The European Public Sector Information Platform perspective on PSI portals

1. The European Public Sector Information Platformperspective onPSI portals Chris Corbin Advisor to the European PSI Platform EC PSI Group – PSI Portals meeting, Luxembourg, 25th September 2009

2. The European Public Sector Information Platform • Definition: • A public sector information portal is one that is: • dedicated to; • or has parts of the portal dedicated to; • the re-use of public sector information • Notes: • The definition does not state who is responsible for the PSI portal, has editorial control or who should operate the PSI portal. • The definition is narrow as the definition of public sector information is constrained to re-use. • The definition provides a means of deciding whether an information portal fits this definition. www.epsiplatform.eu

3. The European Public Sector Information Platform • Objective of a PSI portal • To provide in one place all the relevant information about public sector information re-use – often referred to as: • a one-stop-shop (a window) for information on PSI re-use • Notes: • One purpose of the portal is to make information visible. • As the subject is public sector information this requires: • The PSI regulators and PSI policy makers and implementers • The supply side (the public sector information holders) • to be open and transparent. It would be very useful if the demand side (the re-users) were also open and transparent. • 3. Transparency is a further measure that can be used to rate a PSI portal against the PSI portal definition. www.epsiplatform.eu

4. The European Public Sector Information Platform • The prime purpose of a Public Sector Information Portal (Categories) • 1. The authentic source European Commission • Member State lead body and or regulator • Static Ireland • Dynamic Belgium, EC, UK • 2. Awareness raising & motivation Spain (Project APORTA) • 3. Membership & Influencing • PSI (Demand side) PSI Alliance, LOCUS, IWG-Netzwerk Association • Thematic (Demand side) PRIMET • Thematic (Supply side) ECOMET • 4. Non aligned information service European PSI Platform (a region at global level) • 5. Civil society filling a void Czech PSI Watch • Notes: • 1. The purpose of the portal influences • the dynamics of the portal – rate of change – this influences visitor rates • the breadth and type of content on the portal • 2. Some categories the purpose is the primary role (the service is the product) for others categories it is a secondary role (a by product) www.epsiplatform.eu

5. The European Public Sector Information Platform • The authentic source – Member State lead body PSI Portal • Attributes of the information • PSI Re-use law or laws Static - Slow moving • PSI Guidance Static - Slow moving • Standard licenses Static - Slow moving • Directory to PSI holdings Dynamic • Complaints Dynamic • Statistics Dynamic • Annual reports Periodic • Accreditation Dynamic • Meetings Dynamic • Awareness raising Dynamic • Testing opinion Dynamic • The content management resource is minimal – input is minimal but impact can be significant – it is cost effective! • All but one EU Member State have a Freedom of Access Law – one of the fundamental principles when implementing the FOI law is to be pro-active in publishing materials and information. One view of a PSI Portal is that it also complies with best practice on FOI implementation. www.epsiplatform.eu

6. The European Public Sector Information Platform Who is the target audience for a PSI portal? The Actors Answer: People on both sides of the Supply and Demand interface Public Sector PSI Re-users Supply side Demand side Their role To facilitate the opportunity To grasp the opportunity and to innovate A large number of public bodies Many are large A large number of employees But They are quantifiable And many are similar A very large number of PSI re-users Many are micro or small But They are not quantifiable And they are not similar Fall into 4 groups Commercial active Commercial future activity Not commercial active Not commercial future activity The size of the future blocks not known. What do we Know about Each side? www.epsiplatform.eu

7. The European Public Sector Information Platform The home page will change by the end of September 2009 or early October 2009 The E-PSI-P is Supported an RSS feed and by a notification service the level of which can set by the viewer. (Need to register on the site to establish the notification service) The language medium is predominantly English www.epsiplatform.eu

8. The European Public Sector Information Platform Funded by the European Commission for 24 months 1st March 2009 to 28th February 2011 The platform is a Commission support initiative – exploit it! www.epsiplatform.eu

9. The European Public Sector Information Platform All views apart from News are slow moving (that is they do not change every day) News Guest Blog Topic Reports Product Directory Cases Good Practice Views of the depository The depository Content Management System (built on open source software) • To assist the awareness and learning processes the E-PSI-P provides: • Each month a PSI Guru will host the Guest blog • Topic reports Harvesting the information (a manual process) www.epsiplatform.eu

10. PSI Re-use framework: The role of PSI Re-users • The E-PSI-P News service has several objectives: • To gather information – first step for possible processing within other views on the E-PSI-P. • It is the key motivator to encourage visitors to the web site. • For the news to be timely and current. • To post at least one news item per calendar day on average. • To provide a balanced pan European news coverage interspersed with international PSI re-use news www.epsiplatform.eu

11. PSI Re-use framework: The role of PSI Re-users • How does the E-PSI-P meet the news objectives: • It is a manual process undertaken centrally by the platform service provider with intermittent support of registered E-PSI-P news providers and tip off’s from PSI guru’s across Europe and the world. • News is assessed into categories – immediate (directly relevant to the EU Directive framework implementation and operation), hold (indirectly relevant to the EU Directive framework but relevant to the wider definition of public sector information). • During periods of intense PSI re-use community activity that results in numerous news items arriving concurrently – the items maybe held if it provides too much bias to one Member State. Such items are held and maybe posted as part of a later news topic when geographic balance can be achieved. News topics that are older than 3 months are rarely posted. • News items that are not fully transparent are not posted. For example an event may appear under Meetings but a news item may not be posted if the meeting organiser does not publish the materials. www.epsiplatform.eu

12. The European Public Sector Information Platform E-PSI-P Value chain (down stream) E-PSI-P Viewer (Visitor) Aggregator (all E-PSI-P news) Membership Service (Selective) Selective Translator IGN Blog Dresden KM Africa PSI Alliance APORTA Provides a measure of success of E-PSI-P news service www.epsiplatform.eu

13. The European Public Sector Information Platform PSI Portals value chain (down stream) E-PSI-P Viewer (Visitor) Slow Moving PSI Portals Aggregator (all E-PSI-P news) Membership Service (Selective) Selective Translator Provides a measure of success of E-PSI-P news service www.epsiplatform.eu

14. The European Public Sector Information Platform Visitors to the European PSI Platform The platform is a Commission support initiative – exploit it! www.epsiplatform.eu

15. The European Public Sector Information Platform Visitors to The European PSI Platform 1st March to 31st August 2009 The platform is a Commission support initiative – exploit it! www.epsiplatform.eu

16. The European Public Sector Information Platform • Challenges • Locating content • URL Persistence • Language • Cultural differences • Information loss • Growing and keeping an audience www.epsiplatform.eu

17. Template for a Member State Public Sector Information Portal All views are slow moving (that is they do not change every week) This means the human resource of maintaining content is low Meetings & Events Legal Tool kit Standard Licences Exclusive Arrangements Directory To PSI Cases Good Practice & Guidance Reports and Statistics Views of the depository Member State PSI portal Content Management System (built on open source software) There is a need to agree a basic set of views (Agree on 25th September 2009) www.epsiplatform.eu

18. Benefits of a Member State Public Sector Information Portal Benefits Low cost comprehensive implementation Sustainable over time Consistent interface to all parties. (Harmonised) Member State PSI portal • The PSIH web site links to MS PSI Portal for the: • The Law • Standard Licences • Complaints system • The PSIH web site would use standard text provided by the Member State PSI portal. • This helps the public sector employee in the PSIH and also provides a standard interface to the potential re-user. Public Sector Information Holder web site Objective To make it simple and easy to implement and maintain the PSI re-use framework and to maximise the re-use potential of the PSI held Potential Re-user Examples: Ireland, UK www.epsiplatform.eu

19. The European Public Sector Information Platform The ideal European target model by 1st July 2012! Family of Regulators For example: The European Competition Network (The Regulators have powers of enforcement on both the supply and demand sides) An active European PSI information Portal Supply side Demand side Public Sector PSI Re-users A European Network of 31 Lead PSI bodies & portals Demand side PSI information portals Pan European PSI Associations & Thematic Associations www.epsiplatform.eu

20. The European Public Sector Information Platform • Summary • The benefits of a implementing and maintaining a PSI portal far • out weigh the costs • The technology is present and is not an issue • Communication is a must and must be maintained – the people in • the system are constantly changing • The content is available at least for a basic PSI portal • The knowledge and expertise is present and is not an issue • It is possible to agree today: • a basic set of information to place on the portal • the steps one needs to take to implement the basic PSI Portal • a commitment from everyone present today that they will make it happen! www.epsiplatform.eu

21. Thank you for your attention Interested in PSI? Then why not visit: www.epsiplatform.eu & http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/psi/index_en.htm Ask yourself: When did I last visit the European PSI Platform? When did I last provide information to the European PSI Platform? When did I last participate in a European PSI Platform initiative? When did I last dissemination information from the European PSI Platform? Remember this is a resource to support YOU! The larger the number of stakeholders actively participating the richer the resource will be! So please exploit it! www.epsiplatform.eu