Introduction

The public sector is one of the most data-intensive sectors, as it generates as well as consumes, a huge amount of public service information on a regular basis. Besides the need for transparency, the openness of this data can contribute to the planned growth of cities, the development of technological municipal infrastructure, improved governance, and overcoming societal challenges. Many countries have established an online platform that discloses data collected by public sectors. Such ‘open data’ is freely available data that can be accessed, used, re-used, distributed, and re-distributed by any process of interest, without any restriction or limitation. Open data are part of an open government that makes accountable, responsive and inclusive governance. Open data are part of the development of a data and platform economy and favour greater integration and infrastructure connectivity.

In this context, public sector bodies have realized not only the value and importance of the data they hold in their registers, databases and IT systems, but also understand that these data should be set free as far as possible. Open data in smart cities can include rapid velocity of real-time data in large volumes, as well as publishing and connecting structured data sets, such as linked data, within the infrastructure of all cities, which can be accessible via online analysis, source files, online visualization and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

For sustainable cities and communities, especially developed and managed under requirements specified in ISO 37101, adaptation and utilization of open data is expected to enhance smartness, resiliency, transparency, accountability and sustainability, by fostering business creation and development of solutions for the city, as well as creating a new value or benefiting people and stakeholders within. Open data can improve quality and speed of preparation of plans and infrastructure projects for the city.

However, despite the benefit of use and necessity of open data, there is not enough information or standards in the management of open data to be utilized in sustainable cities and communities.

Therefore, for those who are involved in the management process of open data, it is necessary to define the management framework of open data in terms of management processes, e.g. strategic planning, evaluation, identification, preparation, publication, maintenance, and quality management.

The primary audience for this document is officials in cities and the public sector, researchers, research institutions and civil society organizations. Secondary audiences can be those who are in the private sector, including non- or for-profit organizations.

Figure 1 — Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) model of open data management

These management processes are based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) model (Figure 1) and the processes are described and mapped as follows:

— Plan: strategic planning process, involving end-user and cross-sector and cross-jurisdictional knowledge, that defines problems and goals to achieve;
— Do: identification, preparation, publication, and maintenance of open data to achieve predefined goals;
— Check: quality management process that monitors and measures other processes against predefined operational rules and lawful regulations and reports to the necessary processes and partnerships to act on the results;
— Act: evaluation process that recommends necessary actions to integrated planning process to improve overall usage and management performance of open data.

BS ISO 37110:2022

Sustainable cities and communities. Management guidelines of open data for smart cities and communities. Overview and general principles

Current

Published:

31 Jul 2022