Background

Dataplatform.nl is a CKAN + Drupal open data portal. Providing a central repository, the data portal allows each city to have its own website, e.g. utrecht.dataplatform.nl or denhaag.dataplatform.nl.

Dataplatform is an initiative run by Civity.

Their aim is to provide a single point of access to open data from multiple agencies attempting to mitigate the fragmentation occurring within open data initiatives.

Additionally, Civity put a lot of effort into enabling collaboration between agencies by organising monthly meetings to work on standards, data quality, collaboration and other new requirements.

Civity is also a member of the Dutch FIWARE Lab consortium, meaning Dataplatform is integrated components for real time data (sensordata).

Challenge

Civity’s main challenge was to create an open platform architecture that would allow collecting, sorting and provisioning of all sorts of data.

For government agencies it´s important to share experiences with no lock-ins. CKAN is a proven solution for open data and a building block within the FIWARE-architecture. In addition, CKAN complies with the MoU for the Open and Agile Smart Cities initiative (OASC).

Solution

CKAN is a managed and open source solution that easily integrates with various modern applications. It provides a central repository that can harvest data from a number of local instances, e.g. cities on Dataplatform.nl.

For end users of the system, there are multiple access methods available for the data, which significantly eases data portal maintenance and further development.

Results

Over the past one and a half years, Dataplatform has grown from 1 city to 30 Government agencies providing access to over 1,000 datasets. For its technical solution and collaboration, CKAN has received appreciation among Dataplatform members.

Thanks to its integration with backoffice systems, Dataplatform supports IoT solutions with real time data via a combination of harvesting and ETL.