ENGAGE Platform 2.0 (BETA) released!
After the release of the 1st version of the ENGAGE platform in 2012, the ENGAGE consortium has worked hard to release ENGAGE v2.0 with new and improved features and architecture. A key motivation for those changes and additions were the results and feedback of the project’s extensive user engagement and evaluation efforts. In an effort to make ENGAGE v2.0 attractive and user-friendly and to maximize the potential of Open Government Data for the target communities, there has been a thorough makeover of the user interface. Moreover, the core of the ENGAGE platform has been strengthened by switching from a flat-metadata schema to a richer, semantically enhanced ENGAGE meta-data model. The aim is for ENGAGE to seamlessly interoperate with a number of PSI repositories through appropriate transformation engines. Namely, some of the functionalities of ENGAGE v2.0 are: • Single Sign On • Dataset extension / curation graph • Elastic & filtered dataset search • Dataset download/upload and simplified meta-data definition • Data visualisation • Dataset request from data publishers (e.g. public authorities) and the community • Display of provenance information Also, social networking and rating features have been added, such as: • Formation of end user groups/communities • Comments and discussions on original or derived datasets • Approval/disapproval and rating of datasets as a quality indicator The above features position ENGAGE as a centralized and collaborative PSI e-Infrastructure providing the necessary tools for dataset processing and acquisition and differentiate it from a simple repository of open public datasets. It is an intelligent social and collaborative space for researchers, data journalists, citizens and other potential end users, who rely on open public data for professional or personal (re-)use. Become a member of the growing community of ENGAGE and contribute to the creation and proliferation of high-quality Open Data for researchers and citizens. Please register at: http://www.engagedata.eu/ Future development plans The ENGAGE development team continuously enhances the platform so that the upcoming versions will include new features such as: a Point System to reward participation and peer acceptance, ScraperWiki integration, openRefine extension, Interoperability with existing popular repositories (e.g. CKAN-based), an ENGAGE API to search and retrieve meta-data, better visualization features and more. Meanwhile, the consortium is populating the platform with high-quality datasets and engaging end users to initiate group creations, collaborations and PSI (re-)use. The ultimate goal of ENGAGE is the development and use of a data infrastructure and collaborative environment, incorporating distributed and diverse public sector information (PSI) resources, capable of supporting scientific collaboration and research, while also empowering the deployment of open governmental data towards citizens. Experts Scientific Committee, project liaisons and events During the past year ENGAGE created concrete collaborations with other EU-funded projects and initiatives in the e-Infrastructures and Open Data domains such as LOD2, CHAIN-REDS, CLARIN, OpenAIREplus and CITADEL. Currently, five projects have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ENGAGE, which outlines the nature of collaboration. In addition, the project maintains an active collaboration with experts of international caliber from commercial and academic institutions, who constitute the ENGAGE Experts Scientific Committee (ESC). The ESC provides strategic advice on the project’s sustainability and competitive advantage, and also provides insight into the new developments of the ENGAGE platform and its services. In an effort to further strengthen its bonds with current associates and reach out to prospective end user communities, ENGAGE is co-organising the 4th Samos Summit. This event, titled “Samos 2013 Summit on Digital Innovation for Government, Business and Society”, will take place at the Greek island of Samos, on 1 – 5 July 2013. This year, the Samos Summit will also include the 1st International Summer School on Open and Collaborative Governance, which will provide students with the opportunity to be trained in various Gov2.0 issues, including Open Data. Until the Samos 2013 Summit, ENGAGE is planning to participate in various other events such as: • EuroCRIS membership meeting, 13-14 May 2013, Bonn, Germany • e-IRG workshop, 22-23 May 2013, Dublin, Ireland • Conference for e-Democracy and Open Government (CeDEM) 2013, 22-25 May 2013, at Danube University Krems, Austria • IASSIST 2013 Conference, 28-31 May 2013, Cologne, Germany • 13th European Conference on e-Government (ECEG) 2013, 13-14 June 2013, Como, Italy • 14th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research (DG.O 2013), 17-20 June 2013, Quebec City, Canada More details on events can be found on the project’s website (www.engage-project.eu). About ENGAGE ENGAGE is an infrastructure that integrates original PSI datasets and datasets created, derived, curated, maintained and extended by user communities such as: researchers, citizens, developers, journalists, civil servants, businesses and archivists/librarians. ENGAGE is funded by FP7 Infrastructures programme and supports the objectives of the Capacities programme within the 7th Framework Programme (7FP) for Research and Technological Development (RTD). The project emerges from a policy context of improved access to public sector data, started in June 2011 and will run for three years.
Countries
Germany, Greece, Israel, Luxembourg, Netherlands, United Kingdom