Post on 28-May-2020
Joint Research CentreThe European Commission’s science and knowledge service
APIs4DGov @INSPIRE 2018
20th September 2018
Lorenzino Vaccari, Monica Posada, Robin Smith and Dimitris Mavridis
JRC.B6, Digital Economy unit
APIs4DGov study“Digital Government APIs. The road to value-added Open API-driven services” [10]
• The study, a collaboration between the JRC and DG CNECT, started in January 2018 it will last for two years
• It will contribute to:
• The EU eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020 [5], in particular its open government approach to modernise public administration
• The implementation of the European Interoperability Framework (e.g. actions of the focus area 4: “Develop, maintain and promote key interoperability enablers”) [11]
• The implementation of the Once Only Principle [7]
• Reinforce the Building Block approach adopted in the Connecting European Facilities (CEF) programme [6]
APIs4DGov
API
State of play
• Assess digital government APIs landscape, opportunities, current trends and horizons
API
Added value
• Identify the key enablers, drivers, barriers, potential risks and mitigates
• Identify socio-economic impacts of data sharing, data-driven government services and APIs
API
Framework proposal
• Identify relevant ICT standards and specifications, select best practicesand develop recommendations
• Provide a set of policy recommendations and propose domains and thematic areas to focus on
1. Why governments should invest resources in setting up an API ecosystem?
2. Which government actions should be taken in developing government APIs?
Photo by Damian Patkowski on UnsplashState of play
State of Play: Multiple-case studies analysis
Analysed API cases
Denmark’s Addressers Web API (DAWA)
Amsterdam city data:a single portal providing
developers with a ReST API
Flanders Underground - Cable and Pipe
Information Portal (KLIP): was created in 2007
following a gas explosion in 2004 caused loss of
life.
Madrid MobilityLabs: an open and interoperable
API based platform
Estonia X-Road: is an API driven data exchange
ecosystem platform that was initially developed
between 1998 and 2001
Future Internetware (FIWARE): is an open
platform which can be harnessed by developers
to create and deliver smart, data-driven solutions,
applications and services.
Italian Digital Transformation Team: API project
Next proposalsLondon - Transport for London: have created a Unified
API The public TfL data (or 'open data')
Ireland-Patient-Opinion: API enabled platform for the
health services
France-API: API registry collected at national level.
EU - EDP: the largest European Governmental Data
catalogue.
Helsinki-Issue: the City of Helsinki provides the Issue
Reporting API to citizens
GBIF: the Global Biodiversity Information Facility is an
international network and research infrastructure
Poland-Granica: provides information to people crossing
the border into or out of Poland. Granica offers two APIs,
both of which make use of SOAP
Czech-Mapybezbarier: The data on public sites
accessibility provided by Maps without Barriers app are open
to be used. Social domain.
Denmark Addresses Web API:
~1.5bn requests in 2017
Madrid Mobility Labs API:
~480m requests per year
Amsterdam City Data API:
~350m requests per year
Flanders Underground - Cable and Pipe Information Portal API:
~120m requests per year
When implemented, API usage is huge!
API successfully used to share data both internally and externally
Case studies show strong returns in terms of internal reorganization and unexpected external apps development and (economic) growth
APIs4DGov study
recent case studies
Data and API registries
• For the data, some useful and well known resources are available:• The INSPIRE geoportal [1]
• The GEOSS portal [2]
• The European Data Portal [3]
• Google DataSearch
• For the APIs, there exist some resources including: • Private companies registries
• Public institutions registries
• The list of specific APIs proposed by the hackathon website [4]
ProgrammableWeb
Mashape/RapidAPI marketplace
WHY?Photo by Evan Dennis on Unsplash
API Added Value
API: some benefits
• Providers• Can check statistics and performances
• Provide a stable middleware to access data
• Manage API versioning
• Manage of different formats in an easy way
• Access control
• Reinforce cyber-security layer
• Can manage different user charging mechanisms and financial models
• Easier documentation (e.g. OpenAPI)
• Users:• Can have the possibility to receive only the portion of data they need
• Can have a stable interface to develop web and mobile apps
Sharing data is not enough. APIs act as a bridge between data
and its reuse
Framework proposal
Photo by Aron on Unsplash
Trend: OpenAPI and ReST API (OGC WFS)
WFS 3.0 [8]
• A true ReST interface
• Use of OpenAPI definition instead of OGC-specific "Capabilities" documents
• May be secured using security schemes that are commonly used on the Web today (e.g., OAuth2)
Trend: OpenAPI and ReST API (GEOSS) [12]
E.g. http://api.geodab.eu/dab/services/api-rest/sources
INSPIRE (Geocatalogue) Analytics [17]
e.g. https://goo.gl/iyokJv
- q=*
- facet.limit=100
- environmentalDomain:water
- resourceType:dataset OR resourceType:series
At the INSPIRE Conference: WFS 3.0 and also SensorThing
WFS 3.0• WFS 3.0 - the next version of the Web Feature Service standard
• From the Hackathon to the next version OGC WFS 3.0
SensorThing:• OGC SensorThings API – A New Approach for Meteorological Data.
• OGC SensorThings API - IoT Sensors for the Energy Domain
• Development of a national Spatial Data Infrastructure for Open Sensor Data based on citizen science initiatives
Photo by Pineapple Supply Co. on Unsplash
INSPIRE Hackathon
The INSPIRE hackathon will help us to understand
1. How to integrate INSPIRE, GEOSS, COPERNICUS data with data from other domains using web APIs, and create value added applications?
2. Which are the challenges and solutions (through some cases of this hackathon) for cross-boundary and cross-sector interoperability?
3. What are the emerging technologies in implementing, exposing and using (e.g. ReST and Open API) Geospatial and non Geospatial APIs?
The participants to the INSPIRE Hackathon
• Organized in collaboration with PLAN4ALL, NextGEOSS, DataBio, EUXDAT, EVER-Est, EU ODP and EDP
• APIs4DGov participated to two webinars (see e.g. [14])
• Very successful call: 16 Teams all over Europe
• With lots of innovative ideas!
• Many themes (Environment, Transport, Weather, Water etc.)
• Many cross-thematic proposals
• Some of the proposals provide and use APIs (especially SPARQL APIs)
Support the APIs4DGov study!
[13] https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/APIs4DGov-INSPIRE
Tell us about the APIs you provide and use!
APISearch?
References
[1] http://inspire-geoportal.ec.europa.eu/
[2] http://www.geoportal.org/
[3] https://www.europeandataportal.eu
[4] https://www.plan4all.eu/api/
[5] https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/communication-eu-egovernment-action-plan-2016-2020-accelerating-digital-transformation
[6] https://ec.europa.eu/cefdigital/wiki/display/CEFDIGITAL/About+CEF+building+blocks
[7] https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/eu-wide-digital-once-only-principle-citizens-and-businesses-policy-options-and-their-impacts
[8] https://github.com/opengeospatial/WFS_FES
[9] https://api.gouv.fr/apis
[10] https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/new-study-digital-government-apis-apis4dgov-project
[11] https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/eif_en
[12] http://api.geodab.eu/dab/api-rest-docs/
[13] https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/APIs4DGov-INSPIRE
[14] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvoHAUbo1tg
[15] https://www.plan4all.eu/inspire-hackathon-2018/
[16] http://inspire-sandbox.jrc.ec.europa.eu/etf-webapp/swagger-ui.html
[17] https://goo.gl/iyokJv
[18] https://sensorup.com/iot/comparison-of-sensorthings-api-and-sensor-observation-service/