Policy and service requirements driving

citizen orientedinformation services

based on PSI:environment and open

source

Kostas Karatzas

Asst.Prof., Dr.-Eng

Informatics Systems & Applications Group

Dept. of Mechanical EngineeringAristotle University, Thessaloniki,

Greecehttp://isag.meng.auth.gr, e-mail:

kkara@eng.auth.gr

Can public-private partnership deliver low charges and stimulate new services?

The goal New services/re-using PSI

Reusing PSI Added value generated for the PS

The means Low charges/attractive services on the basis of

Effective / viable public-private partnerships

The instruments Policy and service requirements

Generating service needs=marketsFormulating the necessary “customer” culture

PSI sector: environment

Why environment Environmental Information accounts for a

considerable percentage of PSI produced (> 50%).

Environmental services are required in relation to a variety of public administration and business activities.

Environmental service needs result from corresponding policy/legal framework

Focus: Provide advice and information concerning the status of the environment

Dir. 90/313/EEC: “Information relating to the environment” = any available

information in written, visual, aural or database form on the state of water, soil, air, fauna, flora, land and natural sites, and on activities or measures adversely affecting, or likely so to affect these, and on activities or measures designed to protect these (including administrative measures and environmental management programmes).

Public authorities are required to make available information relating to the environment to any natural or legal person at his request and without his having to prove interest.

…repealed by Dir. 30/04/CE Increased access to environmental information and the

dissemination of such information contribute to a greater awareness of environmental matters, a free exchange of views, more effective participation by the public in environmental decision making and, eventually, to a better environment.

Environmental information should be disseminated by means of available computer telecommunication and/or electronic technology

This is how a policy requirement generates a service requirement!

PSI/Environment: legal framework

But…what is the public interested in…

Source: Haklay 2000, London Environment On-Line, CASE Special Report (http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/leosurvey.pdf)

eEurope 2002: Public sector information is an important prime material for digital content products and services. It can be the basis for many new information services and products.

Potential partners of EI-PSI services

Administration• High-quality content• Trustworthiness• Service orientation

ICT sector• Innovative technologies• Portals• Content engineering & re-use

Citizens• Need for information• Quality of Life

Industry• Information needs• Management needs

Taken by Peinel G., Rose Th. And Sedlmayr M. (2002), The APNEE Information Service Platform for e-Environment, ebew2002, Prague, 16-18 October ,

Potential partners of EI-PSI services

Administration• High-quality content• Trustworthiness• Service orientation

ICT sector• Innovative technologies• Portals• Content engineering & re-use

Citizens• Need for information• Quality of Life

Industry• Information needs• Management needs

Taken by Peinel G., Rose Th. And Sedlmayr M. (2002), The APNEE Information Service Platform for e-Environment, ebew2002, Prague, 16-18 October ,

Business model

From the IT point of view: FLOSS

Free - Libre - Open Source Software (FLOSS)

A new software development paradigm that emerged in the last decade, based on full source code disclosure, volunteer effort and a service-oriented business model

Flexible, economical and reusable: and thus appropriate for use in building publicly funded ICT projects especially those aiming at the dissemination of information to citizens, such as online environmental portals

European PSI-EI & FLOSS Timeline

1990: Dir. 90/313/EEC on public access to EI is adopted1998: UNECE “Aarhus” Convention 1999: EU Green Paper on PSI is published2001: European Working Group on Libre Software report

“Free Software / Open Source: Information Society Opportunities for Europe” is published; UNESCO introduces Free Software Portal; “Aarhus” Convention enters into force

2002: EU-sponsored Infonomics Institute study introduces FLOSS aggregate term; “Pooling Open Source Software” feasibility study by IDA is published; Danish Board of Technology report highlights potential for major public savings in open source software. eEurope 2002: Creating a EU Framework for the Exploitation of Public Sector Information

2003: Directive 2003/98/EC adopted. EU Directive 2003/4/EC on public access to environmental information is adopted, in accordance with “Aarhus” Convention; eEurope 2005 Action Plan endorsed

2004: Proposal 2004/0175 on INSPIRE Directive adopted

Real world applications: the APNEE/APNEE-TU projects

Objectives:Provide an air quality portalwith pull and push services

Employ complementary communicationchannels to reach the citizen

Implement a supply chain of content fromtrusted sources via portal operators to the

citizenhttp://www.apnee.org

APNEE service palette

WWWEMail

WAP

WebGIS

region

SMS

...

Voice

PDA/Smart

Phones

UMTS ...

Panel

Strategic, complementary partnership Roles

content provider creating or collecting, owning, and processing data

content presenter structuring, relating, presenting and advertising data of one or

more content providers (on the Internet mostly named directory portals)

telecommunication or platform providers adapting and disseminating data over different communication

channels (also mobile operators)

Content Providers

ContentPresenter

Customer

Customer

Telecommu-nication/PlatformProviders

Mostlyauthorities

Commercialcompanies- Portals

Tele-communication

companies

Public Sector Information

Partner per region

Creating revenues

Legal obligations (authority)

Green service (service provider)

Pay for access (customer) Service is free, but online time costs Support media through attractive content

Pay for service (customer) SMS Request (€0.25) Subscription SMS (€4 in Norway)

Profits

-0,1

0

0,1

0,2

0,3

1 2 3 4 5Year

M€

Earnings of theFiscal Year

AccumulatedProfit

Net cash-flows

-0,2

0

0,2

0,4

1 2 3 4 5

Year

M€

Net Cash-flows

AccumulatedNCF

Commercial exploitation conclusions

Change of business perspective: From Customised information services/products

to service bundles to public authorities or environmental information as incentive for mobile customers

Willingness to pay only for selected groups: there has to be a well-defined market!

Survey on environmental (AQ) data access and reuse, field trials , experience and know-how learned

Lack of content delivery frameworks that allow online access to env. (AQ) information.

Affects business partnerships!!!

Some future perspectivesQuality of life may be used as the basis of

advanced, human –centered information services making use of PS EI.

City authorities should be prepared to migrate from static to real-time interactive environmental administration systems.

A new service-oriented relationship between city authorities and the public based on PSI and applied use of ICT innovations is emerging

Some PSI re-usage challenges

Have to make-up our mind concerning availability of PSI on a crystal-clear financial scheme (free, pay per request, per volume, etc) Authorities should have these already available together

with their founding documents! “Homogenize” access to PSI via the adoption of

industrial ICT standards resulting from W3C: Semantics, RDF, etc.

Suggest an open scheme as the industrial ICT standard to be used for PSI-based services: Web services, SOAP

Co-ordinate efforts art a European level. PSI may prove to be part of the “hidden” EU business power!

Thank you!