-19 crisis. “
This opinion was shared by Andrzej Dulka from the Polish Chamber of Information Technology and Telecommunications, which associates over 130 entities (both corporations and SMEs). The European Data Strategy clearly states that the ICT market is expected to reach EUR 821 billion by 2025, so it is about the economic space, about prosperity, about increasing the economy, about “giving new impetus”.
The greatest barriers and challenges that all EU Member States must face in the coming years are:
- lack of uniform rules and consistent standards for open data
- still incomplete regulatory environment
- unaddressed problem of responsibility for data quality
- lack of confidence in sharing data.
It seems that the COVID pandemic is a good time to focus on the digital economy and make it a kind of economic catalyst. As mentioned during the The Future Is Data conference, the European Commission plans to include: entry into force of subsequent legislation, supporting the opening of data from 6 key, already selected sectors of the highest value data, as well as the creation of support centers responsible for assistance in technical data sharing.
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