Linked Open Data in Schleswig-Holstein (DE0057)

What is the public problem that the commitment will address? Land Schleswig-Holstein has made great strides in the area of open government data in recent years, which are of interest and relevance to the public and to business. A large quantity of information and numerous data sets have been generated and published. The challenge to be addressed is that, although many of those data have already been published in machine-readable form, they have none or not enough of the properties required to be found swiftly and linked to other data. Civil society, researchers and members of the busi- ness community are often unable to find open data, as the data concerned are not con- nected up.

What is the commitment? Schleswig-Holstein will take technical and organisational steps to make publicly available data and information accessible in the linked open data (LOD) format in future. LOD means that the data are described in such a way that they can be cross-referenced. To that end, the metadata and data are prepared using the Resource Description Framework (RDF) – auto- matically, using the information already available on the open data portal – and made accessible to the public via a “SPARQL endpoint”. SPARQL is a query language for content in RDF data sets, which can be used to express all kinds of queries.

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem? Transforming the open data into linked open data will enable civil society, researchers and companies to find them more easily, connect them up and use them intelligently, without depending on commercial providers. Data gathered and published by the Land authorities will be uniformly identified using the RDF and easily searched and combined using SPARQL. One example of use will be the budget data gained in commitment 3.13. In collaboration with the Berlin Senate Department for Finance, the necessary semantics for linked open budget data will be worked out so that the data sets can “speak” to one another.

Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? The availability and improved usability of Land open government data will strengthen the transparency of government activities, empower the public, help make information access- ible to a modern standard and free of charge, and generate new potential for value creation for businesses in the evolving data economy.

Additional information: Schleswig-Holstein open data portal (in German): opendata.schleswig-holstein.de Schleswig-Holstein Open Data Act (in German): http://www.gesetze-rechtsprechung.sh.juris.de/ perma?a=OpenDataG_SH

Milestone activity with a verifiable deliverable | Start date - Implementation by

Provision of a triplestore with a SPARQL endpoint | 4th quarter of 2023 - 1st quarter of 2024

Agreement of semantics for budget data with Land Berlin | 1st quarter of 2024 - 3rd quarter of 2024

Provision of budget data as LOD | 1st quarter of 2024 - 3rd quarter of 2024

Provision of other open data as LOD | 4th quarter of 2023 - 2nd quarter of 2025

Action Plan Review

Commitment 14. Publicly available data as linked open data

Commitments 12–14: Linked Open Data

Berlin Senate Department for Finance (Commitment 12) and State Chancellery of Land Schleswig-Holstein (Commitments 13 and 14)

For a complete description of the commitments included in this cluster, see Commitments 12, 13, and 14 in Germany’s 2023–2025 national action plan: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Germany_Action-Plan_2023-2025_June_EN.pdf.

Context and objectives

Linked open data (LOD) forms the foundation of effective digital government and enables a vast array of new use cases. [103] LOD involves assigning stable Uniform Resource Identifiers to the data and connecting datasets. LOD enables analyses across different datasets, therefore reducing the burden of administrations, academics, and civil society in compiling composite datasets. Germany lags in LOD and open data generally. [104] Open data practices diverge significantly across municipalities. Some larger cities proactively share their data and have created open data portals, but most cities do not. [105] The legal framework surrounding open data also differs between the Länder, but nowhere is disclosure of open data a legal requirement. The latest progress report on open data of the Federal Government (2019) highlights several shortcomings of the open data framework: many administrations are not sharing more data, open data is not integrated early on in changes of technical or organizational procedures, and most administrations not being aware of use cases. [106] Open data has been a part of Germany's previous OGP action plans, but civil society has criticized the lack of an overarching strategy.

The three commitments of this cluster will advance LOD within Schleswig-Holstein and Berlin. Schleswig-Holstein will work towards sharing all their data as LOD (Commitment 14) and develop a visualization tool for budget data in cooperation with Berlin (Commitment 13). To that end, both Länder will jointly develop the semantics to share their budget data as LOD. This means developing a standardized terminology to describe the data to enable linkage between datasets. Berlin will share their budget data as LOD and document its experience of linking budget data and experience sharing with Schleswig-Holstein (Commitment 12). This could be seen as a first step towards a wider adoption of LOD, which is also one of the goals of Berlin’s open data strategy passed in 2023. [107] Both Länder worked with civil society to develop the activities under their respective commitments before their inclusion in the action plan. [108] Berlin has also worked with civil society in developing their recent data strategy. [109] Schleswig-Holstein hosted data dialogues (“Datendialoge”) to identify the priorities of academia, civil society, and businesses in developing their approach to open data. In both cases, stakeholders identified LOD as a priority. Cooperation between Schleswig-Holstein and Berlin emerged out of personal contact between the two implementing officers, established by a member of civil society.

Potential for results: Substantial

LOD can enable new standards of digital government in Germany and set the foundations for cooperation between civil society and public administration. Effective open government in Germany requires cooperation at the subnational level to create workable solutions for the use of data at scale. The commitments were clustered, as they constitute clear steps in the direction of wider LOD use and provide a leading example of cross-Länder cooperation. Taken as a whole, this cluster has substantial potential for results. Schleswig-Holstein sets an ambitious target of publishing all their data sets as LOD. This commitment will lead to a sustained increase in the accessibility and reusability of open data, backed by the additional goals of coordinating their release of budget data with Berlin and ensuring usability through a data visualization tool. The benefits of LOD on a larger scale hinge on the adoption of common terminologies to enable linking data sets. The cooperation between Schleswig-Holstein and Berlin could serve as an example for Länder.

Good data management enables administrations to work efficiently in an evidence-based manner. [110] At the same time, sharing open government data in usable formats makes it easier for citizens to understand administrative practices and hold governments accountable. As the commitments for Schleswig-Holstein promise to work towards linking all their data sets, there are significant gains expected in digital government. The expected cooperation with municipalities could also be important. While cooperation will be voluntary, Schleswig-Holstein provides the technical infrastructure (“Kommunales Informationssystem”) which enables local administrations to conduct new analyses on their data and provide use cases. This is important because many administrations are unaware of use cases for their data outside the administration [111] and open data is often perceived as an additional burden.

For Berlin, the commitment mainly serves as a pilot for LOD. The potential of this commitment hinges on its integration into a wider strategy towards LOD. Budget data as LOD, especially in a form interoperable with Schleswig-Holstein’s data, increases the accessibility and reusability of open data within one important area. More substantial improvements in open data in Berlin will require learning from this case and expanding it to other areas. The commitment text promises that the experience will be documented and serve as examples for a future expansion of LOD. The milestones of this commitment however do not specify the process or goals of this expansion, limiting the potential for results of this commitment.

Opportunities, challenges, and recommendations during implementation

The main challenges for open data are lack of knowledge and resources, fragmented approaches between the Länder and lack of political rewards for projects outside of public attention like the effective digitalization of administrative practice. To be effective, Länder need to cooperate and commit to long-term strategic plans and build competences. The commitments of this cluster tackle several of these challenges and have a clear potential to act as role models for future improvements in LOD in Germany. In future OGP action plans, other Länder could include more commitments for ambitious open data reforms like the proposals by Schleswig-Holstein. The IRM recommends the following steps: