Aug 23, 2018
The review of the PSI Directive — Deloitte study report 2018
The Re-use Directive, also known as the PSI Directive, has been reviewed again. From the report, which just saw the light of day, we will find out what is the current state of re-using public information in Europe, what are the technological and cultural barriers to data access and what lessons can be learned from it for the future.
At the beginning of 2018, we informed that our CEO, Arek Hajduk, participated in a high level round table in the heart of the European Commission in Brussels, where the Directive 2013/37/EU of the European Parliament and the Council of June 26, 2013, on the re-use of public sector information has been examined (Link to the Directive: HERE).
He received this invitation as one of 20 experts from EU countries - suppliers of economic data, companies and associations whose activity is based on aggregation and processing of public information. Let's add that Transparent Data appeared on this high level round table as the only representative from Poland.
The result of this meeting was gathering information about the condition and quality of open data, the possibilities of downloading them and the limits from the perspective of the non-governmental sector.
The summary of the workshops along with a number of other interviews and surveys has been gathered in the latest official report prepared by Deloitte company for the European Commission:
Full report
“Study to support the review of Directive 2003/98/EC on the re-use of public sector information”
you can download in English or French from:
HERE
What will we find in the report? Selected fragments
First of all, the report confirms the usefulness and the impact of the PSI Directive in the development of individual EU Member States as well as the European Union itself.
According to this report, the total market value of PSI has grown from 140 billion euro in 2010 to around 220 billion euro in 2017.
The value of the re-using of public sector information is also growing, supporting the well-being of the countries’ societies, cooperation and international business. As we read on page 109 of the report:
A number of examples of new services created from public open data and having a cross-border dimension exist. The most famous are undoubtedly those apps combining geolocalisation with data from local authorities and local transport to provide customised journeys and commuting experiences to citizens. Amongst these apps, the Lithuanian app Trafi provides this service for both Lithuanian and Estonian cities.
Similar apps are developed in the domain of whether forecasts. WeatherPro for instance builds on meteorological data for providing accurate forecasts for thousands of European locations.
In the domain of cultural data, the French app Monument Tracker re-uses data from cultural institutions and combines them with many other datasets in order to provide personalised touristic experience in 55 cities worldwide including 49 in Europe. Many other touristic apps with such characteristics are currently emerging (e.g. Tur4all, WeCity, Historic Atlas etc.).
Finally, many business models were created building on the re-use of company data and data from business-registers (and other registers). For instance, Transparent Data in Poland provides real-time company information from multiple comprehensive sources and covering multiple European countries. Realo sells access to relevant housing listings enriched with local data and social content in order to facilitate the understanding of the real estate marketplace in several Member States.
All these examples illustrate a growing trend towards establishment of EU-wide services and products.
Thanks to the applied regulations and recommendations of the PSI Directive, each country has also increased the number of open data resources and improved their quality.
In Poland for instance, the most recent statistical reports highlight for 2017 around 6,722 open datasets from 96 data providers with a +56% increase in the number of APIs available.
But what is realy worth mentioning, is that 2 European countries are undeniable global open data leaders:
It must be noted that two European countries (United Kingdom and France) are in the top-5 of the Fourth Open Data Barometer ranking with very high scores in terms of readiness, implementation and impact.
According to Wiredcraft which refers to the data of the Global Open Data Index “Europe is leading open data. European countries take 4 out of the 5 top open data spots”.
This positive feeling is also confirmed by the answers provided to the public consultation: 33% of respondent strongly believe that more data have become available as a result of the PSI Directive and 47.5% also believes in this although to a lesser extent (“slightly agree”) for a total of 80% of positive responses.
Sources:
Report Study to support the review of Directive 2003/98/EC on the re-use of public sector information, by Deloitte 2018
