About OpenDataMonitor
Contents
What is OpenDataMonitor?
OpenDataMonitor brings open datasets to light. As a platform, it gives visitors an overview of available open data resources, allowing them to analyse and visualise existing data catalogues using innovative technologies.
How does it work?
The framework harvests datasets, collecting metadata from diverse open data sources. The harvested metadata is then harmonised, in that the gathered information is structured and processed. Scalable analytical and visualisation methods allow end users to learn more about the composition of regional, national or pan-European open data repositories. For example, the aggregation of catalogues of one region or country can be easily visualised to draw an exact picture of the open data situation and allow comparison to other areas. Analysing and visualising metadata will reveal hidden potential and essential insights from existing resources and identify gaps where additional open data are needed.Concept and Approach
One of OpenDataMonitor’s main goals is to research and develop a harmonisation scheme and methodologies for addressing the diverse, largely interoperable and multilingual metadata available for open datasets. This will help us to analyse the harvested metadata consistently and understand open datasets better.
In this context, we will concentrate on the following: metadata schemas (e.g. DC, CKAN, INSPIRE, ISO), vocabularies (e.g. GEMET), thematic domains, code lists (e.g. EuroStat), publisher taxonomies (e.g. public bodies, publisher roles), licensing (e.g. local vs. international licenses). Our work will be based exclusively on open standards, with emphasis on those formally adopted by the European Commission (e.g. INSPIRE, DC, DCAT).
In the OpenDataMonitor project we will adopt CKAN as the underlying software architecture within which all our software contributions will be integrated as plug-ins. This will help make sure the platform is available to a wide population. The OpenDataMonitor will allow a variety of analytical functions such as:
- comparing public bodies (national/local), indicating changes and updates of catalogues
- showing quality of meta data
- sorting available catalogues for specific thematic domains;
- showing licensing information;
- making data available in specific open formats;
- diverging among available open data of EU member states;
- showing the percentage of population (and SIGs) with access to purposeful data;
- automatic scoring to indicate the level of openness.
All particular created plugins and components will be combined in the OpenDataMonitor Demonstration Platform. The Monitoring Sites hold the main site (www.opendatamonitor.eu) which provides visualisations on European level and for different catalogs. Further aggregated sites could be integrated in already existing web instances like www.publicdata.eu. The Monitoring Sites allow public access to our dashboards, with key figures to analyse/visualise open data repositories. The OpenDataMonitor Demonstration Platform will go along with detailed documentations, manuals, tutorials, showcases and publications, which will help the open data community to understand, use and build on the OpenDataMonitor. According to our dissemination strategy and to enforce the impact of the project, awareness will be raised and information will be shared via social media and other web channels.
