Joana Covelo de Abreu (Editor and Key-staff member of CitDig Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence) 

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The European Union (EU) set a wider objective until 2030: to live a digital decade, where (personal and public) data is essential to grasp a data economy, i.e., an economy capable of, by promoting the European values, enhancing its growth through data processing, making European citizens to live better. In fact, it is expected that, until 2025, the volume of produced data can achieve the amount of 175 zettabytes worldwide: along with an increase of personal data processing, there is a growing trend concerning non-personal industrial and public data in the EU which must be properly exploited.[1]

Concerning public data, it should be widely available to empower people since, by doing so, we can reach a digitally “open, fair, diversified, democratic and confident” Europe. So, if leading a data economy is to be achieved, along with structural solutions concerning i) connectivity; ii) processing and storage of data; iii) computational capacity; and iv) cybersecurity, the EU ought to be able to v) improve its governing structures on data processing; and vi) widening quality data repositories where data can be used and reused.

Continue reading “Open data and re-use of public information – smart cities as open data ecosystems” →