Editorial

5 pages, 686 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

A European Approach to the Establishment of Data Spaces

by Marco Minghini, Alexander Kotsev and Carlos Granell

Data 2022, 7(8), 118; https://doi.org/10.3390/data7080118 - 19 Aug 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2353

Within a context defined by the rapid increase in the availability of data, combined with the complexity of data sources, infrastructures, technologies and actors involved in data sharing flows, the European Union (EU) is devising approaches that can reap the benefits of data-driven [...] Read more.

Within a context defined by the rapid increase in the availability of data, combined with the complexity of data sources, infrastructures, technologies and actors involved in data sharing flows, the European Union (EU) is devising approaches that can reap the benefits of data-driven innovation [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A European Approach to the Establishment of Data Spaces)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Other

28 pages, 3029 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Populating the Data Space for Cultural Heritage with Heritage Digital Twins

by Franco Niccolucci, Achille Felicetti and Sorin Hermon

Data 2022, 7(8), 105; https://doi.org/10.3390/data7080105 - 29 Jul 2022

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 4766

Abstract

The present paper concerns the design of the semantic infrastructure of the data space for cultural heritage as envisaged by the European Commission in its recent documents. Due to the complexity of the cultural heritage data and of their intrinsic inter-relationships, it is [...] Read more.

The present paper concerns the design of the semantic infrastructure of the data space for cultural heritage as envisaged by the European Commission in its recent documents. Due to the complexity of the cultural heritage data and of their intrinsic inter-relationships, it is necessary to introduce a novel ontology, yet compliant with existing standards and interoperable with previous platforms used in this context as Europeana. The data space organization must be tailored to the methods and the theory of cultural heritage, briefly summarized in the introduction. The new ontology is based on the Digital Twin concept, i.e., the digital counterpart of cultural heritage assets incorporating all the digital information pertaining to them. This creates a Knowledge Base on the cultural heritage data space. The paper outlines the main features of the proposed Heritage Digital Twin ontology and provides some examples of its application. Future work will include completing the ontology in all its details and testing it in other real cases and with the various sectors of the cultural heritage community. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A European Approach to the Establishment of Data Spaces)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

21 pages, 11095 KiB

Open AccessArticle

OpenStreetMap Contribution to Local Data Ecosystems in COVID-19 Times: Experiences and Reflections from the Italian Case

by Marco Minghini, Alessandro Sarretta and Maurizio Napolitano

Data 2022, 7(4), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/data7040039 - 31 Mar 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3348

Abstract

Data and digital technologies have been at the core of the societal response to COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. This work focuses on the specific contribution of the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project to address the early stage of the COVID-19 crisis (approximately [...] Read more.

Data and digital technologies have been at the core of the societal response to COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. This work focuses on the specific contribution of the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project to address the early stage of the COVID-19 crisis (approximately from February to May 2020) in Italy. Several activities initiated by the Italian OSM community are described, including: mapping ‘red zones’ (the first municipalities affected by the emergency); updating OSM pharmacies based on the authoritative dataset from the Ministry of Health; adding information on delivery services of commercial activities during COVID-19 times; publishing web maps to offer COVID-19-specific information at the local level; and developing software tools to help collect new data. Those initiatives are analysed from a data ecosystem perspective, identifying the actors, data and data flows involved, and reflecting on the enablers and barriers for their success from a technical, organisational and legal point of view. The OSM project itself is then assessed in the wider European policy context, in particular against the objectives of the recent European strategy for data, highlighting opportunities and challenges for scaling successful approaches such as those to fight COVID-19 from the local to the national and European scales. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A European Approach to the Establishment of Data Spaces)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

14 pages, 431 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Collaborative Data Use between Private and Public Stakeholders—A Regional Case Study

by Claire Jean-Quartier, Miguel Rey Mazón, Mario Lovrić and Sarah Stryeck

Data 2022, 7(2), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/data7020020 - 28 Jan 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4386

Abstract

Research and development are facilitated by sharing knowledge bases, and the innovation process benefits from collaborative efforts that involve the collective utilization of data. Until now, most companies and organizations have produced and collected various types of data, and stored them in data [...] Read more.

Research and development are facilitated by sharing knowledge bases, and the innovation process benefits from collaborative efforts that involve the collective utilization of data. Until now, most companies and organizations have produced and collected various types of data, and stored them in data silos that still have to be integrated with one another in order to enable knowledge creation. For this to happen, both public and private actors must adopt a flexible approach to achieve the necessary transition to break data silos and create collaborative data sharing between data producers and users. In this paper, we investigate several factors influencing cooperative data usage and explore the challenges posed by the participation in cross-organizational data ecosystems by performing an interview study among stakeholders from private and public organizations in the context of the project IDE@S, which aims at fostering the cooperation in data science in the Austrian federal state of Styria. We highlight technological and organizational requirements of data infrastructure, expertise, and practises towards collaborative data usage. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A European Approach to the Establishment of Data Spaces)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

32 pages, 6529 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Sustainable Method for Publishing Interoperable Open Data on the Web

by Raf Buyle, Brecht Van de Vyvere, Julián Rojas Meléndez, Dwight Van Lancker, Eveline Vlassenroot, Mathias Van Compernolle, Stefan Lefever, Pieter Colpaert, Peter Mechant and Erik Mannens

Data 2021, 6(8), 93; https://doi.org/10.3390/data6080093 - 19 Aug 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2650

Abstract

Smart cities need (sensor) data for better decision-making. However, while there are vast amounts of data available about and from cities, an intermediary is needed that connects and interprets (sensor) data on a Web-scale. Today, governments in Europe are struggling to publish open [...] Read more.

Smart cities need (sensor) data for better decision-making. However, while there are vast amounts of data available about and from cities, an intermediary is needed that connects and interprets (sensor) data on a Web-scale. Today, governments in Europe are struggling to publish open data in a sustainable, predictable and cost-effective way. Our research question considers what methods for publishing Linked Open Data time series, in particular air quality data, are suitable in a sustainable and cost-effective way. Furthermore, we demonstrate the cross-domain applicability of our data publishing approach through a different use case on railway infrastructure—Linked Open Data. Based on scenarios co-created with various governmental stakeholders, we researched methods to promote data interoperability, scalability and flexibility. The results show that applying a Linked Data Fragments-based approach on public endpoints for air quality and railway infrastructure data, lowers the cost of publishing and increases availability due to better Web caching strategies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A European Approach to the Establishment of Data Spaces)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

20 pages, 946 KiB

Open AccessArticle

APIs for EU Governments: A Landscape Analysis on Policy Instruments, Standards, Strategies and Best Practices

by Lorenzino Vaccari, Monica Posada, Mark Boyd and Mattia Santoro

Data 2021, 6(6), 59; https://doi.org/10.3390/data6060059 - 08 Jun 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 5331

Abstract

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) could greatly facilitate the exchange of data and functionalities between software applications in a flexible, controlled and secure way, especially on the web. Private companies, from startups to enterprises, have been using APIs for several years now, but it [...] Read more.

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) could greatly facilitate the exchange of data and functionalities between software applications in a flexible, controlled and secure way, especially on the web. Private companies, from startups to enterprises, have been using APIs for several years now, but it is only recently that APIs have seen increased interest in the public sector. API adoption in the public sector faces organisational, technical, legal and economic obstacles, and to overcome these barriers, proposed methods from the private sector and early adopters in the public sector provide a way forward. The available documentation is often sparse, difficult to find and to reuse for new contexts. No past efforts to collect and analyse these resources have been made. To address this shortcoming, this paper describes a landscape analysis in four areas: the main European Commission policy instruments on the adoption of APIs, the available web API standards, a set of European government API strategies and cases, and a list of government proposed methods distilled from more than 3900 documents. Our results reveal that European policy legislation and associated instruments promote, and in some cases mandate, the use of APIs, and that governments’ API strategies in the European Union are rather young but also that there are well known web APIs standards and proposed methods ready to support the digital transformation of governments through rapid, harmonised and successful adoption of APIs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A European Approach to the Establishment of Data Spaces)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Other

Jump to: Editorial, Research

11 pages, 646 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceData Descriptor

Mobile Apps to Fight the COVID-19 Crisis

by Chrisa Tsinaraki, Irena Mitton, Marco Minghini, Marina Micheli, Alexander Kotsev, Lorena Hernandez Quiros, Fabiano-Antonio Spinelli, Alessandro Dalla Benetta and Sven Schade

Data 2021, 6(10), 106; https://doi.org/10.3390/data6100106 - 08 Oct 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2670

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a multi-faceted global crisis, which triggered the diverse and quickly emerging use of old and new digital tools. We have developed a multi-channel approach for the monitoring and analysis of a subset of such tools, the COVID-19 related [...] Read more.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a multi-faceted global crisis, which triggered the diverse and quickly emerging use of old and new digital tools. We have developed a multi-channel approach for the monitoring and analysis of a subset of such tools, the COVID-19 related mobile applications (apps). Our approach builds on the information available in the two most prominent app stores (i.e., Google Play for Android-powered devices and Apple’s App Store for iOS-powered devices), as well as on relevant tweets and digital media outlets. The dataset presented here is one of the outcomes of this approach, uses the content of the app stores and enriches it, providing aggregated information about 837 mobile apps published across the world to fight the COVID-19 crisis. This information includes: (a) information available in the mobile app stores between 20 April 2020 and 2 August 2020; (b) complementary information obtained from manual analysis performed until mid-September 2020; and (c) status information about app availability on 28 February 2021, when we last collected data from the mobile app stores. We highlight our findings with a series of descriptives, which depict both the activities in the app stores and the qualitative information that was revealed by the manual analysis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A European Approach to the Establishment of Data Spaces)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

11 pages, 1508 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceData Descriptor

Data for Sustainable Platform Economy: Connections between Platform Models and Sustainable Development Goals

by Mayo Fuster Morell, Ricard Espelt and Enric Senabre Hidalgo

Data 2021, 6(2), 7; https://doi.org/10.3390/data6020007 - 20 Jan 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 5958

Abstract

In recent years, the platform economy has been recognised by researchers and governments around the world for its potential to contribute to the sustainable development of society. Yet, platform economy cases such as Uber, Airbnb, and Deliveroo have created a huge controversy over [...] Read more.

In recent years, the platform economy has been recognised by researchers and governments around the world for its potential to contribute to the sustainable development of society. Yet, platform economy cases such as Uber, Airbnb, and Deliveroo have created a huge controversy over their socioeconomic impact, while other alternative models have been associated with a new form of cooperativism. In parallel, the United Nations are advocating global sustainable development by promoting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), considering elements such as decent work, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and fostering innovation. In any case, the SDGs have been also criticised for the lack of digital perspective. This dataset draws from two 2020 European projects’ (DECODE and PLUS) data collections and presents the possibility to compare different platform economy models and their connections with the SDGs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue A European Approach to the Establishment of Data Spaces)

► Show Figures