In one of many fruitful discussions and meetings with Athanasios K. Thanopoulos, President of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) and future Deputy Director-General of Eurostat, Open Knowledge Foundation Greece (OKFNGreece) presented the Open Data Space platform, exchanged views on the various data availability policies and focused on a scenario for the exploitation of the platform by ELSTAT.
The OKFNGreece members aimed to utilize the extensive knowledge and experience of the first Greek citizen to take up a position at the highest level of Eurostat management, regarding statistics and economic policy issues. For this reason, they planned and implemented a bilateral meeting, in which they highlighted the capabilities of the Open Data Space platform (ODS). The ODS is an access point of open data for the development of smart applications (apps) for the environment, society, science, technology, energy, health, transport and the economy. The discussion around the prospects of utilizing the platform’s services as a point of collection, organization, retrieval and distribution of open data was of particular interest. While emphasis was placed on the possibility of formulating and negotiating data distribution policies and terms of use between suppliers and consumers.
After the end of the meeting, Mr. Thanopoulos, when asked about the usefulness of ODS, stated characteristically “I think it was very enlightening, informative and detailed, regarding the issue at hand. What interests us, as a statistical service, is the automation and acceleration of the dissemination processes of statistical products, especially when it comes to user requests with specific characteristics, which may be standardizable and at the end of the day can be processed by machines”.
Furthermore, in response to a question about the procedures and data provision policies proposed by the platform, he stated, “Given that today these procedures last about 2 months and according to what I saw today, I estimate that the ODS policies can complete these procedures in less than 15 days.”
Finally, Mr. Thanopoulos, speaking about possible points of improvement of the platform, emphasized that “It is a very good yeast, for what I believe and have been talking about very often lately, regarding the future of the dissemination of statistical information and data in general. This is the operation of marketplaces, where statistical services will be contributors, will provide data and conditions under which this data can be used. This platform could serve as the prototype of these marketplaces. The fact that both the content of the information provided by a statistical service or by a private company, as well as the policy under which this information can be used or can be exploited in the future, can be described in a standardized way… The improvement therefore comes precisely from this process.”
Discover more about the platform here: https://tds.okfn.gr/
*The Open Data Space platform was developed within the framework of the European Upcast Project, with the aim of strengthening the search for technological solutions to improve the lives of citizens in modern cities.