Towards Cleaning-up Open Data Portals: A Metadata Reconciliation Approach

This paper presents an approach for metadata reconciliation, curation and linking for Open Governamental Data Portals (ODPs). ODPs have been lately the standard solution for governments willing to put their public data available for the society. Portal managers use several types of metadata to organize the datasets, one of the most important ones being the tags. However, the tagging process is subject to many problems, such as synonyms, ambiguity or incoherence, among others. As our empiric analysis of ODPs shows, these issues are currently prevalent in most ODPs and effectively hinders the reuse of Open Data. In order to address these problems, we develop and implement an approach for tag reconciliation in Open Data Portals, encompassing local actions related to individual portals, and global actions for adding a semantic metadata layer above individual portals. The local part aims to enhance the quality of tags in a single portal, and the global part is meant to interlink ODPs by establishing relations between tags.Comment: 8 pages,10 Figures - Under Revision for ICSC201

Bridging the biodiversity data gaps: Recommendations to meet users’ data needs

A strong case has been made for freely available, high quality data on species occurrence, in order to track changes in biodiversity. However, one of the main issues surrounding the provision of such data is that sources vary in quality, scope, and accuracy. Therefore publishers of such data must face the challenge of maximizing quality, utility and breadth of data coverage, in order to make such data useful to users. Here, we report a number of recommendations that stem from a content need assessment survey conducted by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Through this survey, we aimed to distil the main user needs regarding biodiversity data. We find a broad range of recommendations from the survey respondents, principally concerning issues such as data quality, bias, and coverage, and extending ease of access. We recommend a candidate set of actions for the GBIF that fall into three classes: 1) addressing data gaps, data volume, and data quality, 2) aggregating new kinds of data for new applications, and 3) promoting ease-of-use and providing incentives for wider use. Addressing the challenge of providing high quality primary biodiversity data can potentially serve the needs of many international biodiversity initiatives, including the new 2020 biodiversity targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the emerging global biodiversity observation network (GEO BON), and the new Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)

The Freshwater Information Platform: a global online network providing data, tools and resources for science and policy support

Freshwaters are among the most complex, dynamic, and diverse ecosystems globally. Despite their small share of the earth’s surface (less than 1%) they are home to over 10% of all known animal species. Biodiversity decrease in general and freshwater biodiversity decline in particular have recently received increasing attention, and various policy instruments are now targeting the conservation, protection and enhancement of biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. Surveillance programs as well as a variety of research projects have been producing a tremendous amount of freshwater-related information. Though there have been various attempts to build infrastructures for online collection of such data, tools and reports, they often provide only limited access to resources that can readily be extracted for conducting large scale analyses. Here, we present the Freshwater Information Platform, an open system of relevant freshwater biodiversity-related information. We provide a comprehensive overview of the platform’s core components, highlight their values, present options for their use, and discuss future developments. This is complemented by information on the platform’s current management structure, options for contributing data and research results and an outlook for the future

Use of information technology to increase economic efficiency and credibility in public administration in the context of digitization

Purpose: The article analyzes the use of information technologies to increase the level of economic efficiency and trust in public administration in Ukraine. Design/Methodology/Approach: We use the concept of digital management for the purpose of integrated interaction of municipal and state structures with business, civil society institutions and the population. Findings: The conducted research concludes the active digital transformation of public administration in Ukraine. The following trends in the use of information technology are identified: the development of institutional support; the creation of analytical portals for ensuring public control; the level of accountability, transparency, accountability of the activity of civil servants; the implementation of e-government projects; the changing philosophy of development of electronic services. Practical Implications: The concept of state policy in the field of digital infrastructure was developed on the basis of a multi-stakeholder approach according to which the main purpose of the state bodies is to identify, prioritize, harmonize and satisfy the stakeholders. Originality/Value: In this article, we show the level of individual regions in Ukraine where there is uneven implementation and use of e-learning tools management.peer-reviewe

A Proximity Indicator for e-Government: The Smallest Number of Clicks

In order to develop an indicator measuring the proximity of e-Government and its different generic functions, we analysed a set of studies that were conducted in the United States and in Europe. We defined 21 elements of measure grouped in six dimensions of proximity and we surveyed the official Websites of the French-speaking Swiss Cantons in 2002 and 2003. We observed that more technical aspects such as navigability were well developed, whereas more “socio-political” aspects (data protection, access for handicapped) and organisational issues were still in early stages. To conclude this work we give some hints for the application of a methodology based on proximity measurement.e-Government; portals; evaluation; proximity; 3-clicks rule; usability

Principles in Patterns (PiP) : Institutional Approaches to Curriculum Design Institutional Story

The principal outputs of the PiP Project surround the Course and Class Approval (C-CAP) system. This web-based system built on Microsoft SharePoint addresses and resolves many of the issues identified by the project. Generally well received by both academic and support staff, the system provides personalised views, adaptive forms and contextualised support for all phases of the approval process. Although the system deliberately encapsulates and facilitates existing approval processes thus achieving buy-in, it is already achieving significant improvements over the previous processes, not only in reducing the administrative overheads but also in supporting curriculum design and academic quality. The system is now embedded across three faculties and is now considered by the University of Strathclyde to be a "core institutional service". Alongside the C-CAP system the PiP Project also cultivated a suite of approaches: an incremental systems development methodology; a structured and replicable evaluation approach, and; Strathclyde's Lean Approach to Efficiencies in Education Kit (SLEEK) business process improvement methodology Each is based on recognised formal techniques, providing the basis for a rigorous approach. This is contextualised within and adapted to the HE institutional context thus building the foundation not only for the project but ultimately for institution wide process improvement. This "institutional story" report summarises the principal outcomes of the Project