OPEN DATA 

EIF Dinner Debate

Date: Tuesday 24 January 2012
Time: 20.00-22.00
Venue: Private Salon, Members Restaurant, European Parliament in Brussels (see map)

“Just as the supply of basic physical infrastructure – power, transport, telecommunications – is essential to the traditional economy, so the supply of basic information ‘infrastructure’ – core datasets in the major areas of geography, weather, transport etc. – is essential to the ‘information’ economy.”

(Source: Access to public sector information:  law, technology & policy, Sydney university press, 2010)

In a very short timeframe, the re-use of Public Sector Information (PSI) - also known as “open data” - has become a high priority policy and economic issue in EU. On the one hand, the number of applications based on the use of PSI is booming in many sectors and some estimate the market could reach 140billions€/year. On the other hand, the re-use of PSI does raise a series of complex - and often intricate - issues in terms of business models, legal framework, technical roadmap (interoperability) and consumer protection. How to best address and combine those variables to unleash the economic and social potential of open data?

In December 2011, the Commission presented an open data package including a proposal for a revision of the PSI Directive. So the time is right for EIF to get insights both from policy makers and practitioners on this phenomenon that transforms the way public information is produced, processed, consumed and all its potential implications within EU27 and beyond.

Programme

Welcome and introduction:

Marietje Schaake MEP and EIF Governor 

Speakers:

Marcus Dapp, IT strategist for the city government of Munich and board member OKF Germany at Open Knowledge Foundation.

Richard Swetenham, European Commission, Head of Unit - Access to Information (E4) DG Information Society.

Willem van Valkenburg, director of Delft University of Technology OpenCourseWare, project manager of OpenCourseWare Europe and assistant to the President of OpenCourseWare Consortium.