Executive summary (del. G.P. No 2449/15)
The data of public administrations are an important asset for the communities produced by the public sector. This information asset has a high social value, as the re-use of these data enables the introduction of digital products and services that can improve the quality and innovation of public services as well as the internal interoperability within the same administration and between different administrations. The increased standardisation, and, consequently, the increased quality of data, can lead to a positive interplay between the various players operating in the local system (public administration, businesses, research and citizens), starting social innovative processes that follow the path traced by Europe 2020 with the aim of stimulating growth, also in terms of what is necessary to the development of a European Digital Single Market [2].
It is a responsibility of the public administration as a whole not to let this asset be wasted, to take care of it and give it value by creating the conditions under which it can be managed efficiently to the benefit of the communities.
The value of public information assets is generated as soon as data are created, as administration proceedings are set in motion in a flow of information organised through IT tools. The more the involved players and the territory will be able to develop a data culture, the more effective the process will be. Data culture is meant here as that set of knowledge and practices producing data according to technical standards and providing useful documentation, in a context of development that goes beyond local boundaries and addresses national and European markets and communities. In short, it is necessary to guarantee high-quality processes in order to provide high-quality data, those which can trigger re-use models answering to the market demand.
The technological development resulting from ever increasing computational abilities and the availability of mobile technologies have changed the expectations of citizens concerning the accessibility of public sector information and has opened up new possibilities of development for previously unknown services.
In order to reach these goals, it is important to define which processes can guarantee the legitimacy, readiness, sustainability and quality of the data provided for re-use, within the national and European framework of development for open data practices. There is a need, hence, to attend to dictionaries, metadata and classification, to set national and European standards and to define criteria guiding the choices of the owners of data, by balancing both legitimacy and the opportunity of economic growth and of an increased efficiency of public administrations.
This document builds on the "National guidelines for the enhancement of public information asset (2014) [3]", updated with the ongoing activities of the AgID workgroups. A productive agreement between the various government levels on this deep change in the public sector is absolutely necessary. As a consequence, the major national guidelines are adopted and specific rules, techniques and organisational procedures are developed appropiately with regards to the regional system, by ensuring at the same time a focus on the practices started by the European Union [4].
The aim to provide an operational tool to build and reiforce public administration practice communities connected to the data culture gathering around the platform dati.trentino.it.
