Social innovation as an emerging policy topic Case: opening of public data

Dr. Jari Kuusisto September 16, 2011 Barcelona

Jari Kuusisto

Presentation outline
Introduction
Social innovation and the case of open public data

Policy change opening up the public data and encouraging its wider use
EU level changes National level changes, case Finland

Open public transport data

Massachusetts Department of Transportation Open MassDOT data

Lessons so far
Public policy and open data access

Jari Kuusisto

Broadening the innovation agenda

Social innovation by citizens and organizations is essential for tackling complex societal problems (Stiglitz 2008).
Addressing the challenges faced by the EU requires social innovation at different levels

New innovation actors, activities and domain areas

ACTORS: Public sector, citizens, consumers, user groups and user communities as active partners DOMAIN: Public services renewal through innovation ACTIVITIES: user innovation and open innovation activities

Jari Kuusisto

Society is under pressure for change

Most EU countries are wealthier than ever but the perception is that they cannot sustain the existing level of public services
Global competition mainly from Asian countries and hollowing out of the economies of the European countries. Production re-location. Markets as ideological driver, everyone is entrepreneur rather than employee Some service become increasingly expensive, e.g. developing healthcare and new type of treatments Demographics, growing number of elderly people

Social innovation allows shift in public services

New actors, citizens, third sector, businesses take over some service elements New types of services and delivery methods increase effectiveness New type of value creation for citizes Innovative use of technologies and processes
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Opening of public data

Public sector collects and builds huge amount of data This data covers most activities and actors in the society The value of such data is significant but largely untapped asset Drivers of change towards better utilization of public data
Technology enables cost effective data collection, storage, transfer and analysis New APPS tools can be effective and accessible to large number of citizens Successful examples of applications based on open access to public data E.g. weather services have developed into multi million dollar global business Pressure to renew public services creates a momentum for more effective use of public sector data ref. previous dia 3

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Opening of public data

Barriers to change towards more open public data
Mindset change is needed No one should make money out of data collected with tax payers money Data security problems are prohibitive for opening of the data Open access creates unwanted transparency to public administration Legislation and regulations needs to be developed to allow and encourage wider utilization of public data Lack of experience and good practices in the public sector side

Will there be enough interested parties to make use of public data?

Jari Kuusisto

Domains of social innovation

SOCIN project concept
Empowerment of citizens

Social entrepreneurship

Innovation processes and social innovation

Collective creation and dissemination

Sustainable development
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Public data as an engine of innovation

Citizen Empowerment through open access to public data

Entrepreneurs Creating new / improved services from public data

Innovation processes and social innovation

Citizens and user groups create and disseminate APPS

Sustainable development more attractive and cost effective services

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Policy change Opening up the public data and encouraging its wider use
EU level changes National level legislation and policy actions CASE: FINLAND

Jari Kuusisto

EU PSI Directive -> national policy actions

The Directive on the re-use of public sector information deals with the way public sector bodies should enhance re-use of their information resources (the Directive 2003/98/EC)
Member States had 18 months to transpose the directive into national law, i.e. until 1 July 2005.
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/psi/actions_eu/policy_actions/index_en.htm

Demand and user-driven innovation policy programme in Finland (2010)

Allowing external actors wider access to public sector functions and information pro- vides major opportunities for value creation through user-driven innovation. Only some of the information held by the public sector is confidential in nature. To a large extent, there are no specific reasons why public sector data could not be used and further processed. Information gathered by the public sector can be viewed as part of our national assets, whose value can be increased through user-driven innovation activity.
http://www.tem.fi/index.phtml?l=en&s=2382

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Opening public data in Finland

Data for reuse free of charge
1. Creating the basic infrastructure for open data in Finland 2. Revising the legislation and ensuring national management of the process 3. Making internal practices of the administration support open data 4. Diffusing the benefits of open public sector data 5. Making Finland an international pioneer and enabling the necessary mindset for change
http://www.scribd.com/doc/57392397/Public-Data
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Public data - an introduction to opening the information resources (Poikola, Kola, Hintikka 2010).

Jari Kuusisto

InFi-research project
Indicator development for user innovations 2010-2012 Joint project:
MIT, Prof. Eric von Hippel UN University MERIT, Professorial fellow Fred Gault University of Rotterdam, Professor Jeroen de Jong University of Lappeenranta, Professor Jari Kuusisto

Objective
To develop new statistical indicators for consumer innovation Analysis of existing consumer innovation activities in Finland Analysis of the transfer of consumer innovations to larger markets User groups and user communities as sources of innovation

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APPS4Finland competition 2011

The purpose of this competition is to inspire people to utilise open data and to create interesting applications and visualizations There are four categories in the competition:
Idea Category - Take part in the competition by sharing your ideas of utilising open data. You will help developers find interesting application and visualizing opportunities. Application Category - Take part in the competition with your application which utilises open data. Visualisation Category - Participate in the competition by a visualization of open data, or by an application for data journalists. Data Category looks for competition entries which have made data more publicly available. These entries can include publishing of open data or the editing and transforming data into a form which can be publicly used more easily.
http://www.apps4finland.fi/fi/en

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Open public transport data

Massachusetts Department of Transportation Open MassDOT data by making it available in standard formats

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Open MassDOR data

Harness the power of developers to build interesting and useful applications with our data in standard formats RSS, XML, GTFS, etc. Creates value for both MassDOT AND developers Better service for customers across many platforms Improved mass transport and need for sustainability
Cost pressure on provider side Need to attract more citizens to mass transport Less pollution, better living environment

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New approach
This approach is a smart 21st-century alternative to hiring some consultant who develops inelegant software at exorbitant costs.
MassDOT Developers efforts strive to engage the developer community in a new and different way A focus on allowing developers to shape the direction this effort takes Monthly meeting with developers An open conversation through the MassDOT Developers Google Group Use of Twitter for updates @MassDOTdev
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and the developers swiftly took on the challenge

November 14th The MBTA released a real-time data feed for five bus line, and within
Within one hour a developer integrated the trial data into Google Earth to show the real-time locations of the buses Within two days a developer integrated the trial data into a free, easilyaccessible web page, where T riders can track the buses from any internet-accessible computer Within one week a developer built a desktop application that displays the countdown information for the riders favorite stop Within two weeks a developer built a simple web application that displays the bus countdown information without the need for a map Within one month a developer built an LED sign that shows real-time bus countdown information on Street Within five weeks a developer built iPhone and Android apps that integrate the real-time trial data. The apps cost just 99 cents
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and new apps keep coming

http://www.massdotdevelopersconference09.com/applications/realtime
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Within one year

Within one year we can make MBTA bus location information as easy to find as the current temperature Open weather information has already created a new industry
E.g. tailoring of weather reports offers almost endless business opportunities Local golf weather Planning our barbecue etc. etc. Consumers have choice and constantly improving services

http://www.mass.gov/eot/developers
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Next step Massachusetts Open Data Initiative

Open access to public data
Economic Data Education Data Energy Data Environmental Data Financial Data Geographic Data Health Data Housing Data Licensing Data Municipal Data Population Data Public Safety Data Technology Data Transportation Data

https://wiki.state.ma.us/confluence/display/data/Open+Data+Initiative+Home

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Lessons so far

Social innovation in its many forms holds great potential At the same time though..

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Framework conditions need development

Slow legislation and its implementation within the EU
In Finland it took 5 years from Directive to active policy programme Now competitions and first APPS arriving on the markets 2010-11

Lightning fast developers

Once data was opened first new APPS within one hour

Public sector squeezes the power of open data and social innovation

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