Helsinki Region Infoshare – Open Regional Data for All

Project Manager Ville MeloniForum Virium Helsinki

September 2011

Project Overview

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“Making regional information quickly and easily accessible to all. The information can be used freely at no cost”

To develop a network of

information owners who maintain and

open their data following common

guidelines.

To build a web service through

which the data can be easily found, accessed and

utilised.

Provide information as machine readable ”raw data” which is easy to

utilize in various applications and web-services.

To pilot an open data activity model and its implications to both the

producers and end users of the data.

Timeline, financing, implementation

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Collaboration with many different organisations to open data i.e. government, other municipalities, municipal organizations, etc.

Financing•Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen•Finnish innovation fund (Sitra)•Ministry of Finance

Implementation•Directive board

•City of Helsinki Urban Facts

•Forum Virium Helsinki

Timeline2010-2012 (pilot)

2012- (on-going function)

Collaboration between data producers and developers using that data!

Why open data ?

• Government efficiency

• Business and innovation

• Transparency and democracy

What data is opened ?

1. Statistics and estimates– Urban phenomenon: demographics,

employment, housing, commuting, etc.– Geographical granularity: municipal,

district, grid-level, etc.

2. Geospatial data– Data that supports presentation of

statistical and other data on a map, i.e. district-level shapefiles.

3. Other data– Public services, mass-transportation,

infrastructure related data, etc.

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HRI-Open data operational model

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CLEARING HOUSE

END-USERS

DISTRI-BUTION

Public data/producers and sources

HELSINKI REGION INFOSHARE

•Maintenance of the web service•Collecting users feedback •Updating of data catalogs

•Definition of HRI data -criteria, information policy and principles, …, licensing•Support to data providers

Production, maintenance, provision according to agreed rules and legal framework

•Employees of the municipalities •State government•Enterprises •Research and education•Citizens

”www.hri.fi”

”extra.Hri.fi”

•Data Catalogs• (data + metadata)

•Criteria and instructions•Tools to open the data•Feedback

•Data Catalogs

•Feedback on data•Feedback on the service

UTILISATION DISTRIBUTIONOPENING PRODUCTION

PHASED APPROACH

”Easy to find, access and utilize data”

•Maintaining of the metadata. Actual data is hosted elsewhere.•A channel for data users to give feedback and request new data.•Brings visibility to existing data pools and encourages more usage.

Open for all: companies, citizends, municipal administration, research institutions, etc.

www.hri.fi -web-service

www.hri.fi -web-service

Data-search, access, feedback, rating and discussions

News about project progress , experiences from different stakeholders

Visualization of www.aluesarjat.fi statistics with Google motion chart.

http://www.floapps.com/lab/tieke/bigchart.php

Application Examples - Statistics

Application Examples - Geodata

Helsinki metropolitan area shapefiles (KML) in use on top of Open Streetmap

Application Examples – Library data

Data: http://data.kirjastot.fi/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLYb28c9JF4

HelMet-library-barcode reader by Jaakko Rajaniemi

Application Examples – Public Transport

Data: http://developer.reittiopas.fi/ Source: http://sites.google.com/site/reittigps/

ReittiGPS – Markus Halttunen

semantic.hri.fi – experimenting with linked open data (lod) and statistics

• Experimental service. Includes Helsinki metropolitan area statistics in a semantic RDF-database. Source statistics from www.aluesarjat.fi (PC-Axis).

• To pilot and understand the possibilities of lod and statistical data in terms of compatibility and linkages to external data sources.

• Application programming interfaces aimed for developers who are interested in using statistical data for various applications and analysis.

• SPARQL ja HTTP GET interfaces.

• Example applications.

Project focus areas 2011• Further development of the www.hri.fi service

• Establishing the HRI-function (people, processes, guidelines, etc.)

• More open data, better open data, wider scope of open data, inter-usability of data!

• Encouraging the usage of the data, application competitions for developers, co-operation with companies, universities, etc. that want to use it. Apps4Finland2011 (apps4finland.fi). IBM Smarter Cities Challenge in Helsinki. Preparing for WDC Helsinki 2012.

• National and international co-operation related especially to: legal issues, operational best-practices and metadata interoperability.

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Some experiences & lessons learned

Open data is not (foremost) a technical thing•Mindset, methods, mandate

Start quickly with what you have•“Raw data now” vs. “let’s wait for 2 years until our systems and all the data is harmonized”

Focus on ecosystem and community building•Helping data owners and new kind of users to collaborate and learn from each other is important

Thank you !

www.hri.fisemantic.hri.fihttp://www.facebook.com/helsinkiregioninfoshare

Ville MeloniForum Virium HelsinkiProject Managerville.meloni@forumvirium.fiwww.forumvirium.fi