JeDEM 6(1): 69-79, 2014
ISSN 2075-9517
http://www.jedem.org

Open Government Data: Fostering Innovation
Ivan Bedini, Feroz Farazi, David Leoni, Juan Pane, Ivan Tankoyeu,
Stefano Leucci
I. Bedini, Trento RISE, Via Sommarive 18 Trento (ITA), i.bedini@trentorise.eu, +390461312346
F. Farazi, University of Trento, Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science, Via Sommarive, 9 Trento
(ITA), farazi@disi.unitn.it, +390461283938
D. Leoni, Universtity of Trento, Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science, Via Sommarive, 9, Trento
(ITA), david.leoni@disi.unitn.it
J. Pane, National University of Asunción, Polytechnic Faculty, Campus Universitario, San Lorenzo (PY), jpane@pol.una.py
I. Tankoyeu, Universtity of Trento, Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science, Via Sommarive, 9, Trento
(ITA), tankoyeu@disi.unitn.it
S. Leucci, University of Trento, Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science, Via Sommarive, 9, Trento
(ITA), stefano.leucci@unitn.it

Abstract: The provision of public information contributes to the enrichment and enhancement of the data produced by the
government as part of its activities, and the transformation of heterogeneous data into information and knowledge. This
process of opening changes the operational mode of public administrations, leveraging the data management, encouraging
savings and especially in promoting the development of services in subsidiary and collaborative form between public and
private entities. The demand for new services also promotes renewed entrepreneurship centred on responding to new
social and territorial needs through new technologies. In this sense we speak of Open Data as an enabling infrastructure for
the development of innovation and as an instrument to the development and diffusion of Innovation and Communications
Technology (ICT) in the public system as well as creating space for innovation for businesses, particularly SMEs, based on
the exploitation of information assets of the territory. The Open Data Trentino Project has initiated and fosters the process of
opening of public information and develops as a natural consequence of this process of openness, the creation of innovative
services for and with the citizens. In this paper we present how our project acts on long-chain, from raw data till reusable
meaningful and scalable knowledge base that leads to the production of data reuse through the implementation of services
that will enhance and transform the data into information capable of responding to the specific questions of efficiency and
innovation.

Keywords: Open Government Data, Open Data, Innovation, Entity, Sematic data, data integration, Big Data
Acknowledgement: We are grateful to Prof. Fausto Giunchiglia and KnowDive1 research group for coming up with the
notion of entity type and its application to OGD for generating entities as well as data integration. We extend our gratitude to
Lorenzino Vaccari for his support in the capacity of project manager. We are thankful to Gabor Bella for his collaboration in
the semantification of OGD. The authors wish to thank Mr. M. Napolitano, Dr. M. Combetto, Dr. R. Cibin, Dr. L. Paolazzi, Dr.
E. Bassi, Dr. L. Ruzzene, Mr. S. Santi and Dr. S. Ojha for their valuable contribution to the realization of the project.
Financial support for this project is provided by the Autonomous Province of Trento, Trento Rise, Informatica Trentina,
University of Trento and FBK Research centre.

1. Introduction
The process of opening the data in Public Administrations (PA) as a process of enhancement of
public information implies a radical change to the data approach and work inside the PA. This
1

http://disi.unitn.it/~knowdive/