Information generated and collected by public sector entities represents a veritable minefield; it might make a much greater contribution to EU economies and societies, if current legal barriers to access and re-use were removed. The LAPSI project dealt both with established Public Sector Information (PSI) areas (geographic, land register data, etc.) as well as novel areas (cultural data from archives, libraries, scientific information, etc.) and environmental figures and data sets. Legal barriers to access and re-use and strategies to overcome them were considered from the perspectives of information, IP, privacy and competition law; in addition, the project dealt with administrative, environmental law and public procurement rules.
The project brought together partners belonging to research institutions, which have made substantial contributions in the relevant fields, as well as a number of crucial stakeholders, from a large number of EU jurisdictions.
The debate was organised around four focal points:
- implementation and deployment issues;
- design of the incentives for public bodies and private players, both in the for-profit and non-profit sectors, to make available and, respectively, to re-use public data;
- special consideration of infra- and supra-national levels of access and re-use policies and practices, intended to enlist the dynamic forces of regulatory competition and to bring out the full potential of cross-border, EU-wide services; and,
- strategic vision and occasions for out-of-the box thinking for the next steps ahead in policy making.
The discussion was organised around cycles of seminars and conferences intended to foster debate among the researches and players in the field. These meetings were complemented by dissemination exercises linked to it (primers) and awareness-raising events and awards.
Policy Context
The LAPSI network was built on the COMMUNIA experience, which was coordinated by POLITO/Nexa Centre for Internet & Society, acting as coordinator of the LAPSI proposal; it further forged links with European projects of reference such as ePSIplatform, Europeana, ENGAGE and set up a working relationship with the Open Knowledge Foundation, Creative Commons, as well as with nationally relevant projects such as ASITA (Italy), APORTA and AVANZA (Spain) and others.
The idea underlying this approach was that the LAPSI network followed up the PSI-related discussion structured and organised by other resources, in particular by striving to add to the state of the art, the coverage of the aspects which were not yet been considered, particularly in the field of PSI implementation and deployment, including through licenses, adding to the debate major issues such as the cross-border character of PSI re-use, related business models and the pricing issues.
Description of target users and groups
The LAPSI network brought together partners who mainly belong to leading research institutions which in the recent past have made substantial contributions in the relevant fields of PSI re-use, as well as a number of crucial stakeholders, from a large number of European jurisdictions (13). More specifically, the Network was composed of 20 partners: researchers and academics specialised in law or economics, as well as stakeholders specialised in law or in the technical fields.
Description of the way to implement the initiative
The LAPSI Network covered a substantial part of the European Union Member States. Through the existence of an Advisory Board it also built strategic relationships with third countries such as the United States and Switzerland, where similar policy discussions on the above topics were ongoing and had in some regards generated especially satisfactory outcomes. Even though LAPSI gave priority to the legal dimension, its Advisory Board was designed in such a way as to take into account cutting-edge experience in advanced specialised fields, such as access and re-use of geographical data.
As a part of the CIP-ICT PSP program, the LAPSI project contributed directly to the i2010 strategy of the European Union. The LAPSI project built a network of organisations intended to become the main European point of reference for deployment and implementation as well as high-level policy discussion and strategic action on legal issues related to the PSI.
The LAPSI network addressed areas, with a public interest and which would develop slowly if left only to the current incentives structure of monopolistic operators; state-of-the-art evidence has repeatedly shown that the PSI has difficulties thriving in today's frame, which leads to excessive limits to PSI re-use, to the detriment of exploitation of common (cultural) resources; after a clear understanding of the issues involved, public action is therefore necessary.
Technology solution
The LAPSI project used open source software tools (website and wiki page) and encouraged the use of open standards. The use of open source, formats and standards should encourage technical interoperability. The analysis of licenses encouraging re-use had implications in terms of legal interoperability as well. The Network did not neglect the aspects related to semantic and organisational interoperability.
Technology choice: Mainly (or only) open standards, Open source softwareMain results, benefits and impacts
The Network produced a set of policy recommendations, position papers and conceptual frameworks that should help interested stakeholders in their access and re-use policies and practices; they should encourage research to explore some areas further and should support the EC in the review process of Directive 2003/98/EC.
As to the return on investment, it is worth mentioning that the skills of each LAPSI partner’s research team could benefit from the LAPSI work. The LAPSI project also gave the opportunity to outside researchers who got in contact with the Network to start deepen the analysis on several aspects of PSI. Additionally, the LAPSI project enabled some of the LAPSI partners and in particular the LAPSI Coordinator to fulfill its institutional mandate of contributing to public policy making. Finally, the LAPSI Project made the LAPSI partners more visible and it raises the awareness of both the potential and the challenges of PSI re-use and open data.
Return on investment
Return on investment: Not applicable / Not availableTrack record of sharing
Every LAPSI output (position papers, policy recommendations, conceptual frameworks) is available on the LAPSI website under an open license. The position papers and some policy recommendations were also published (or are going to be published) in scientific journals.
Lessons learnt
The primary aim of the LAPSI network was to make PSI in Europe more accessible, re-usable and exploitable, namely through an analytical work and the diffusion of information in areas of public interest at Community level; in particular the dissemination under ‘sharing’ licensing models should be apt to contribute to the dissemination of PSI information throughout the Community and beyond.
This approach was intended to produce as a result a general enrichment of the players involved - the participants of the network and those who will be reached by the dissemination efforts - as well as, and most importantly, a set of policy documents that should help all the stakeholders at all levels to approach the issues posed by PSI in a more effective and forward looking way.
1. The LAPSI project is about re-use. However, there is no re-use without access.
2. Interoperability is one of the key-words for enabling re-use. It has to be interpreted in a technical, legal, semantic and organisational way.
3. The research findings have to be broadly disseminated within the stakeholders’ community in order to be useful.
The feedback from the interested parties is crucial for improving the quality of these results.
Scope: Cross-border, Local (city or municipality), National, Pan-European, Regional (sub-national)