Updates include open data survey, library, training companion and technical changes
EU efforts to promote the reuse of publicly held data have taken a step forward with the full launch of the European Data Portal, following its availability for three months as a beta version.
The portal, which been built by a consortium led by Capgemini Consulting, replaces the publicdata.eu service and includes references to more than 400,000 datasets available in six languages.
The new version incorporates a number of content updates from the beta. They include a survey on the re-use of open data, and library organised into six categories. The latter includes: all reports published on the European Data Portal project; reports on the ePSIplatform for the reuse of public sector information; use cases on best practice of open data; additional training materials; a news archive; and a featured highlights archive.
There is also a training companion for the basics of open data and an FAQ section.
A number of technical changes have also been made, including a metadata quality assessment, which matches the methods used by the portals harvested for the site, and provides supporting graphs.
Others include an update of the Eurostat basemaps to visualise datasets, publication of the portal's source code, and the addition of three new languages – Spanish, Italian and Polish.
Structure
The datasets on the portal are structured into 13 categories, including science, justice and health. Features that have been available with the beta version include a multilingual search interface, and data machine translation technology to translate the metadata.
Aside from the development and maintenance of the portal, the project involves stimulating the release of more open data by the public sector around the EU, and encouraging its reuse by creating value adding products and services.
