General points
Digital public services are increasingly involving collaborations with non-governmental actors and integration of data from external sources. Typical examples are smart city applications, digital twins or in data driven ecosystems where data is combined and data flows exist between governmental and non-governmental actors. Google Maps offers comprehensive mapping globally, has its quality procedures, and offers integration through standard interfaces. OpenStreetmap offers increasingly high-quality mapping information, particularly in urban areas. Developers may be more familiar with either of these products than strategic national mapping products. Even if there is a charge for the external data products, the effort of assembling the necessary data and achieving interoperability may be less with external data sources. All administrations need to consider the total cost of ownership and, sometimes, tactical rather than strategic solutions may offer the best path.
In smart city applications or digital twins of cities, data may be integrated from different sources to support policy or provide services that offer value through innovation. This may include data from externally-owned sensors (e.g. weather monitoring devices), cameras (e.g. security cameras) or other smart devices (e.g. parking space notifications). Buildings data from the construction industry may be integrated in digital twins of the city to help in urban planning and energy efficiency programmes. Data ecosystems exist in the road transport where governmental actors (e.g. road authorities, traffic managers, police services) and non-governmental actors (e.g. vehicle manufacturers, navigation system providers, construction companies and insurance companies) all exchange data to support the safe and efficient operation of the road transport network.
The distributed data management requirements of these applications typically involve the use of microservices and APIs (including Context Brokers). Interoperability is vital but the effort (and cost) involved in managing interoperability is minimised by the use of these technologies. This type of distributed approach also enables new capabilities or fixes to problems to be introduced into the ‘system’ in relatively straightforward ways (i.e. with incremental business cases).
The benefits of integrating data from external sources can be of many types. Innovation and effectiveness benefits apply with the new business models and service possibilities. Cost savings and total cost of ownership may arise from distributing the ‘public task’, and social and environmental benefits may be possible through fuel saving and energy saving measures.
Case studies
The Urban Platform in Guimarães (Best Practice #33) exhibits may of the aspects described above. It includes parking and fix-my-street types of applications, capabilities to help transport planners and traffic managers and integration of operational and statistical practices to support monitoring of sustainable development gaols (SDGs). Data is integrated from governmental and non-governmental sources, including the use of externally-sourced mapping to provide the optimum solution for the city area.
Navigation system providers, such as TomTom and Here, are highly integrated into international road transport activities. They support route planning within and across borders (managing the interoperability aspects to support users), provide automation in vehicles (supporting transport policies) and provide operational data to governmental traffic managers to support transport policy (e.g. speed limits and safety restrictions) and help in managing the operation of the road network (e.g. dealing with traffic congestion).