Strategic MED project in the field of ICT- Harmonising Open Data in the MEditerranean through better Access and Reuse of Public Sector Information

Partnership: 
Lead Partner:  Piemont Region,  Innovation and Research, University Directorate (Italy) and 19 partners from  Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Montenegro, Slovenia, Spain.

Summary: 
HOMER focuses on the theme of Open Data, a world-wide policy aiming at making available and exploitable Public Sector Information (PSI). Governments increasingly recognize the benefits of making their data open and reusable. Compared to Northern Europe, the Mediterranean area is still facing a digital divide gap in terms of market opportunities, e-government performances and transparency, mainly due to cultural, political and legal barriers. Fully aware of PSI benefits and of specific obstacles characterizing the MED space, HOMER contributes to bridge this gap, by promoting a coordinated and tailored approach in 8 Mediterranean countries in order  to stimulate accessibility and re-use of PSI.  In line with the EU Digital Agenda, HOMER will facilitate the wider deployment of PSI in Mediterranean countries, enabling their public governments to better address the legal, cultural and technological challenges linked to PSI policy. Starting from exposing 5 strategic sectors, characterizing the MED political agenda of the next decades (Agriculture, Tourism, Environment, Energy and Culture), consistent with the NSRF strategies of the partners and linked to the commitment of their internal departments, a dedicated Task Force composed of IT and Open data experts will be able to support HOMER institutional partners to face the legal cultural and technological obstacles of Open Data policy. In this way, during its first phase, HOMER will be able to open hundreds of public datasets, enhancing digital heritage transparency across the Mediterranean. But HOMER will go beyond this first milestone: the “opened” PSI will then  be  federated, setting up the basis for a transnational Open Data Federation. This second milestone will generate a concrete MED added value, increasing the amount of datasets accessible from each institutional portal and enhancing the level of opportunities offered by the exploitation of a wider and cross-border digital heritage in a transnational market.Finally to demonstrate the Federation’s tangible impact, HOMER will launch 2 pilots: one aiming to increase transparency and the level of participation of citizens in the decision making process, the second aiming to stimulate the exploitation of the federated PSI. Both pilots will be based on a tailored communication strategy, in line with the Community initiatives “Data.gov.eu” aiming at raising awareness about the benefits of exploiting PSI at transnational level. Pilot showcase will be then presented in 2014, to spread HOMER results to all Mediterranean governments interested to join the MED Open Data Federation.

In the second competition for strategic projects in the field of ICT within the framework of the EU transnational MED Programme, the new MED project entitled "Harmonising Open Data in the MEditerranean through better Access and Reuse of Public Sector Information" – HOMER has been approved for financing.

The project envisages, inter alia, the creation of national and regional Open Data web portals, as well as the harmonisation of legislation for access to public information with the recommendations of the European Commission. Open Data or proactive disclosure of public information in machine-readable format is a new paradigm in the world of public and publicly available information which has been recognized in Digital Agenda of the European Commission for the period until 2020.

The beggining of the implementation of the three-year project is expected in June 2012, and the consortium is composed of 17partners from Italy, Greece, France, Slovenia, Albania and Montenegro. 

Members of the national team, coordinated by Assistant Professor Snežana Šćepanović, from the Faculty of Information Technology at the University "Mediterranean", are the following:

- Faculty of Information Technology, University "Mediterranean"

- Ministry for Information Society and Telecommunications

- Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism