Working for European Reuse of PSI – the ePSIplus Project

Brian GreenePSIplus Analyst

CEN/ISSS Workshop eGov-ShareBrussels 3 February 2009

funded by eContentPlus

ePSIplus mission

• Monitoring implementation of PSI directive• Identifying barriers and conflicts• Increasing awareness of the value of PSI re-use

to business and the economy• Promoting and providing examples of best

practice in the area of PSI re-use• Making recommendations on how best to move

forward

Five thematic areas

1 Legal and regulatory progress and impact2 Public sector organisation and culture change3 Encouraging PSI reuse business4 The financial impact: pricing and charging5 Information management, standards and

data quality

ePSIplus so far

• 29/30 Months • 14/15 Thematic cross-border workshops• 25/28 National meetings held• ePSIplus one-stop ‘portal’ www.epsiplus.net• Support for establishment of PSI Alliance• Recommendations for the review of the PSI

Directive – detailed evidence (cases, instances)– EC consultation process

5

ePSIPlus recommendation 4

4 PSI into Single European Information Space– huge tranches of PSI remain ‘holed up’ e.g. local

government– asset registries: progress very slow in Member

States • spread best practice, incorporate licence delivery

– concertation with other infrastructure/standards initiatives • INSPIRE, eGovShare, European Digital Library

What next?• PSI Platform contract extends ePSIplus ‘seamlessly’ for

2 years from 1 March 2009 – Portal, advice, meetings

• Public domain study – culture to stay out of scope for a while longer but

potentially a growth area for re-use• Commission Communication (expected March)• ICT-PSP legal networks, geographic information

projects• Commission study tenders expected

– MEPSIR repeated – indicator studies?– New legislation 2/3 years down the line?

ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT-PSP)

• Within EC Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP)

• Theme 6: Public Sector Information– Objective 6.2 Geographic Information aims to ‘foster

the wider use of spatial data by public and private sector organisations and citizens in line with the Directive on the re-use of public sector information and to contribute to the INSPIRE initiative and other relevant policy initiatives’.

Pilot B actions

• 9 million EUR available for Objective 6.2• ‘Several’ Pilot B actions• 50% funded + 50% of 50% flat rate overhead = c

65%• 2.5million Commission contribution• Results must include a pilot service and an

exploitation plan

Relevant objective of 6.2

• Contribute to increasing the use and reuse of harmonized and interoperable data sets related to one or more of the specific themes enumerated in annexes I-III of the INSPIRE directive through network services for sharing spatial data between public authorities and other stakeholders in the Community enabling the creation of value added services

Metadata interoperability• ePSIplus recommendation on PSI Discovery

– a pan-European core set of mandatory metadata and to provide incentives, even obligation, for PSI holders to provide it.

• Commission report on consultation: – a need for a collective approach from the Commission's side as

regards different but closely associated policy initiatives (PSI, INSPIRE and access to environmental information Directives, SEIS, eGovernment, etc)”

– ‘technical measures’ such as introducing metadata and identifier standards for facilitating improved discovery services, developing asset registries/information portals, and making PSI available in such a way to make full use of the web 2.0 /semantic web techniques.

INSPIRE metadata

• INSPIRE published rules for the creation of metadata, mandatory from 24 December 2008– covering spatial data sets, spatial data set series and spatial

data services corresponding to the themes listed in Annexes I, II and III

• ePSIplus recommended taking the INSPIRE metadata implementation rules into account when considering data discovery services

Provisional objectives of project• Build on the strengths of the INSPIRE metadata

regulation to develop a data model for a wide variety of PSI requiring a geospatial metadata description in whole or in part.

• Expand the use of the INSPIRE framework for use by public sector data holders relevant to the data types referenced in the Annexes of the INSPIRE Directive (e.g. agriculture, health and safety, planning and transport)

• Make significant practical progress towards the establishment of a European discovery infrastructure for PSI by leveraging the gains made by INSPIRE.

Possible tasks• Assessing user needs

– data management, infrastructure (PSIH) – discovery and re-use needs (private sector), licensing models

etc. • Detailed analysis of the content, formats,

metadata etc. • Meta(data) model for PSI

– mapping metadata already in use to the INSPIRE model• Pilot implementations

– Substantial, heterogeneously-sourced data sets – representative sample admin levels (central and local), PSI

sectors – covering at least 15 Member States countries

Main outcomes

• Effective means of ingesting metadata from remote repositories to a central index – e.g. RSS/ATOM, harvesting, semantic extraction – assessing scalability in pan-European context.

• Creating and testing a prototype cross-sectoral and pan-European PSI discovery portal service

• Dissemination• Viable governance and exploitation mechanism

Key consortium members• Co-ordinator/project manager

– (expertise in INSPIRE policies/metadata)• Dissemination partner

– expertise in organising web-based and physical dissemination activities

• Metadata/interoperability expert(s)– possibly subcontractors– Portal development partner

• One or more other technical partners• Metadata providers from minimum 15 countries.

eGovShare contribution

• Is the group interested in developing the results of e-Gov Share into such a proposal

• What work might it contribute?• Legal entity(ies)?

A one-stop shop on PSI re-use

www.ePSIplus.net