Policy and service requirements driving citizen oriented information services based on PSI: environment and open source Kostas Karatzas Asst.Prof., Dr.-Eng Informatics Systems & Applications Group Dept. of Mechanical Engineering Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece

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=markets  Formulating 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  …repealed by Dir. 30/04/CE Increased access to environmental information and the dissemination of such information contribute to a greater awareness of environmental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 (  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, 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, 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 adopted  1998: UNECE “Aarhus” Convention  1999: EU Green Paper on PSI is published  2001: 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 forceFree Software Portal  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 InformationDanish Board of Technology report  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 portal with pull and push services Employ complementary communication channels to reach the citizen Implement a supply chain of content from trusted sources via portal operators to the citizen

APNEE service palette WWW 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 Content Presenter Customer Telecommu- nication/ Platform Providers Mostly authorities Commercial companies - 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)

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 perspectives  Quality 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!