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Open Datain the Italian Public Sector

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Introduction

• To properly address the open data topic according to the current Italian framework, it is mandatory an overview of three connected topics:– Data protection;– Public sector data interoperability– Open data

• The topics are deeply connected: while a comprehensive description is available in the available material, the aim of this speech is to point out the main principles and how they interact in order to achieve the desired results.

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Agenzia per l’Italia Digitale (AgID)

• AgID is a public body that merged three different existing public organizations (i.e., DigitPA, Agency for the Promotion of Technologies for Innovation, and Department of Innovation and Technology of the Presidency of Council of Ministers)

• It is mainly responsible for implementing the Italian Digital Agenda and has the mandate to perform a number of tasks within the Italian Government such as:– To contribute to the spread of the use of information and

communication technologies (ICT)– To develop technical requirements and guidelines for promoting

interoperability– To enable full cooperation between information systems of

governmental bodies and between these systems and the European Union

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Overall scenario

• In June 2013, Italy endorsed the G8 Open Data Charter and, with other G8 Members, committed to implementing a number of open data activities in the G8 Members Collective Action Plan.

• Commitment 1 of the Collective Action Plan required each member to publish individual action plans by October 2013 detailing how they would implement the Open Data Charter according to their individual national frameworks.

• This first Italian Action Plan was drafted in October 2013 within the framework of the G8 Open Data Charter in order to share information with international partners and exchange knowledge on respective national open data policies.

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Key stakeholder

• The Action Plan was drafted by the Department for Public Administration in cooperation with the Agency for Digital Italy (AgID) and with the collaboration of the following Public Administrations and Agencies:- Ministry of the Interior- Ministry of Economy and Finance- Department of Legal Affairs of the Prime Minister’s Office- Department for Development and Economic Cohesion Ministry of ‐Economic Development- Revenue Agency- National Statistics institute Istat‐- Institute for Environmental Protection and Research ISPRA‐- Regions

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Legal context

• Article 9 of decree‐law no. 179/2012 defines a legislative framework that enhances access to and reuse of Public Sector Information (PSI) by introducing, among the rest, a clear definition of “open data” and a general principle of openness by default.

• The Agency for Digital Italy [AgID] is identified as the Italian PSI enabler. In this context, AgID publishes annually three key documents on PSI:– an Agenda including the national policies and strategies– a set of Guidelines to support public administrations in the implementation

of the strategies included in the Agenda– a Report assessing the status of development of PSI in Italy with respect to

the strategies defined in theAgenda

• Future releases of the Agenda will also incorporate the principal commitments of this G8 action plan, thus contributing further to its complete implementation.

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Italian interoperability scenario

• In the Italian regulatory scenario interoperability plays a crucial role for both Public Administrations (PAs) and ICT market– It is a pillar concept of the legal interoperability framework named

Digital Administration Code (CAD)

• The legal framework is enforced by the Italian ICT interoperability framework SPC - Sistema Pubblico di Connettività e Cooperazione– It consists of two principal building blocks: the application services

and the national interoperability infrastructures– The national interoperability infrastructures include, for instance, the

catalogue of ontologies and metadata and a number of base registers (e.g., Public Administration Registry, National Catalogue of Geographical Metadata)

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The Italian interoperability framework

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SPC as a stack of services

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National strategy for the valorisation of thePublic Sector Information

Public Sector Information systems

National Open Data

Policy

Technical Guidelines

Annual Report

Valorisation Process of Public Sector Information

Action plan

Strategy and implementation Monitoring

Objectives

Quality metrics

• ScopeGuide decisionsSupport to

economic growth

Transparency

• It includes Open Data

principlesObjectives and

key datasetsAction plan 2014

• ScopeMonitor the

implementation of the strategy

• It includes How to measure

the achievements

IndicatorsStatus of the

year

• ScopeGuide Public Administrations in implementing the

strategy 2014• It includes

Operative steps for producing and publishing public data

Standards, ontologies, licences and data costs

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The Domain Gateway like adistributed Enterprise Services Bus

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Personal Data Protection according to EU and Italian

Laws and Regulations

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Aim of this section

Description of EU regulations concerning • protection of natural and legal persons with regard to

the personal data processing, as well • free movement of data on Internet

Reference shall be made also to Italian acts which transposed the EU Acts

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Part I Right to privacy

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Fundamental Rights and Freedoms

• Rights of personal status:– inviolable– absolute (protected erga omnes)– cannot be waived– indefeasibility

• Protected either by criminal or civil regulations

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Right to privacy

• Among the rights of a personal status, right to:– privacy, as right to be let alone– personal identity – personal data protection

• Right to privacy concerns the intimacy of private and family life against other people’s interferences

• It differs from protection of honor, dignity, reputation and image

• It has to be balance with right of information of the community (when leading public interest)

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Information and personal data

Information = economic and strategic relevance

Information includes personal data

Relevance of personal data processing

Need for a high level of protection for:– fundamental rights and freedoms, as well as for dignity,

particularly with regard to confidentiality, personal identity;– right to personal data protection

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International laws regulations

– Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 10 December 1948;

– Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 16 December 1966;

– Article 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 4 November 1950;

– Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data of 28 January 1981 and recommendations adopted by the Council of Europe

– Enforcement of the Convention of Schengen Agreement dated 14 June 1985 for the gradual abolition of controls at the common frontiers (paragraphs n. 126 - 130)

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European laws and regulations

– Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, par. II – 68 (2004); – Treaty Of Nice Amending The Treaty On European Union, The Treaties

Establishing The European Communities And Certain Related Acts (2001/C 80/01 ), par. 7-8;

– Treaty of European Union: article 6 (respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in the EU)

– EC Treaty: Article 286– European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms:

• Articles 7 (respect for private and family life) and • 8 (protection of personal data)

– Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data

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European Union Directives

• Directive n.95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 (“General Directive”) concerns the processing of personal data and the free movement of such data within the Community

• Directive 97/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 1997 concerning specific rules for processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the telecommunications sector.

• Directive n. 2002/58/EC of the of 12 July 2002, on the processing of personal data and the protection of private life in the electronic communication sector (“E-Privacy Directive”): It repealed Directive 97/66/EC

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Italian Data Protection Laws and Regulations

A) Primary sources– Law n. 675 dated 31 December 1996, effective since 8 May

1997, as well as by subsequent regulations transposed in Italy General Directive and its amendments

– Act n. 196 dated 30 June 2003, effective since 1 January 2004, which approved the Personal Data Protection Code:

• Harmonized all the previous regulations on personal data processing

• Transposed in Italy Directive 2002/58/ECB) Secondary sources:– Deontological and good behavior codes (paragraph n. 12 of

Decree n. 196/2003):• subscribed by the Guarantee Authority • published by the Official Gazette.

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Part II

Personal Data Processing

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Personal data. Definition

Any information relating to natural or legal person, bodies or associations that are or can be identified, even indirectly, by reference to any other information including a personal identification number

Personal data: • may identify a person• sensitive (or semi-sensitive)• judicial

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Personal Data Processing

• Any operation or set of operations concerning collection (for example: e-mail address collection), recording (for example: recording on a carrier in order to use these data in the future, for determined, define and legitimate purposes), organization, keeping, interrogation, elaboration, modification, selection, retrieval, comparison, utilization, blocking, interconnection, communication, dissemination, erasure and destruction of data, whether the latter are contained or not in a data bank

• It can be done by electronic data processing instruments or not.

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Data subjects.

• Any natural or legal person, body or association that is the subjects of personal data

• Data subject’s rights:• to access personal data • other rights:

• obtaining of data and placing at interested party’s disposal

• no right of copying acts/documents which contain personal data

• right to timely confirmation

• Exercise of rights by the data subject

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Data controller

Notion: Any natural or legal person, public administration and other body, association or entity that is competent – also jointly with another data controller – to specific purposes and methods of the processing of personal data and the relevant means, including security matters

Legal person, public administrative agency or other body, association or entity: the data controller shall be either the entity as a whole or the department or the peripheral unit having fully autonomous decision-making powers in respect of purposes and mechanisms of processing operations, also related to security matters

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Data Controller (2)

Obligations:

• information to data subjects• consent collection • notification to the committee of protection of Privacy (Autorità

Garante per il Trattamento dei Dati Personali (“Garante”), if compulsory

• authorization from the Garante• communications to the Garante according to paragraph 39 • security measures adoption• designation of data controller and of the persons in charge of the

processing• instructions to data controller and to the persons in charge of the

processing• security

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Data Processor

Notion: natural or legal person, public administration and other body, association or entity that processes personal data on the controller’s behalf

Obligations: information to data subjects, observance of instructions analytically given in writing by the data controller (including security matters), designation of the persons in charge of the processing, instructions to the persons in charge of the processing

Appointment: optional, by the data controller

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Persons in charge of the processing

Notion: “Natural person that have been authorized, in writing, by the data controller or processor to carry out processing operations”

Designation: • in writing;• it punctually identifies the allowed processing ambit• it shall be also fulfilled if a natural person is entrusted with the task of

directing a department, on a documentary basis, whereby the scope of the processing operations that may be performed by the staff working in said department has been specified in writing

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Personal Data Processing. General principles

Personal data shall be processed lawfully and fairly. Consequently:

• purpose of processing: clearly defined by the data controller;

• processing must take place on legitimate grounds such as consent, contract, law or balance of interests

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Personal Data Processing. Purposes

Personal data shall be:• collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and • not further processed in a way incompatible with those

purposes.

• Further processing of data for historical, statistical or scientific purposes shall not be considered as incompatible provided that Member States provide appropriate safeguards

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Personal Data Features

Personal data need shall be:• adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to

the purposes for which they are collected and/or further processed

• accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date; data which are inaccurate or incomplete shall be erased or rectified;

• kept in a form which permits data subjects’ identification for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the data were collected or for which they are further processed.

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Information to Data subjects

• Minimum information to be provided to the data subject in cases when data: – collected directly from him from a third party or from other sources,

such as internet public spaces (public directories, newsgroups or chat-rooms); or

– disclosed to third parties

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Information to Data subjects (2)

• Essential information: – identity of the controller and of his representative; – purpose of data processing, except where the data subject

has already this information; or

• Further information (when necessary having regard to the specific circumstances in which data are collected, to guarantee fair processing in respect of the data subject): – recipient of the data, – consent obligation and – existence of access and rectification rights

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Information to Data subjects (3)

Article 29 Data Protection Working Party: information provided to data subjects:

• use of language and layout easily understandable; • multi-layered format for data subject notices; • Legal acceptance of short notices, within a multi-layered

structure that, in its totality, offers compliance to the legal requirements

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Data Subjects’ Consent

• Personal data processed only if data subject agrees to processing of personal data as a whole or to one or more of the operations thereof relating to him being processed

Consent:• Free and specific• Documented in writing (given in writing for

sensitive data)• provided by the data subject with the required

information

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Consent of Data Subjects (2)

Consent shall not be required for certain processing. Among them:

• Necessary:– to comply with an obligation imposed by a law, regulations or

Community legislation; – To comply the performance of obligations resulting from a

contract to which the data subject is a party, or else in order to comply with specific requests made by the data subject prior to entering into a contract;

• Concerns data taken from public registers, lists, documents or records that are publicly available, without prejudice to the limitations and modalities laid down by laws, regulations and Community legislation with regard to their disclosure and publicity.

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Data security

Processor needs to adopt:• Appropriate technical and organizational measures to

protect personal data against:– accidental or unlawful destruction or accidental loss, – alteration, unauthorized disclosure or access, in particular where

the processing involves the transmission of data over a network, and

– all other unlawful forms of processing. • Such measures shall ensure a level of security appropriate

to the risks represented by the processing and the nature of the data to be protected. Regard to the state of the art and the cost of their implementation

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Data security (2)

• Where processing is carried out on his behalf, the controller:– must choose a processor providing sufficient guarantees in respect of:

• the technical security measures and • organizational measures governing the processing to be carried out, and

– must ensure compliance with those measures.

• Carrying out of processing by way of a processor must be governed by a contract or legal act:– binding the processor to the controller and stipulating in particular

that: (a) the processor shall act only on instructions from the controller; (b) - the security obligations, shall also be incumbent on the processor;

– Which, for the purposes of keeping proof, shall bein writing or in another equivalent form

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SPC: the Italian Interoperability framework

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Some definitions (from SPC’sTechnical regulations)

• “SPCoop”, the logic subsystem of the SPC consisting of a body of rules and functional specifications that define the application cooperation model for the SPC;

• “SICA”, interoperability, cooperation and access infrastructure services, the body of rules, services and shared infrastructures that enables interoperability and application cooperation between the Administrations and access to application services developed and made available on the SPC by those Administrations;

• “telematic service”, all functionalities implemented by means of software components, provided through a communication system that can also be accessed via the Internet;

• “application service”, all functionalities implemented by means of software components, provided or used by an Administration via the Domain Gateway;

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SPC’s shared infrastructure

• Qualified eXchange Network (QXN)

• VoIP (NIV-SPC) Interconnection Node

• SPC Management Centre (CG-SPC)

• Interoperability, Cooperation and Access Infrastructure Management Centre (CG-SICA):

– includes all the general level components (hardware, software, documents, services) for providing the

application cooperation services

– has a support role in relation to the qualification of domain gateways and of any secondary level

federated SICA infrastructure services and provides the Committee with elements for assessing the

qualitative and quantitative levels of SICA services;

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The Cooperation publicSystem’s pillarsThe Cooperation publicSystem’s pillars

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SPC’s interoperability infrastructureservices

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SPC’s interoperability infrastructureservices

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SPCData project

• Open up national base registers – Compliant with W3C standards

• Leverage the SPC national interoperability infrastructures for the creation of the Italian Linked Open Data cloud of Public Administration’s data

• Enable semantic interoperability

• Evaluation of Semantic Web technologies and their potentiality for enforcing semantic interoperability

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Facts and figures

• Italy currently produces 8,000 datasets in an open format, published by central and local public administrations on their web portals. Compared to the 3,000 datasets available in September 2012, the increasing trend shows to what extent the Italian public administration is actively responding to open data needs.

• Furthermore, Italian legislation has recently introduced an “open data by default” principle: when no license is associated with the published data, the data available on public administration Web portals are implicitly considered “open” for re‐use. The application of this principle will likely increase the number of data that may be re‐used (also for commercial purposes) although it might not guarantee that the information is technically in a nonproprietary, machine‐readable format and accompanied by relevant meta‐data.

• Most of the Italian open data datasets are catalogued by dati.gov.it, i.e., the Italian open data portal.

• In addition, Italy has launched the SPCData7, the linked data space of the Italian public administration. It currently includes around 16,600 interlinks to some of the Linked Open Data made available by a limited number of Italian public administrations, also interlinked to the Web of Data.

• Italy plans to extend SPCData in order to let it become the Linked Data hub of the Italian public administration, as stated in the Agenda.

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Data Quality

• Data quality as well as quantity and availability are deeply taken into consideration in theAgenda and in the Guidelines. In particular, several actions are being adopted to improve these aspects:

– Data quality: two quality models for data and metadata respectively have been proposed in both the Agenda and Guidelines. In particular, the well‐known 5 stars data model has been enhanced in order to better show the benefits that high‐quality datasets bring in terms of data access and services that can be developed.

– Data quantity: all data from public administrations have to be open at least to 3‐stars level.

– Availability: the Agenda encourages administrations to open their datasets in a linked open data form, thus fostering their availability. In addition, the Guidelines propose a set of core metadata to be common to all published datasets. This metadata approach can possibly increase data availability as it becomes easier to find and understand data.

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Challanges and barriers

Cultural and Political:• the awareness of the economic and social potential of open data is still relatively low. Public administrations

tend to be reluctant to change their usual approach to work and do not necessarily perceive their role in terms of data producers. Moreover, adopting new forms of collaboration and participation with businesses and demand for open public data among active social communities, journalists and business is also still limited. Hence, it is rather difficult to understand what kind of data is most relevant.

Technical:• specialized skills and expertise are required to open data at a high‐quality level.Economic:• new initiatives and projects require investment in financial and human resources that often are lacking.Legal and Administrative:• At the moment, there are regulatory limits for charging data users (particularly in the area of map data). In this

regard, the Italian government, with the recent open data regulation, created the conditions to support the free use and re‐use of all data, with some exceptions to be clearly identified by AgID.

Data Quality:• The amount of data published should not be used as a measure of success of open data policy. Apart from

technical standards, open data should serve open services and processes so they must be of the highest quality in terms of well‐known characteristics, which include completeness, consistency, timeliness and accuracy. Quality of open data is only assured by correct production and publication methodology and processes.

Data Quantity:• the quantity of public data in open format is constantly increasing. The Italian Government supports this positive

trend through activities for the promotion of common standards, initiatives on the ground with local communities, the exchange of good practices and training concerning the Digital Agenda.

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Open data national portal

• The Italian National Open Data Portal, dati.gov.it, already catalogs and presents the four key datasets according to the G8 Open Data Charter and two high value datasets. The national portal catalogs and publishes approximately 15% of the open datasets made available by Italian public administrations (about 1,000 out of 8,000 ).

• The Italian Government is committed to enhancing the Dati.gov.it portal. The following action are going to be taken:

– I. back‐end interoperability in order to automate the import of the main catalogs that use the API CKAN or other standard APIs;

– II. open publication of the catalog in CSV format and through API;– III. creation of an English version of the portal;– IV. front‐end accessibility and usability, implementing a responsive theme that guarantees a good

navigation using different kinds of devices (e.g. tablets, smartphones).– V. connection with the RNDT (Repertorio Nazionale dei Dati Territoriali)15 as far as open data are

concerned.• Moreover, AgID makes its linked open data infrastructure (i.e., SPCData) available for public

administrations willing to release their data according to high level open data quality standards. The infrastructure consists of a SPARQL endpoint and several demo services to access data. Thanks to SPCData, an Italian Web of data composed by linked open data from different administrations is gradually emerging.

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SPCData project

• RDF data: Public Administration Registry, SPC contracts, official

classification of the territory (in collaboration with the National Institute

of Statistics - ISTAT)

• Interlinking with other RDF data: DBPedia, Florence Municipality, etc.

• Reuse of well-know ontologies/vocabularies (e.g., FOAF,

CreativeCommons, GoodRelations)

• SPARQL endpoint to access data for human beings and machines

• Demo Applications

• Infographics

http://spcdata.digitpa.gov.it

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SPCData project: the case of Public Administration Registry - IPA

• National registry fed by Public Administrations (PAs) every six months (article 57-bis of Digital Administration Code – CAD)

• It includes data necessary to establish a, possibly electronic, communication with legal value either among PAs or between PAs and citizens/enterprises

• In particular, it includes tax codes, e-mail and certified e-mail addresses, postal addresses, official web site URLs, people in charge and organizational structures (e.g., offices and departments) of about 21.000 Italian PAs (central and local)

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Linked Open IPA

Giorgia Lodi, Antonio Maccioni, Francesco Tortorelli, “Linked Open Data in The Italian e-Governement Interoperability Framework”, in Proceeding of METTEG 2012, May 2012

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Guidelines for Semantic Interoperability through Linked Open Data

• On March 2012, the SPC governance body created a working group on semantic interoperability – In November 2012, the Guidelines for Semantic Interoperability

through Linked Open Data were published– A summary in English of the guidelines is also available

• Objectives– Augment the awareness of PAs on how to produce and publish

interoperable open data– Outline a methodology for open data under the form of Linked

Open Data • Use of ontologies to describe data

– Provide an insight of legal aspects and business models enabled by Open Data

– Identify the role of SPC and national shared infrastructures. SPCData can become the Italian linked open data hub

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International collaborations

• In SPCData, we used Core Vocabularies developed in the context of ISA programme– In the Public Administration Registry - IPA

• Org to describe the structure of Public Administrations• Core Location to describe physical addresses of Public

Administrations• Core Public Service Vocabulary to describe services provided by

Public Administrations– In the official classification of the territory, use of Asset Description

Metadata Schema (ADMS) + SKOS– In SPC contracts we are currently evaluating how to use RegOrg

• Working Group for the definition of the Core Public Service Vocabulary• Piloting activity on the use of Org for interlinking Italian Public

Administration Registry with Linked Data of MAREG in Greece• Thematic Network on standards for open data

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AN OVERVIEW OF THE ITALIAN “GUIDELINES FOR SEMANTIC INTEROPERABILITY

THROUGH LINKED OPEN DATA”

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Context

• The Digital Agenda for Europe [3] commits Member States to align their national interoperability frameworks with the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) within 2013 (action 26).

• As defined by CAD (Codice dell’Amministrazione Digitale – Digital Administration Code, Legislative Decree n. 82/2005), the Italian interoperability framework is the so-called “Sistema Pubblico di Connettività e Cooperazione” (SPC). SPC, together with the interoperability frameworks of other Member States, has been evaluated by the National Interoperability Framework Observatory (NIFO) of the ISA programme (the ISA programme is responsible for implementing at the European level the objectives of pillar 2 of the aforementioned Digital Agenda).

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Open data: what are they?

• The evaluation is based on five main criteria:– “principles”, – “governance”, – “conceptual model”,– “interoperability agreements”– “interoperability levels”.

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The Holy Gral of Semantic interoperabilty

• EIF model defines semantic interoperability as the possibility for the organizations to “ensure that the precise meaning of exchanged information (concept, organization, services, etc.) is preserved and well understood”. This definition highlights the central role that semantic interoperability plays in the collaboration among organizations. Thus, it is a fundamental basis for every innovative e-government process.

• In this scenario, it becomes crucial to define technical guidelines that can drive PAs and enterprises in the production of interoperable Open Data.

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What better than a working group?

• The working group evaluated a first set of data categories owned by PAs that could be opened (future works of the group foresee an update of the list of these categories), and specific Open Data initiatives born in Italy and in the rest of the world. One of the principal results of the evaluation has been to consider Semantic Web technologies and the Linked Open Data paradigm essential means through which- providing an identity to the data (open and/or not open)- interlinking the data- enriching the data with meaningful information that can be clearly understood by all their

users.

• In other words, the adoption of the Linked Open Data paradigm is necessary in order to enable a concrete semantic interoperability among Public Administrations at both national and cross-border levels.

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2014’s guidelines

• The guidelines can be viewed as a technical support for Public Administrations: they offer a methodological approach to semantic interoperability through the Linked Open Data model that comes with the reuse of shared and common ontologies. They also provide an accurate analysis of the set of standards and tools to be utilized in order to enable the proposed approach. The guidelines include a number of recommendations, whose aim is to concentrate the attention of the readers on concrete actions to be undertaken.

• To complement the study, the working group focused on legal aspects deriving from the licenses associated with the published data, and the business models that can be enabled, highlighting the interoperability aspects that involve the licenses, the sustainability and governance of the Linked Open Data initiatives.

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• The guidelines have been contextualized within the Italian interoperability framework SPC to identify the specific role that can be assumed by SPC infrastructural and e-government services in the implementation. As defined by the decree of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (DPCM 1st April 2008) on the technical and security rules for SPC, a specific SPC service named “Catalogo Schemi e Ontologie” (Catalogue of Schemas and Ontologies) can be re-designed as a web of data within SPC.

• The service can be exploited to– produce Linked Open Data starting from data generated and exchanged in the SPC context– interconnect data to other data produced by Pas (central and local)– enrich data with proper semantic metadata so as to ensure a high level of quality for data

publication and interoperability in the public government sector.

• The service can be also used for managing all the data generated by back-end functions of PAs.

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Guidelines reccomandations I

• R1: In order to enable the creation of cross-border e-government services, it is recommended being compliant with vocabularies and schemas that are developed by the European Commission in such contexts as the ISA programme (e.g., Core Person, Core Location, Core Public Service, etc.).

• R2: Data to be published shall be selected according to the demand and objectives of Public Administrations.

• R3: When opening the data, both regulation constraints (e.g., sensitive data protection, copyright) and organizational limitations shall be carefully considered.

• R4: When possible, it is recommended opening “atomic” data rather than aggregated data. In any case, aggregate data can be obtained from “atomic” data.

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Guidelines reccomandations II

• R5: When possible, it is recommended using natural keys in the creation of URIs, avoiding positional values included in a document or in a database.

• R6: It is recommended designing ontologies starting from single services or single databases.

• R7: RDFS and OWL shall be used when defining ontologies.• R8: New ontologies shall be developed only when strictly

necessary. Ontologies and vocabularies that are widely shared and used at the national, European and international level shall be reused as much as possible.

• R9: It is recommended not defining wide ontologies for modelling “monolithically” all types of data managed by Public Administrations. In contrast, an incremental and modular approach shall be applied.

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Guidelines reccomandations III

• R10: When defining the ontology, it is recommended using simple design patterns.

• R11: It is recommended enabling an alignment among ontologies in order to facilitate information management over time.

• R12: Specific constraints shall be added to disambiguate all those elements of the ontology that show ambiguities in the reference domain.

• R13: Metadata shall be correctly managed in order to meet data quality and authenticity requirements. Specifically, it should be specified (i) the data producer; (ii) the time reference of the data and possibly the related period of validity; (iii) the precise description of the semantics of published information.

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Guidelines reccomandations IV

• R14: The recommendations of W3C Provenance Interchange Working Group may be followed when dealing with data provenance.

• R15: In order to guarantee cross-border semantic interoperability, it is recommended, when possible, linking your dataset to DBpedia and/or to any other dataset included into the LOD cloud.

• R16: It is recommended choosing interlinks that represent strong connections among entities (e.g., equality, inclusion, etc.).

• R17: It is recommended publishing few data of high quality, and under the form of Linked Data, rather than many data that are not interoperable.

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Guidelines reccomandations V

• R18: When publishing data, the consistency of URIs shall be carefully verified, especially in case of dynamic data. URIs of the same entity must not change when upgrading the dataset.

• R19: When publishing data, a publication technology solution must be identified that permits a flexible integration with the information and organizational systems of the Public Administration.

• R20: Publication should not be limited to the mere download of Linked Data, but a direct access to the data using standards such as SPARQL should be allowed.

• R21: It is recommended registering the dataset in the CKAN portal.• R22: The compliance with the Semantic Web standards and best practices

should be guaranteed when putting your LOD solution into production.

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Guidelines reccomandations VI

• R23: It is recommended considering technologies that are mature in terms of (i) variety of offering, (ii) large usage, (iii) extensive documentation, and (iv) support by the reference community.

• R24: When deploying LOD technologies, possible load balancing mechanisms should be taken into consideration, especially when dealing with large datasets queried by a large number of simultaneous user sessions.

• R25: If there are no specific restrictions and constraints on the data, a license that permits the maximal reuse shall be associated with the data.

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Guidelines reccomandations VII

• R26: For cross-border interoperability, multi-language and well-known licenses shall be used.

• R27: It is recommended publishing data that are of large interest so as to allow users to execute queries that are distributed on a variety of databases.

• R28: It is recommended publishing datasets that are of interest for the application developers’ community.

• R29: When acquiring LOD services, the different specializations and competences required in the methodological approach of the guidelines should be considered.

• R30: Public Administrations may use pre-commercial procurement when acquiring LOD services.

70CEPA II

References

• [1] European Commission Joinup, National Interoperability Framework Observatory (NIFO) Factsheet, https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/elibrary/factsheet/national-interoperability-frameworkobservatory-nifo-factsheets, 2013.

• [2] Tim-Berners-Lee, “Linked Data”, http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html, 2013• [3] Digital Agenda for Europe, http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digitalagenda/index_en.htm, 2013• [4] European Communities, “Draft document as basis for EIF 2.0”, 2008• [5] G. Lodi, A. Maccioni, F. Tortorelli, “Linked Open Data In The Italian E-Government Interoperability Framework”, In Proceedings of the 6th International

Methodologies, Technologies and Tools enabling e-Government (METTEG), July 2012.• [6] ISA programme, “Towards open government metadata”, September 2011,

https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/towards_open_government_metadata_0.pdf• [7] Asset Description Metadata Schema (ADMS), https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/asset/adms/description, 2013.• [8] W3C, Asset Description Metadata Schema (ADMS), Namespace Document 25 June 2012, http://www.w3.org/ns/adms• [9] ISA programme, “Core Vocabularies”, https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/asset/core_business/document/core-vocabularies-working-groupmembers, 2013• [10] W3C, Linking Open Data, http://www.w3.org/wiki/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData, 2013• [11] W3C, RDF Working Group, http://www.w3.org/2011/rdf-wg/wiki/Main_Page, 2013.• [12] W3C, Semantic Web Deployment Working Group, http://www.w3.org/2006/07/SWD/, 2013.• [13] W3C, Government Linked Data Working Group, http://www.w3.org/2011/gld/charter, 2013.• [14] W3C Incubator Group, Provenance XG Final Report, http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/prov/XGR-prov-20101214/, 8 December 2010.• [15] EU 7FP LOD2 project– Creating Knowledge out of Interlinked Data, http://lod2.eu/Welcome.html, 2013.• [16] CNR, http://data.cnr.it/site/, 2013.• [17] Florence Municipality, http://opendata.comune.fi.it/linked_data.html. 2013.• [18] Agenzia per l’Italia Digitale, SPCData, http://spcdata.digitpa.gov.it, 2013.• [19] Piedmont Region, http://www.dati.piemonte.it/rdf-data.html, 2013.• [20] Chamber of Deputies, http://dati.camera.it/it/, 2013.• [21] W3C, OWL Working Group, http://www.w3.org/2007/OWL/wiki/OWL_Working_Group, 2013.• [22] W3C, SPARQL Working Group, http://www.w3.org/2009/sparql/wiki/Main_Page, 2013.• [23] E. Ferro, M. Osella, “Modelli di Business nel Riuso dell'Informazione Pubblica”, ICT Observatory of Piedmont Region, 2011,

http://www.osservatorioict.piemonte.it/it/images/phocadownload/modelli%20di%20business%20nel%20riuso%20dellinformazione%20pubblica.pdf• [24] Commissione di Coordinamento SPC, “Linee guida per l’Interoperabilità Semantica attraverso i Linked Open Data”,

http://www.digitpa.gov.it/sites/default/files/allegati_tec/CdC-SPC-GdL6-InteroperabilitaSemOpenData_v2.0_0.pdf, 2013.• [25] SDMX – Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange, http://sdmx.org/, 2013.

71CEPA II

Thank you for the attention!

72CEPA II

Backup

73CEPA II

Italian Digital Agenda

Nationwide databases and Public registers

Electronic documents

(Digital Sign, Elect. Certified mail, Storage)

Payments

(contract, invoices, accounts)

Software reuse &

standards

Process integration of multidomain services

Access services & Portals

SPC

CAD

Base registers (e.g., national registry for residence of people)

Electronic documents(signature,

certified e-mail, archiving)

Electronic payments

Open Data and

accessibility

Security , Identity management, digital domicile

WEB SITES

Public Connectivity and Cooperation System (SPC)

Digital Administration Code - CAD

PRINCIPLES Open format and

reusability

RIGHTS

Org

aniz

atio

n, r

esp

onsi

bilit

ies

and

  d

irect

ion

of

ICT

and

e-G

ov

Smart Community

Italian Digital Agenda (Law Decree n.179/2012)

Intelligent Transportation

systems

e-Health

e-Education

Born in December 2012, it reinforces the interoperability principle

Open Data and

accessibility

Open format and reusability

• Semantic interoperability • Open Data by default • Use of ontologies and metadata• Valorisation Process of Public Sector

Information

74CEPA II

Agenda

• SPC: the Italian Interoperability framework• The CG-SICA, a SPC’s shared infrastructure• Overview on services provided by the CG-SICA:• SICA’s Registers, repositories and directories• Qualification of architectural components support

75CEPA II

The SICA Register Service

Provides functionalities:

• to manage the Service Agreements and the Cooperation Agreements.

• for accessing, registering, updating, cancelling and searching for Service and Cooperation Agreements through integration with the IPA (Public Administrations’ Directory)

• to manage information about organizations (public administrations and associated organizational structures, certified electronic mail addresses and Homogeneous Organizational Areas) that operate within the framework of the SPC and of the electronic services provided by them

76CEPA II

Service Agreement andThe Schemas/Ontologies Catalogue Service

• The Service agreement shall contain a definition of the service and of the associated procedures for provision and use indicated below:

– service interface, intended as a set of operations provided by the said service;

– access points within which the service is available;

– request procedures and related responses permitted by the service (conversation protocol);

– semantics of the service and of the information processed;

– guaranteed service levels;

– requirements and security characteristics of the service.

• The Ontologies Catalogue Service provides functionalities to describe the semantic elements associated with the application services and with the managed information, including for the purposes of automatically identifying services available for providing the required services, and to share the data and metadata schemas, as well as the domain ontologies, among cooperating Administrations;

77CEPA II

Ontologies and Schemas Management inthe Catalog Service

• Ontology definition using available third party’s authoring environment (i.e.

Protégé)

• Ontology pubblication in the Catalog, from OWL and UML v2.0

• Query of concepts contained in the Catalog

• Detailed view and/or deprecation of a selected concept

• Download of an Ontology associated to a selected concept

• Deprecation of concepts

78CEPA II

Use of Ontologies and Schemas forsemantic services

79CEPA II

The Application service’sLifecycle

80CEPA II

Support services for qualification ofarchitectural components

• Provide functionalities:

– to support the qualification of the domain gateways, through appropriate

tests to check that messages are being correctly processed, performed by

means of a sample domain gateway;

– to support the qualification of the secondary level SICA Register Service,

through appropriate tests to verify interoperability with the general level

federated SICA Register Service

81CEPA II

The domain Gateway

• SPCoop’s distributed component that publish the service’ application interfaces

• It works like a proxy/dispatcher towards others back-end platform in which are executed that services