Caterina Arciprete , Vieri Calogero Giacomo Pailli Università di Firenze attivafirenze.it

1. Smart Florence: “measuring” the impact of the Open Data project on people’s participation to the administration of the city of Florence CaterinaArciprete, VieriCalogero Giacomo Pailli Università di Firenze attivafirenze.it Law Via the Internet 26-27 September 2013 Jersey

2. Open Data and Democracy in Florence Overview • Introduction • What is Open Data? • Gaining momentum • Importance • Obstacles • Impact on Democracy • Open Data goes to Florence • A Tentative Practical Assessment • Recommendations

3. Open Data and Democracy in Florence Introduction

4. Open Data and Democracy in Florence What is Open Data? “A piece of data or content is open if anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it — subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and/or share-alike” also ensuring “interoperability between different pools of open material” • “available and accessible” at no cost, easy format • “reusable and redistributable”, licensing • “universal participation”, purpose-neutral Open Government Data/Public Sector Information

5. Open Data and Democracy in Florence What is Open Data?

6. Open Data and Democracy in Florence Open Data Gaining Momentum • Open Government Initiative (US) - May 2009 (data.gov) • UK - Sept 2009 (data.gov.uk) • Italy - October 2011 (dati.gov.it) • EU - Open Declaration of Malmo of 2009 (bottom-up approach): “The needs of today’s society are too complex to be solved by government alone. While traditional government policies used the web to automate public services and encourage self-service, the biggest impact of the web will be in improving services through collaboration, transparency and knowledge-sharing”.

7. Open Data and Democracy in Florence data.gov • 97,538 datasets • 349 citizen-developed apps • 137 mobile apps • 173 agencies and subagencies • 87 galleries • 295 Government APIs

8. Open Data and Democracy in Florence data.gov “The Government is releasing public data to help people understand how government works and how policies are made”

9. Open Data and Democracy in Florence data.gov.uk Some 9,000 datasets

10. Open Data and Democracy in Florence data.gov.uk “The Government is releasing public data to help people understand how government works and how policies are made”.

11. Open Data and Democracy in Florence dati.gov.it

12. Open Data and Democracy in Florence dati.gov.it “<insert text here>”

13. Open Data and Democracy in Florence publicdata.eu

14. Open Data and Democracy in Florence “Open Data Charter” (G8) Principles • Principle 1: Open Data by Default • Principle 2: Quality and Quantity • Principle 3: Usable by All • Principle 4: Releasing Data for Improved Governance • Principle 5: Releasing Data for Innovation (18 June 2013)

15. Open Data and Democracy in Florence Importance of Open Data • knowledge in itself and use for any purpose • transparency • stakeholders’ participation: • closer monitoring • participation to decision-making processes • take the initiative • propose new solutions • empower citizens to be an active part of the administration of public resources and services • value: economic, social, scientific, cultural, educational, recreational.

16. Open Data and Democracy in Florence Importance of Open Data

17. Open Data and Democracy in Florence Obstacles to Open Data • time and resources • closed sectors (e.g., military, national security, justice) • legal issues • who owns data? • IP • privacy • licensing • technological obstacles

18. Open Data and Democracy in Florence Obstacles to Open Data • time and resources • closed sectors (e.g., military, national security, justice) • legal issues • who owns data? • IP • privacy • licensing • technological obstacles it’s a long way to the top..

19. Open Data and Democracy in Florence Legal Framework • EU: • Directive 2003/98/EC allowing re-use of information by Public Entities; • Directive 2013/37/EU: “Allowing re-use of documents […] promot[es] transparency and accountability and providing feedback from re-users and end users which allows the public sector body concerned to improve the quality of the information collected”; • European eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015 (European Commission) a commitment to maximise the value of re-use of public sector information (PSI). • Italy: • law of August 7th, 1990, no. 241; • Codicedell’AmministrazioneDigitale (D. Lgs. n. 82/2005): • art. 2, the principle of “openness” of data; • encourages public bodies to makes public data available in open format (art. 52). • implementation of the EU directive of 2003 • airing of open data portal, dati.gov.it, in 2011 • optional Italian Open Data license (IODL v 2.0) – CC BY 3.0

20. Open Data and Democracy in Florence The Impact on Democracy • A Working Definition of “democracy” • A system of government with four key elements (Diamond 2004): • political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections; • active participation of the people; • protection of the human rights of all citizens/persons; • rule of law.

21. Open Data and Democracy in Florence The Impact on Democracy • Open Data Accountability Social Innovation Level Playing Field Access to Services Counter-Power • Inclusive society • Political system Exercise of democracy • Civil Society • Democracy

22. Open Data and Democracy in Florence Open Data Goes to Florence

23. Open Data and Democracy in Florence Open Bilancio

24. Open Data and Democracy in Florence Open Data Goes to Florence

25. Open Data and Democracy in Florence Open Data Goes to Florence

26. Open Data and Democracy in Florence Open Data Goes to Florence

27. Open Data and Democracy in Florence Open Data Goes to Florence

28. Open Data and Democracy in Florence Open Data Goes to Florence

29. Open Data and Democracy in Florence Open Data Goes to Florence

30. Open Data and Democracy in Florence A Tentative Practical Assessment “Open Data greatly enhances participation and interaction between the City and Florentines and is a true revolution that will change the relationship between politics and citizens” (MatteoRenzi, Mayor of Florence, 29 May 2013)

31. Open Data and Democracy in Florence A Tentative Practical Assessment • Only few studies measuring the quantitative impact of Open Data on democracy: no consensus on the best methodology. • Simple outcome evaluations measure the extent to which some objectives have been achieved. • An impact evaluation assesses the long-term effects of a specific program, measuring positive, negative, intended and unintended effects. • Impact evaluations are data demanding, time consuming and usually very expensive...

32. Open Data and Democracy in Florence A Tentative Practical Assessment • With reference to Florence Open Data: • the span of time of available data is very short (roughly eighteen months) • this does not allow a real assessment of the impact of open data on democracy • due to data limitations, we try to measure, instead, the outcome of Open Data • First Assumption: • the quality of democracy is positively correlated with the outcomes. • Second Assumption (twofold): • The number of page views is a good proxy for the outcome. • The number of page views is positively correlated with any of the democratic outcomes previously analyzed. • We argue that open data has a positive impact on democracy if we find a positive correlation between the number of page views on a specific topic and the activities of the city council in the same area.

33. Open Data and Democracy in Florence A Tentative Practical Assessment

34. Open Data and Democracy in Florence A Tentative Practical Assessment

35. Open Data and Democracy in Florence A Tentative Practical Assessment

36. Open Data and Democracy in Florence A Tentative Practical Assessment Overall data is too low for any type of statistical analysis, however the tables reveal some interesting facts: • after 18 months still very few pages viewed; • City Budget, Cycling Lanes and City Employees are among most-viewed topics both in 2012 and 2013; • mismatch between Council activities and page views (e.g. BilancinoLake and General Elections 2013); • some data relating to Council relates to ordinary functioning and, thus, are less significant.

37. Open Data and Democracy in Florence Observations and Recommendations • The single most important element is the low number of visitors attracted by the Open Data portal. • Need to increase awareness in the existence of the Open Data project and stimulating its use. • Various channels: • educating new generations and playing with data; • ‘keep it simple’; • ‘engage with infomediaries first’. • Need to stress among stakeholders the large economic and social value embedded in the initiative and the opportunities that are missed if datasets are not used.

38. Open Data and Democracy in Florence Possible future research When more data is available: • analyse the correlation between percentage variations of views on certain datasets and corresponding variations of Council activities in those specific areas; • compare Florence with other Italian and non-Italian examples not only on the number of datasets made available, but also in terms of effectiveness, promotion and use of these datasets.

39. Open Data and Democracy in Florence Conclusions The ‘first wave of open data’, i.e. releasing data in open format and open license, is being accomplished in various parts of the world. Now let’s focus on a second wave: ‘let’s put data to work’

40. Thank you! CaterinaArciprete, VieriCalogero, Giacomo Pailli Università di Firenze attivafirenze.it giacomo.pailli@unifi.it caterina.arciprete@unifi.it vieri.calogero@unifi.it