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Plan for Introducing Open Data and Establishing Institutional
Framework
Jun Youn Kim (Software Policy & Research Institute)
Section 1. Introduction
A. Background
Government organizations hold a massive amount of data, but their use of the data is different depending on a level of national informationization. This report explains Korean cases of open data and relevant institutional framework. In Korea, the Public Information Policy Division of the Ministry of Security and Public Administration takes charge of opening a variety of the country's public information to the public who can use them easily and conveniently, and operates Public Data Portal and Public Information Support Center. The government tries to open more public data to the public through the public data portal in order to achieve the growth of both the country and its people. This section presents the actual conditions of Korean public data openness, and the main issues and policy suggestions related to the operation of the public data portal. The suggestions for Korean public data openness, described in this report, will be used as the framework for providing advices to Bulgaria in terms of the introduction and operation of the relevant system.
B. Main Issues
The government conscious of new issues about public data openness set up a new strategy of open data. The new issues are presented as follows:
First, there is a lack of open data system and the perception of public data openness. Also, the actual conditions of public data are not investigated enough in the government-wide dimension, and the poor open data system becomes an obstacle to more openness. Moreover, given the low perception and low consensus of the potential value of public data and of the value and necessity of openness, it is very passive to open public data. To address the issue, it is necessary to establish and perform open data roadmap in the government-wide dimension, provide awareness education, and introduce an open data incentive system
2 in order to expand open data actively. Secondly, there are still problems with stable public data openness, use infrastructure, integrated management system of open data, support organizations and functions for opening and use. That is because there is a lack of open format and quality of public data, and of access and use infrastructure for stable data use. Therefore, it is needed to establish and operate the organization for comprehensive management of public data and its support, and thereby manage and improve the overall circumstances and quality for better open data. Thirdly, the eco-system of open data is feeble, and there is a lack of one-stop start-up business support program to lead creative ideas based on public data into a business. That is because there are weak start-up growth circumstances, including a few success cases of public data based start-up business and poor market creation. Therefore, it is necessary to achieve the government-the private sector cooperation to easily make a start-up environment, create a market early, and expand the public data based start-up eco-system.
C. Research Scope
This research explains the cases of domestic open data and suggests open data strategy, procedure, and roadmap for Bulgaria according to the country's local status. Therefore, mainly it analyzes domestic cases, draws suggestions, and then suggests a strategy reflecting Bulgaria's current status.
In terms of research methodology, this study employs benchmarking of best practices. Based on Korean best practices, it analyzes cases and make strategic suggestions, some of which will be chosen by the Bulgarian government. Although local status is not completely analyzed in strategic aspects, overseas cases are analyzed in detail and the analysis results are offered. With regard to AS-IS and TO-BE methodologies which are generally used for the introduction of informationization business, there is no data about open data for AS-IS analysis in Bulgaria. In this sense, a field survey seems likely to get useless. Also, there is an suggestion of the Bulgarian government that Korean cases need to be analyzed in detail.
Based on the Bulgarian government's Question Set, the analysis report about Korean public data was written in the way of answering the questions. In other words, the report was described in the direction of meeting the requirements of the country's relevant ministries and maximizing their satisfaction. With regard to suggestions, after receiving the intermediate report about Bulgaria's public data status and making discussion, this researcher drew some suggestions of the Korean government's support policies by focusing on governance, strategic areas, and promotion, rather than on laws and systems. In particular, the success cases and the failure cases which the Bulgarian government were highly interested in were analyzed.
According to the Bulgarian government's requests, section 1 of this report presents the outline of this research; section 2 analyzes Bulgaria's current status on the basis of the opinions made by an expert from the Bulgarian government; section 3 explains the current status and strategy of the Korean government's open data; in the last section of conclusion, based on the Korean government's strategy, some suggestions are made for the Bulgarian government.
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A. Country Information in General
Bulgaria has a strategic location in the center of Southeastern Europe and the main roads of
Europe to the Middle East and Asia pass through it. The country provides access to the
following markets:
◦
South-East Europe
–
a 122 million inhabitant, high growth mark;et
◦
EU – Bulgaria offers the lowest cost , zero tariff access to a 500 million inhabitant market
◦
CIS, Middle East and North Africa
Bulgaria offers a combination of macroeconomic stability and incentives for doing business:
◦
Stable parliamentary democracy;
◦
EU, NATO and WTO member;
◦
Bulgaria’s currency is fixed to the Euro under a currency board arrangement;
◦
Lowest tax rate and one of the lowest labor costs in the EU
The country’s GDP currently stands at around 40 bln. euro and despite the effects of the world
economic crisis it has recorded only 1 year of negative growth (2009) over the past decade.
During the last several years the rate of real GDP growth has usually been above the EU
average, but still it has been considerably lower than the pre-crisis levels.
Source: Bulgarian National Bank
In 2013 the net FDI as a % of GDP reached a level of around 3%, which is still a long way
away from the peaks of 2007 and 2008, but is considerably above some other EU Member
States. The annual inflation rate has remained pretty much stable after the crisis and in 2013 it
stands at 0.4%. Unemployment currently stands at 11.4% (second quarter of 2014, according
to the NSI) and youth unemployment is among the highest in the EU. Bulgaria is one of the
countries with the best government debt to GDP ratios in the EU – 18.9% (2013), but over the
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past several years the debt has gradually increased due to budget deficits. The country has an
investment rating from all three major credit rating agencies.
The population of Bulgaria is 7 245 677 (2013) and 61.8% of the population is of working age.
About 60% of the working age population (25-64 years) speaks at least one foreign language
and approximately 80% has secondary or higher education. Traditionally over the past several
years ICT is one of the highest growth sectors of the economy, in which Bulgaria has several
strategic advantages over the rest of the EU member states – qualified work force, considerably
low labor costs, investment incentives and very low tax rates.
This, together with government support for the development of the open data initiative, creates
the necessary conditions for implementing this policy, with the goal of achieving higher
transparency, increasing public trust in the institutions, generating economic growth and
creating new jobs through the development of various applications and other tools. Due to
Bulgaria’s late start in this field it can avail itself of the experience of other countries that have
already accumulated several years of practical experience in the implementation of open data
and thus use some of the solutions and models developed there. The transfer of best practices
and know-how can help the country leapfrog and close the gap to the leaders faster.
B. ICT Environment
UN E-government Development Index
There is a drastic lag behind the global trends in the development of e-government in the period
2003-2014 in Bulgaria. The rank of the country fell more than twice (from 35th to 73rd place,
according to UN statistics) for that period. Technological backwardness of e-government in the
Republic of Bulgaria and the multiple investments in the same or similar ICT networks,
systems and solutions, as well as the lack of adequate and timely investment in cloud
technologies, modern IT terminals, IT specialists and workshops lead to tangible technological
lag and risk jeopardizing the sustainable development of e-government in the Republic of
Bulgaria.
According to the UN E-government Development Index Bulgaria is currently ranked 73rd in
the world, with a total score of 0.5421. This is way below the EU average of 0.7300 and the
regional average score of 0.6936, but a little over the world average - 0.4712. Breaking down
the total score into its 3 main components it is obvious that the biggest challenge for Bulgaria
is in the field of online services. The combined score for the Online Service Component is
0.2362. It measures the percentage of available online services in accordance with the 4 stages
of development. For Bulgaria the numbers are as follows: stage 1 – 59 %; stage 2 – 30%; stage
3 – 0% and stage 4 – 15%. This means that the country has still a long way to go in order to
catch up with the best countries in the world in this respect.
A little bit better is the country’s performance in the Telecommunications Infrastructure
Component, where the aggregate score for Bulgaria is 0.5941. The sub-criteria, included in this
component show the following scores:
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Fixed telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants - 30.95;
-
Mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants - 148.13;
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Fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants - 17.94;
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Wireless broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants - 42.11
The best component for Bulgaria is the Human Capital Component with a combined score of
0.7960. The country has an excellent adult literacy percentage of 98.35%, the gross enrolment
ration is 79.87% and the expected years of schooling – 13.98.
This means that the bulk of the efforts for improvement should be concentrated towards the
first component, which targets the available online services.
Current State and Challenges
In 2002 the Council of Ministers (CM) began documenting the planned national development
of e-government in the Republic of Bulgaria. The insufficient focus and understanding of the
needs and benefits of a developed (according to global indicators) e-Government is due to the
absence of a strong centralized coordinated approach to e-government in the Republic of
Bulgaria. Despite the planned steps and actions made over the past decade there is a lack of
constant political focus, continuity and responsibility for the development of e-government in
the Republic of Bulgaria.
Given the partial and non-centralized development of the e-government in the Republic of
Bulgaria the benefits for the administration (state, regional and municipal), businesses, citizens
and society in general are insignificant, with some exceptions in administrations such as the
National Revenue Agency, the National Customs Agency, the National Statistical Institute and
the Ministry of Finance.
The existing regulatory framework in the field of e-governance includes:
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E-Governance Act - regulates the activities of the administrative authorities in working
with electronic documents, the provision of public services electronically and the
exchange of electronic documents between the administrative authorities.
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Electronic Document and Electronic Signature Act - regulates the electronic document,
electronic signature and terms and conditions for the provision of certification services.
-
Other relevant acts - Commercial Register Act, Electronic Commerce Act, Act on the
Activities of Provision of Services, Spatial Data Access Act, Ordinance on the
electronic administrative services, Ordinance on the registers of information objects
and e-services, Ordinance on the requirements for the unified environment for the
exchange of electronic documents, Ordinance on the general requirements for
interoperability and information security, Ordinance on electronic signature certificates
in the administration, Ordinance on the internal flow of electronic documents and paper
documents at the administrations, Instructions for maintenance, storage and access to
the Register of Registers and Data and etc.
The existing legislation regulates, but does not facilitate the development of e-government,
because the existing legal framework establishes the requirements for electronization of
existing "paper working processes". It does not address sufficiently the methodology for
re-engineering of the existing work processes in the administration. Some of the laws and/or
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regulations are contradictory and inapplicable without practical changes, which must be tested
for compatibility with the models and decisions that are proposed before they are put forward
and adopted. Currently there is a working group under the MTITC, tasked with amending the
E-Governance Act in order to bring it up to date with the evolution of the ideas and vision for
e-government development, which were embodied in the Strategy for the Development of
E-government in Bulgaria 2014-2020. A road map for the implementation of the strategic
document was also elaborated, which is now being amended as well. All this comes to show
the lack of clear vision and continuity in the development of e-governance in Bulgaria.
Operational incompatibility and fragmentation still prevail in the administration. This is largely
due to the unsustainable and decentralized approach to the development of e-government. The
inadequate operational state of the e-government in Bulgaria is not only an internal problem
for the country but also for our commitments for interoperability with electronic systems in the
EU and beyond. Some key investments made by the administration on ICT solutions do not
work and / or do not produce added value due to lack of operational and technological
interoperability. Some of the most important projects are often delayed due to the requirements
of the public procurement regulations in Bulgaria. Others are not efficient because various
administrations work in silos and put into practice their own projects for developing IT
solutions, instead of implementing one project which will provide a shared solution for the
whole administration. This leads to overlapping, inefficient use of the resources and
implementation of different IT solutions in the different administrations, which afterwards lead
to difficulties in terms of interoperability.
Organizational Structure
E-governance is a horizontal policy, the central role in the implementation of which is given to
the Minister of Transport, Information Technologies and Communications. Implementation of
e-governance as a national priority requires active coordination and interaction with the
structures of the system of the central as well as the regional and municipal administrations.
Under the MTITC there is also the ECNIS - Executive Agency “Electronic Communication
Networks and Information Systems”, which has been in charge of the development and
implementation of some EU and state budget funded projects and initiatives in the field of
e-government. The successful model of governance of this policy under the principles of public
administration reform, suggests centralized coordination of planning and implementation of
general and sectoral strategies in the field of e-government. Therefore, the Council of Ministers
expanded the members of the Council for electronic governance (CEG) to include
representatives from the highest political level. Thus, a system to improve inter-agency
coordination of policy support, support for MTITC and the line ministries, responsible for the
implementation of e-governance was created, but the results from its effectiveness are yet to
be seen.
To support the work of the CEG on an operational level, a permanent working group was
created - "Electronic government" (PWGEG). Members of the group are representatives from
the line administrations on a central level. A Strategy for the Development of E-governance in
Bulgaria for the period 2014-2020 was adopted by the Council of Ministers. This was
accompanied by a roadmap for its implementation. The Strategy identifies the main objectives
and the respective measures for their implementation. The roadmap lays out specific projects
with estimated budgets, responsible institutions and indicators for measuring the progress.
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Organizational structure for e-governance in Bulgaria
C. Status of e-Government
The general principle in the implementation of the integration platform for e-government is
based on a centralized, service-oriented architecture, which is in turn based on a unified
standard hardware and software infrastructure, with a set of functional subsystems with specific
functions and connections between them.
The infrastructure environment is based on two interconnected sites – Technical Control Centre
for e-Government (TCCEG) "Boyana" in Sofia and Territorial centre of e-Government (TCEG)
"Evksinograd" in Varna. It is a set of interoperable and interchangeable functional elements
the relations between which form a whole part with input and output interfaces, a common plan,
uniform targets, specific constraints (resources and space - time), set quality indicators and a
summary measure of effectiveness.
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The purpose of the infrastructure environment is to provide a normal flow of processes between
the interconnected outer AIS (automated information system) and the systems, which are
supported by the e-governance environment with the aim to deliver administrative services on
the internet. The aim is to always get the lowest possibility of decline and uninterrupted work
with adequate productivity of the infrastructure itself.
This requires constant support, monitoring and control of information flows within the network
as well as providing for the efficiency of IT resources among all ministries, units, agencies,
departments, municipalities and other providers of administrative services. The main
components of the integration platform of e-governance implemented so far are:
1.
Unified portal for access to electronic administrative
services (UPAEAS) – serves as
an entry point to the services provided by electronic administrative service providers. The
portal contains the following inventory:
- Component for Multiple Use of Input Data – CMUID;
- system for monitoring progress indicators of e-governance at the national and EU level;
- internal portal for questions related to e-governance, complete with news, useful links,
documents, forums and other techniques for cooperative work;
- software component for implementation into websites for two-way communication;
- a centralized system for ensuring decision-making with the participation of citizens and
businesses, in accordance with the democratic principles, which is integrated in the
administrations;
- software system for managing changes and controlling risk in the transition to
e-Government conditioned work.
2.
Unified environment for exchange of e-documents (UEEED)
The UEEED acts as the main integration component in the e-government platform of the
Republic of Bulgaria. Through it are exchanged e-documents in XML format, which
contain unified and formalized data in the request-answer type communication between
target groups in the system. Communication between the AIS and UEEED is achieved
through a communication client (UEEED CC), using SOAP (Simple Object Access
Protocol) messages.
The system for data exchange satisfies the needs of the integration component of the
e-Government with regards to document exchange between administrative information
systems in different administrations. The Unified environment facilitates the link between
the infrastructure`s main components and the registers of the departments and agencies, as
well as the links between departments and agencies.
Up to now in the integration platform of the e-Government, several registers and lists,
defined in the E-governance Act and the respective secondary legislation, have been
implemented such as the Register for electronic services, the Register of information
objects, the Register of registers and data, the Register of standards and etc.
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3.
Environment for automatic data transfer with the central registers - RegiX
The environment for automated data exchange with the registers of the central
administration is defined as a means of facilitating interaction between administrations in
the context of implementing integrated administrative service. The administrative
authorities, people who serve public functions and the organizations, which provide public
services cannot require from citizens or organizations to provide data, which the
administration already has. Instead, they must collect it officially from the primary
administrator of the data. Notification and request for data is automatically done
electronically as an internal electronic administrative service.
4.
Portal for network and information security
The portal (govecert.bg) for network and information security is a public part of the
centralized system for monitoring and managing operational capability and information
security. (OSIS)
5.
Electronic identification
The national eI of a citizen does not act as his/her electronic identity document (ID or
e-passport). It is used only for online identification and authentication of citizens in the
electronic procedures of e-governance (Electronic Administrative Services/EAS). eI is
based on a unique ID EGN/PIN and/or alias which serves the function to identify the
citizen, participating in the processes of e-governance, in a safe and secure manner. With
this taken into consideration and with the goal to guarantee the highest level of personal
data protection in the “E-governance” domain, the national platform for eI identifies
individuals and legal persons in the EAS and the e-services of business. This is done
through an additional unique ID called “sector alias” which is taken from the citizen`s alias
and can be kept by the EAS.
A significant number of active EAS users currently use a qualified electronic signature as
an approved mechanism of online identification and authentication. Implementation of the
system for electronic identification and authentication will enable the separation of the
identification process from the process of signing documents electronically.
With the pilot project developed in 2013, a number of objectives were achieved, but also
a lot of challenges remain. The main objectives are:
- Support of a unified national scheme for electronic identification of citizens in
e-governance through a unique alias identification mechanism, which protects the user`s
personal data. The alias is unique and unchangeable;
- Facilitating the use of national primary identification mechanisms (EGN/PIN and of
Single Identification Code (SIC) Bulstat) in the electronic identification scheme;
- Facilitating the conditions for technical and technological neutrality of the
tools/mechanisms used in the process of electronic identification, including the electronic
ID carrier (smart card, bank card, SIM etc.)
- Support of a nation-wide scheme for electronic identification and accreditation of the
EAS providers;
- Protection of identification data through the use of appropriate instruments in accordance
with approved international and European standards and specifications. The carrier of eI
is not personalized electronically and visually through personal data.
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E-Services
As of May 2013 there are a total of 149 active electronic service offered by the central
administration in Bulgaria, as shown in the figure below.
Apart from the central administrations 55 local administrations also offer a range of e-services.
The most commonly delivered and used services concern information from the Citizen
Registration and Administrative Services Directorate, which is valuable for citizens.
Although
there is an established unified administrative services list, it is not applied. A significant
number of municipal administrations offer essentially the same services with differing names.
Subsequently, although the corresponding legal base is the same, the required documents are
different, the administrative fees collected by the municipal administrations are different and
the time necessary to deliver the service is different.
Challenges
Despite the fact that most of the components of e-governance in Bulgaria have already been
developed thanks to the implementation of various EU funded projects or through state budget
funding the biggest challenge is to put these results to practical use. Unfortunately the lack of
continuity and stability in the field of strategic vision for the development of e-governance in
the country have led to many inefficiencies along the way, a lot of the elements have been
developed independently and the necessary level of interoperability has not always been
ensured effectively. Bulgaria needs to put an end to the silos mentality which still prevails in
the state administration, where every structure is unwilling to work together with the other.
That’s one of the reasons why cloud technologies are not yet well developed in the Bulgarian
administration and why every administration insists on developing its own information system,
buying its own hardware and providing maintenance. This of course leads to higher expenses,
lack of coordination, low level of interoperability of the systems and slow progress in the
development of e-government in general.
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Another big challenge is the current state of the existing registers in Bulgaria – some of them
are still on paper, others in unsuitable electronic formats such as Word for example. In order
to maximize the effects of the services the administrations need to re-engineer the business
processes of the administrative services and to start providing services, adapted to the needs of
the citizens and businesses - in the form of Life and Business Events. The administration also
suffers from the lack of new technologies – some of the computers, servers and etc. were bought
many years ago and don’t correspond anymore to the modern realities and requirements to
allow effective and efficient use. Another problem has to do with the computer literacy of the
Bulgarian civil service – the average age of the administration is between 45 and 50 years and
these people have limited computer literacy, which doesn’t allow them to make good use of
the new technologies in their work. As a result they become resistant to change and don’t
embrace the opportunities offered by the technological innovation. The low salaries in the state
administration compared to the respective positions in the private sector in the field of IT result
in the lack of talented IT experts in the civil service, who could become the necessary agents
of change to develop and introduce the new technologies in the day-to-day work.
If the country is to achieve a significant leap, an integrated, whole-of-government approach to
the development of e-governance should be adopted, with strong political and administrative
involvement, support and strategic vision.
D. Status of Open data
According to the Global Open Data Index: Survey1, Bulgaria occupies the 18th place with a
combined score of 520 points. The ranking is topped by the UK with a combined score of 940
points, followed by Denmark and the USA. The score breakdown by datasets, given below,
shows that the main areas for improvement for Bulgaria include government spending and the
national map (including the land register). On the contrary the country is showing good results
in other areas such as emissions of pollutants, national statistics and election results.
1 http://global.census.okfn.org/
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Organizational Structure
At the moment there is no clear organizational structure in Bulgaria, related to the development
of Open Data. The country is still at an early stage of the implementation of the Open Data
initiative and it is still unclear what would be the most efficient way of coordinating the efforts
of the various ministries and agencies in the country. Most probably the coordinating functions
will be given to one of the existing Consultative Councils – either the Administrative Reform
Council or the Council on E-Governance, which function at the Council of Ministers. The
current policy regarding the administrative development in Bulgaria is to reduce the number of
administrative structures and staff, so the inter-ministerial and inter-agency cooperation in the
field of OD should be ensured within the existing institutional framework, without creating
new structures and increasing the number of staff.
The leading role in terms of the implementation of the OD initiative in Bulgaria, according to
the existing strategic documents is given to the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of
Transport, Information Technologies and Communications. The Council of Ministers is a
central college body of the executive authority of general competence. It coordinates the
activity of the other bodies of the executive power in carrying out unified state policy. The
Ministry of Transport, Information Technologies and Communications through its Directorate
“Information Technologies and E-government” has functions in the fields of elaborating
strategies and projects for the development of e-governance in Bulgaira; developing and
updating the policies and programmes on information security and interoperability of the
information systems; elaborating the state policy in the field of information society and
information technologies and coordinating all other ministries and agencies in the policy
implementation process. Unlike other countries in Bulgaria there are still no open data officers
in the different administrations, responsible for coordinating the efforts in the field of OD and
acting as agents of change.
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Open Data Portal
During the interim government the MTITC commissioned the development of an Open Data
Portal to the NGO Obshtestvo.bg (Society.bg) with the goal of creating a successful smallscale
example of a convenient platform for third party private businesses to operate with open data
supplied by government and local institutions. It would consist of a webbased portal
application where data can be catalogued and presented in a userfriendly way, as well as
accessible by an API that allows computer systems to browse and use it. The project would
also include a small webapplication for demonstration purposes that would combine two
data sources from the data portal and use them to create an appealing user experience.
Ideally, such an open data portal would be able to automatically browse data sources
maintained at institutional level, then collect and organize these datasets into its own storage,
thus providing consistently uptodate information. At the current moment, however, as far as
institutions provide open data, it is not accessible by API and is usually in table format or PDFs
that need to be parsed and imported in the data portal. Future work on this project involves
automating this process and preparing a list of all data source locations across the branches of
the administration, including at local, judiciary and executive level.
Apart from the tight development schedule, certain necessary requirements included
localization in Bulgarian, optimal user experience and easy to use API. In the context of such
requirements and stemming from the belief that software should be reused at minimal public
cost, the chosen platform for the data portal is CKAN. CKAN is among the most widely
adopted platforms for such purposes across the world and, being open source, has some
important benefits – it is easily customized for our specific needs, it has a wide user base and
thus good troubleshooting resources, it is free and it is almost ready to use out of the box, thus
minimizing the time necessary for bringing it up. It is also modular, has important automation
functions and is stable and actively developed. Other benefits of an open source solution
include the possibility to evaluate the technical quality by reviewing its codebase and also
avoiding vendor lockin, should this platform be adopted by the government, A number of
other platforms have been evaluated as well such as DKAN, Junar, Socrate, etc, but CKAN
was found to best suit the current needs. It is built by the Open Knowledge Foundation in
Germany and has an AGPL v3 license which is fully compatible with the requirements. It is
used by many European governments as well as the EC and also the Republic of Korea to
power their own open data portals.
The demo webapplication is Javascript based and uses a simple Node.js server and Google
Maps API which also provide a quick solution with minimum frills and allowed to concentrate
on design and user experience. The technology choice was based on developer expertise and a
strife for the adoption of modern technologies and modern look and feel.
The data portal is already up and running and can be accessed (in Bulgarian only) at
http://data.obshtestvo.bg. It features a few specifically imported datasets, among which are
statistical data, lists of socially important institutions, etc. It provides a REST API to be used
by third party applications. It is in the process of being deployed on an official government
web domain (http://opendata.government.bg). The look and feel of the platform have been
customized, it has been fully translated in Bulgarian, the datasets have been imported and
corrected wherever wrongly formatted or missing data.
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The demo webapp is accessible (also in Bulgarian only) at http://pharmacies.obshtestvo.bg. It
helps users to find nearby pharmacies that have government contracts for subsidized medicines.
The UI allows the users to check if the medicine they are looking for is subsidized, and if so,
directs them to the nearest pharmacies. The app accesses the demo data portal datasets to find
the list of pharmacies and the list of medicines. It allows the user to set different search
parameters such as pharmacy name, search radius and results count. It updates in real time as
the user drags the map for a demonstration of the speed of access to the demo data portal.
Legal Basis
In Bulgaria there is no specific separate law, which regulates the issues, connected with the
implementation of Open Data. We are using the framework created with the adoption of the
Access to Public Information Act. This Act regulates the public relations connected to the right
of access to public information, as well as to the re-use of public sector information. According
to the law public information shall be any information related to the public life in the Republic
of Bulgaria, and enabling the citizens to form their own opinion on the activity of the bodies
obliged according to the law. Under this law the re-use of public sector information shall mean
use for commercial or non-commercial purposes, other than the initial one, for which the said
information has been created. This Act applies to access to the public information created or
kept by the state bodies, their territorial units and the bodies of the local independent
government in the Republic of Bulgaria.
The main principles of provision of public sector information for re-use are:
1. ensuring an opportunity of multiple re-use of public sector information;
2. transparency at providing public sector information;
3. prohibition of discrimination at provision of public sector information;
4. prohibition of restriction of free competition.
According to the Protection of Personal Data Act personal data is any information related to a
natural person, who is identified or may be identified directly or indirectly by an identification
number or though one or more specific indices. The administrator of personal data shall
undertake the necessary technical and organizational measures for the protection of the data
against accidental or illegal destruction or accidental loss, unlawful access, change or
dissemination, as well as against other illegal forms of processing. The Commission for the
Protection of Personal data assists the implementation of the state policy in the field of
protection of personal data.
Other relevant laws in this field include the Protection of Classified Information Act, the
Statistics Act, the Act on the National Archive Fund, Electronic Document and Electronic
Signature Act, the Law on the Electronic Government and etc.
Currently there is an inter-institutional work group at the Ministry of Transport, Information
Technologies and Communications which is tasked to propose amendments to the Access to
Public Information Act in view of transposing the regulations on open data deriving from the
Directive 2013/37/EU of the European Parliament and the Council on the reuse of public sector
information.
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Challenges
Apart from the lack of the necessary legal basis for the introduction of open data, there are
other big challenges that need to be overcome - some of them are the same as the ones that the
development of e-government in Bulgaria meets. The above-mentioned silo mentality of the
administration results in an unwillingness of the different administrative bodies to share their
information and data with the other structures and with the citizens and businesses – they treat
this data as their property. Another challenge, which was already mentioned, concerns the state
of the available registers and data. The administration has a great number of registers, which
are usually maintained in a format that is not suitable for the purposes of open data. A lot of
information is made available on the respective websites, but it is not structured properly, it is
difficult to find it and it is usually in PDF or Word formats, which hinder its efficient re-use.
E. Future Plan of Open data
National Development Programme: Bulgaria 2020
The National Development Programme: Bulgaria 2020, which is the leading strategic
document in Bulgaria, outlines the introduction of Open Data as one of the strategic priorities
for the period until 2020. This issue is placed within the framework of Sub-priority 6.5
“Administration following the principles of open management”. The main idea embodied in
the Program is that the administration should provide support for the introduction and
establishment of practices for publishing on the internet comprehensive information, including
statistical data, which has been gathered or created by means of public funds, including
European ones. This information should be published in such format so as to allow its reuse in
the process of policy elaboration and during the decision-making process. The expected results
of the implemented measures include: increasing the transparency and efficiency of the public
policies and political decisions, increasing the citizens’ awareness and enhancing their role in
the monitoring of the performance of the administration, reducing the possibilities for
corruption. The responsible institutions for these measures are set as the Council of Ministers,
the National Assembly and the Administrative Reform Council.
The main focus is on the expected benefits of transparency and enhanced civil society control
over the administration and the political class. The possible economic impacts of the re-use of
information are not mentioned here, neither is there any specific emphasis on the necessary
steps concerning the introduction of Open Data in Bulgaria, on the technical requirements,
platforms and etc. This makes the measures more focused on the application of the principle
of right of access to information, than on the introduction of open data as a separate priority.
In the first 3-year action plan for the practical implementation of the National Development
Programme: Bulgaria 2020 some more specific objectives and actions in the field of open data
for the period 2014-2016 are envisaged. The first measure envisages the elaboration of
“technical guidelines for the provision of public information in an open format”. In order to
achieve this objective first an analysis should be carried out on the available public information
and the state of readiness for providing this information online in an open format. The second
measure for the period 2014-2016 is set as “introducing a legal obligation for uploading the
16
existing systematized information in an open format”. For the achievement of this objective
common principles and guidelines for the re-use of public information should be elaborated
and the Access to Public Information Act should be amended. The responsible institutions for
carrying out these measures are the Council of Ministers Administration and the Ministry of
Transport, Information Technologies and Communications.
Public Administration Development Strategy 2014-2020
The Public Administration Development Strategy 2014-2020 also focuses on improving the
transparency and openness of the public administration in Bulgaria. Again the main emphasis
is put on the right of access to public information, but this time open data is set as a separate
priority. The Strategy points out that despite significant progress and efforts on increasing
transparency in the administration, the necessary level of openness has not been reached yet.
Bulgaria has joined the Open Government Partnership initiative
2, but the progress in the
implementation of the measures is unsatisfactory. There are no existing common principles and
rules ensuring accessibility for the reuse of the information by the public sector, making it
difficult to re-use the data for commercial or non-commercial purposes. Primary data collected
through public funding, is not always available on the Internet and is not shared with other
administrations. The analysis in the Strategy shows that there are no clearly defined rules and
technical guidelines for providing data in an open format.
Another obstacle to the rational and efficient use of information is the lack of uniform national
standards for the format in which data must be submitted in accordance with the areas and
sectors of public life, economy, education, health, culture, security, etc. The interoperability
standards are not fully complied with and individual administrations develop their own
methodologies and guidelines for provision of and access to information.
The Strategy envisages that by 2020 a comprehensive, coherent and operational system will be
in place for the collection, processing, systematizing, exchange and provision of public
information to the benefit of citizens and businesses, allowing correct and accurate statistics
for making objective and informed management decisions in all areas of governance. Existing
restrictions on free access to information will be gradually reduced. The "open data" approach
will be introduced - the information held by the institutions and the public sector will be
available for reuse for commercial or non-commercial purposes other than the original purpose
for which it has been created. Data will be provided in a format that allows a computer program
to uniquely identify separate data contained in the electronic document as well as their internal
structure. The goal is the public information (including primary data) to be open and accessible
to all natural and legal persons free of charge and to be published in a structured and easy to
process format.
The steps envisaged in the Strategy include also the elaboration of general principles and rules
for the reuse of public-sector information. The strategic document states that “opening the
access to public data will facilitate the participation of the civil society in political life and will
contribute to the development of many policies such as health, education, environment,
transport, etc.” This time unlike in the National Development Programme there is specific
2 Open Government Partnership is an initiative, seeking strong commitments from participating government
institutions to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.
17
emphasis on the economic impact of the initiative – “opportunities will be created for
innovations and a variety of business applications and services that result from analysis and
visualization of data from different sources”.
Following the adoption of the Public Administration Development Strategy 2014-2020 an
Action Plan for the period 2014-2015 was also adopted, which specifies the necessary measures
and steps for achieving the objectives set in the Strategy. The Action Plan includes the measures
from the 3-year action plan under the National Development Programme: Bulgaria 2020
concerning the elaboration of technical guidelines for the provision of public information in an
open format and the introduction of a legal obligation for uploading the existing systematized
information in an open format, but it also specifies 2 additional measures - carrying out a study
on the readiness of the Bulgarian administration for the introduction of open data and pilot
projects for publishing prioritized public information in an open format. The study should be
carried out by the Institute for Public Administration, in cooperation with the Council of
Ministers and it will be financed under the Operational Programme Administrative Capacity –
it should be carried out in the period 2014-2015. The pilot projects should be put to practice
under the guidance of the Ministry of Transport, Information Technologies and
Communications and the Council of Ministers, with the active participation of the respective
administrations and municipalities. The envisaged cost of these projects for the period
2014-2015 is 695,000 BGN (about 350,000 euro).
Challenges
Despite the existence of the above-mentioned strategic documents Bulgaria is yet to develop a
long term road map for the introduction and implementation of open data. This will help to
structure the whole process, give it more stability and predictability, assign specific
responsibilities to the respective administrative bodies, introduce indicators for measuring the
progress, create a thorough project pipeline, calculate the expected costs and ensure the
necessary financing of the initiative. The main objective is to use open data as a stimulus for
creating economic growth in priority sectors of the economy with high growth potential, to set
the basis for increased transparency of administrative work and processes, to create
mechanisms for effective and efficient re-use of the existing data and as a result to facilitate
the interaction between the administration on the one hand and citizens and businesses on the
other, increasing the latter’s level of involvement and trust in public institutions.
Section 3. Open Data Experience and Case Analysis of Korea
A. Background
With the rapid growth of the public data based industry and with the expansion of data convergence, the domestic penetration rates of smartphones and tablet PCs increase and entailing App market grows. The sharp rise in the 'App' industry only within five years after the release of mobile Apps causes fierce competition of relevant businesses, and leads into the increase in the private sector's convergence of public and private data. Nevertheless, relevant markets are not created enough domestically, and there is poor infrastructure to activate the public data based businesses. Moreover, in terms of market opening, the
18 domestic market scale, compared to the development countries', is very narrow.
Opening public information in Korea was triggered by very small events. In December 2009, a high school student developed a smartphone application using bus information of Seoul and Gyeonggido. When the simple serve was greatly popular with citizens, the then Seoul Metropolitan Government forced the service to stop completely. And in February 2010, a smartphone application service using the price information of gas stations was blocked by the Government. The citizens using the services expressed their complaints about the government's actions, and the government recognized the importance of public data opening. Since then, the government began to work to open public information in a full scale.
According to the 2008 report by Korea Information Society Development Institute(KISDI), 61.6% of public information were already used in the private sector without any discussion with the government. Meanwhile, in the perspective of technology and policy, Korean Open Data Project, which has been performed since 2011, has the following backgrounds:
First, in the change into the smart era, the demand for opening raw data of public agencies has been on the rise in various contents areas, including living, culture, and knowledge. As a result, the government tried to actively open its real-time transportation and weather information and customized public data about health and welfare in order to communicate with the public and provide customized service.
Secondly, with the recent emergence of public data as a new economic-growth source, open data are able to produce massive economic and social ripple effects. For the reason, the value of open data is getting larger. In particular, In the low-growth economic structure like Korea's, public data is expected to give a new growth momentum.
Thirdly, public data based business contributes to creating single person venture start-ups and is conducive to App Economy which makes a new economic structure including the mobile App industry.
Therefore, since 2010, the developed countries, including the US, EU, the UK, and France, has established and supported widely 'Open Data Policy'. As such, global countries recognize that public data is the core resource to determine their future national competitiveness, and accelerates public data opening and the private sector's use of the data in order to create economic opportunities based on public data use and innovate public service. The survey report of each country cites KAIST (2012)'s report according to which open data produces the economic effect of 24 trillion won annually and creates 150,000 job employments annually. The UK government, an advanced country of public information opening, forecasts that open data will annually 60,000 jobs and has the potential value of around 15 billion pounds.
As mentioned earlier, open data not only produces the service improvement for the people, but emerges as a source of national economic growth and development. In the circumstance, the Korean government that recognized its importance has been performing Open Data Project as a critical national project to implement the core value of Government 3.0 and Creative Economy.
B. Progress
In Korea, since the enforcement of 'Act on Promotion of the Provision and Use of Public Data' in July 2013, there has been the foundation laid for the opening and use of public data.
19 In fact, what matters most to make a new policy, system, and organization and perform a relevant project is the top decision maker's intention. In the Korean government, as part of Big Plan called 'the Strategy to Grow to a SW Power, 'the comprehensive plan for promoting the private sector's use of public information' was reported to the president in Feb. 2010, and the Ministry of Security and Public Administration allowed National Information Society Agency (NIA) to open 'Public Information Support Center' in Jun. 2010. Therefore, the legal and institutional system was prepared for open data.
One of the reasons that it is difficult to open public information is the issue as to how a public organization, an information provider, is able to provide information without any legal responsibility and administrative burden. To address the issue, in Jun. 2011, the government announced the guidelines about public information provision, and, in Jul. 2011, opened public data portal (www.data.go.kr), a national single window to collect and provide numerous kinds of information offered by public agencies in accordance with the guidelines. Through the portal service, 13 kinds of Open API(Application Program Interface) including Seoul bus information, and 400,000 kinds of original text information were offered.
Another issue was to promote open data. Therefore, in Jul. 2013, 'Act on Promotion of the Provision and Use of Public data' was established. Also, based on the Act, ‘Open Data Strategy Council’(the prime minister, co-chairman) was set up. The council manages, deliberates, and arbitrates public data opening and use, determines various policies and makes important decisions. As a result, since the declaration of Government 3.0 Vision, public data has been downloaded 10 folds higher, and open API has been applied for more than two folds higher.
C. Current Status
With regard to the Korean current status of open data, 1,576 public agencies, including the central government, local governments, and public offices hold around 21,087 kinds of data, 16.1% (3,395 kinds) of which are opened. Non-open data include the data related to privacy, the data defined to be non-opening in individual laws, and the data hard to be opened thanks to the absence of technical infrastructure for opening.
[Table 1.] Status of Public Data Retention and Opening
Type Public Data Retention Public Data Opening Openness Ratio(%)
Central Gov. 4,059 877 21.6%
Local Gov., Educational
Institute 9,636 1,390 14.4%
Public Sector 7,392 1,128 15.2%
Total (kinds) 21,087 3,395 16.1%
Source : Act on Promotion of the Provision and Use of Public Data'
20 Category Open Data Retention
Health, Welfare
Child-care facility information, Regional child-care fee information, Health center service information, Health insurance information, Medical institute information, Social welfare information, Pension information, etc.
Weather Heavy rain warning and watch information, Disaster alarming information, Radar information, Life weather index, etc.
Transportation Road traffic information, Traffic statistics DB, Real-time information on bus, subway, airline, and ship, etc.
Land
Underground facility information, Land use planning information, National logistics integration information, Information on building energy consumption and green gas emissions, GIS building integration information, Building licensing information, GPS information, etc.
Food Food business licensing information, Agricultural and farm product distribution and management information, Customs clearance data, etc.
Source : Joint of Relevant Government Ministries (Dec. 10, 2013)
In terms of a single window of public data, the government opened 37 kinds of real-time public data including procurement information and emergency medical information in open API format at public data portal(www.data.go.kr). Also, 890,000 original image and video data applicable to the private sector are opened.
[Table 3.] Open Data of Public Data Portal (www.data.go.kr) (Oct.2013)
The number of open data kinds Open API Original text data 1,725 kinds 37 kinds 898,142 data
Source : Joint of Relevant Government Ministries (Dec. 10, 2013)
D. Goal and Strategy
The Korean government clearly set up the goals of open data. The first goal is to set up open data expansion strategy based on customers. By vitalizing the use of open data, the government provides more
21 customized services to the people, creates more job opportunities, and boosts up new creative industries.
[Fig. 1.] Goal and Strategy of Open Data Source: reconstruction by this author
From the strategic perspective, it is necessary to expand the public's data accessibility. Therefore, the policy on active data opening and its relevant strategy needs to be established. And relevant regulation organizations, deliberating organization, and participating organizations should divide their roles, and government offices and public agencies should prepare the strategy to activate the cooperation with each other.
The second one is to set up the strategy of expanding the infrastructure of public data opening and use. To achieve that, it is important to establish a public data management system and come up with the strategy to produce more public data and improve its quality. Given that many different public agencies provide data, it is essential to set forth the standards of data provision and make various types of technical support including the analysis of big data and data search.
The third one is to set up the strategy of supporting the eco-system of the public data industry. For the systematic management of the measures and achievements of open data, it is necessary to build the government-wide support system. Also, it is important for the government, a public data provider, to provide customized service to the private sector as consumers according to their life-cycle. In addition, it is necessary to prepare a strategy of helping start-ups using public data to secure an initial market in a stable way and business sustainability.
In the next chapter, each strategy is analyzed in detail.
E. Expansion of Customer-based Open Data
Aside from the already opened public data, 9,259 kinds of public data are expected to be opened additionally by 2016 and 2017 (the openness ratio will reach 60%). Therefore, the Korean government aims
22 to find the data kinds for selective opening among open data by taking personal information non-identification measures and securing third party rights; to encourage each ministry to open public data early; to focus on financial investment into DB quality improvement, standardization and opening structure; and thereby to maximize the ripple effect of open data. In addition, the government intends to take into account the private sector's demand and opening effect of other kinds than the strategic kinds which will be opened first strategically and let each relevant organization to make and perform its own opening plan. To lead open data into a contribution to solving a national agenda, it is necessary to open the public data based on national agendas. To do that, there are two strategic directions. The first one is to let each public information provider open its data step by step in accordance with 5-year open data roadmap. The second one is to select 15 strategic kinds that will produce high ripple effect and open them intensively. More details are presented as
follows:
[Fig. 2.] 5-Year Roadmap of Open Data (2013~2017) Source : Decision by Open Data Strategy Council (Dec. 2013)
The first strategy is the stepwise opening in the government-wide dimension.
The current openness ratio of public data is 16.1%. According to the collected opening plans of public agencies, 6,075 kinds are expected to be opened additionally by 2016, and the openness ratio will reach 45%. Also, additional 3,184 kinds (15%) will be opened in the way of finding the selective opening of data kinds through personal identification measures and the security of third party rights and encourage each ministry to open public data early. As a result, a total of 9,259 kinds plan to be opened additionally, and thus the goal of 60% of openness ratio will be achieved.
The basic principle to guarantee public data opening and accessibility is to open all of the open data list at public data portal regardless of data openness. With regard to open data process, as shown in the below figure, a public organization first submits a list of public data to Open Data Strategy Committee which will deliberate the possibility of opening the data, and after the decision, the whole list of both open and non-open data is non-opened at Open Data portal. And then, the list and contents of the non-open data go to the public, and the non-open data are also generally accessed immediately after the public and firms apply for data opening.
23 [Fig. 3.] Open Data Process
Source: Joint of Relevant Government Ministries (Dec. 10, 2013)
The second one is the selection and opening of 15 strategic kinds.
Fifteen strategic data kinds which greatly influences industries in terms of ripple effect, emergency and significance need to be opened first intensively in 2014 and 2015.
The strategic kinds were selected in the process of conducting the survey of each ministry's demand, collecting experts' opinions in the private sector, making discussion in relevant ministries, investigating data retention status, setting up an opening plan, and making final assessment. The fifteen strategic kinds selected are weather, transportation, land, food & drug, agriculture & livestock, culture & tourism, public policy, procurement, science & technology environment, employment & labor, natural disaster, patent, maritime affairs &fisheries, and health & welfare.
Meanwhile, the selected related ministries (15) should help local governments and public agencies to actively open the public data specialized for each industry. For instance, in the case of transportation, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport plays a key role to enable Korean Railroad Corporation, Korea Express Corporation, and Metropolitan Transit Corporation of each local government to provide highway transportation information, sectional transportation flow (traffic and other types of traffic information), air transportation schedule, and air statistics .
To improve DB quality of public data, it is necessary to make financial investment to maximize the ripple effect of strategic kinds of open data.
The ministries taking charge of 15 strategic kinds should regularly analyze the business model using public data and the private sector's applicability and use and should adjust or add public data kinds to achieve customized strategic public data opening.
The third one is to create the free data opening culture in each public agency
Each public agency should choose 3 to 5 kinds other than the strategic ones, whose opening is judged to produce high ripple effect, take into account the private sector's demands and opening effect, and set up its own opening plan. In the case, to improve the reliability and use convenience of public data, they should make an effort to increase the quality of the data offered. The common matters that each public agency needs to execute are presented in below.
24 <Common matters related to open data for each public agency >
each agency should support the opening and use of public data and perform education under the supervision and management of a chief open data officer designated.
each agency should come up with selection criteria and apply them to public data treatment like conversion of public data.
each agency should announce and register a list of public data in Public Data Portal and its website each agency should set forth general matters to manage the quality of public DB and provide the DB. The fourth one is to provide customized opening based on actual customers.
It is necessary to investigate the demands of open data by kind and type and perform ‘customized public data opening' necessary for the private sector.' To do that, it is required to find first the public data highly demanded by the private sector and actively support the private sector's use.
Also, it is essential to actively open ‘My Data’ typed public data which are customized for start-ups using specific open data. Therefore, it is needed to install a window at Public Data Portal (www,data.go.kr), through which would-be start-ups apply for proper open data.
[Fig. 4.] Flow of providing personalized 'My Data' (Example)
Source: reconstruction of the contents in Public Data Portal (https://www.data.go.kr) The fifth is to perform data opening based on state affairs and policy.
To lead open data into a contribution to solving a national agenda, it is necessary to open the public data based on national agendas. As shown in the below table, in the case of health and medical service, the medical service system responding to aging and rising chronic diseases needs to be examined from the standpoint of customers. For example, there are Disease & Health Integrated Management DB, Integrated Medical Information DB, Local Health DB, and Local Medical Clinics DB.
[Table 4.] Open Data Expansion based on National Agendas (example)
25 Health & Medical
Service
Analyzing medical service system responding to aging and rising chronic diseases from the standpoint of customers
Disease & Health Integrated Management DB, Integrated Medical Information DB, Local Health DB, and Local Medical Clinics DB
Systemization of industry, trade, and
commerce information
Systemizing the information system including industry, trade and commerce
information to improve the public' accessibility and the right-to-know
Commerce & Trade DB, E-Trade Support DB, Industrial Support DB, etc Source : Joint of Relevant Government Ministries (Dec. 10, 2013)
F. Expansion of the Infrastructure for Public Data Opening and Use
In terms of opening and use, there are two strategic directions. One thing is to lay the foundation for comprehensively managing open data as a national core asset in the government-wide dimension. The other thing is to expand the infrastructure to provide and use open data in a stable way. This section analyzes relevant strategies in detail.
The first strategy is to establish the open data management system.
The list management system for registering and managing open data should be installed into the public data portal. Each public agency needs to register its public data into the list management system for synchronization and management. Also 'Comprehensive Status Charts of Open Data' should be installed in the public data portal (www.data.go.kr)’ to help to monitor the status of retention, management, and opening of the registered data.
Meanwhile, the functions of open data integration and arbitration through inter-ministry collaboration are needed. For instance, for efficient process of the agenda concerned by multiple ministries, ‘Open Data Strategy Council’ should deliberate and arbitrate to improve the efficiency of policy execution. In addition, for efficient public data opening, each agency should appoint one person as 'chief open data officer’ and build and operate working-level collaboration network.
[Fig. 5.] Comprehensive Status Charts of Open Data (example)
Source : reconstruction of the contents in Public Data Portal (https://www.data.go.kr)
