Joint Research CentreThe European Commission’s science and knowledge service

APIs4DGov @INSPIRE 2018

20th September 2018

Lorenzino Vaccari, Monica Posada, Robin Smith and Dimitris Mavridis

JRC.B6, Digital Economy unit

APIs4DGov study“Digital Government APIs. The road to value-added Open API-driven services” [10]

• The study, a collaboration between the JRC and DG CNECT, started in January 2018 it will last for two years

• It will contribute to:

• The EU eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020 [5], in particular its open government approach to modernise public administration

• The implementation of the European Interoperability Framework (e.g. actions of the focus area 4: “Develop, maintain and promote key interoperability enablers”) [11]

• The implementation of the Once Only Principle [7]

• Reinforce the Building Block approach adopted in the Connecting European Facilities (CEF) programme [6]

APIs4DGov

API

State of play

• Assess digital government APIs landscape, opportunities, current trends and horizons

API

Added value

• Identify the key enablers, drivers, barriers, potential risks and mitigates

• Identify socio-economic impacts of data sharing, data-driven government services and APIs

API

Framework proposal

• Identify relevant ICT standards and specifications, select best practicesand develop recommendations

• Provide a set of policy recommendations and propose domains and thematic areas to focus on

1. Why governments should invest resources in setting up an API ecosystem?

2. Which government actions should be taken in developing government APIs?

Photo by Damian Patkowski on UnsplashState of play

State of Play: Multiple-case studies analysis

Analysed API cases

Denmark’s Addressers Web API (DAWA)

Amsterdam city data:a single portal providing

developers with a ReST API

Flanders Underground - Cable and Pipe

Information Portal (KLIP): was created in 2007

following a gas explosion in 2004 caused loss of

life.

Madrid MobilityLabs: an open and interoperable

API based platform

Estonia X-Road: is an API driven data exchange

ecosystem platform that was initially developed

between 1998 and 2001

Future Internetware (FIWARE): is an open

platform which can be harnessed by developers

to create and deliver smart, data-driven solutions,

applications and services.

Italian Digital Transformation Team: API project

Next proposalsLondon - Transport for London: have created a Unified

API The public TfL data (or 'open data')

Ireland-Patient-Opinion: API enabled platform for the

health services

France-API: API registry collected at national level.

EU - EDP: the largest European Governmental Data

catalogue.

Helsinki-Issue: the City of Helsinki provides the Issue

Reporting API to citizens

GBIF: the Global Biodiversity Information Facility is an

international network and research infrastructure

Poland-Granica: provides information to people crossing

the border into or out of Poland. Granica offers two APIs,

both of which make use of SOAP

Czech-Mapybezbarier: The data on public sites

accessibility provided by Maps without Barriers app are open

to be used. Social domain.

Denmark Addresses Web API:

~1.5bn requests in 2017

Madrid Mobility Labs API:

~480m requests per year

Amsterdam City Data API:

~350m requests per year

Flanders Underground - Cable and Pipe Information Portal API:

~120m requests per year

When implemented, API usage is huge!

API successfully used to share data both internally and externally

Case studies show strong returns in terms of internal reorganization and unexpected external apps development and (economic) growth

APIs4DGov study

recent case studies

Data and API registries

• For the data, some useful and well known resources are available:• The INSPIRE geoportal [1]

• The GEOSS portal [2]

• The European Data Portal [3]

• Google DataSearch

• For the APIs, there exist some resources including: • Private companies registries

• Public institutions registries

• The list of specific APIs proposed by the hackathon website [4]

ProgrammableWeb

Mashape/RapidAPI marketplace

A public API registry (France) [9]

WHY?Photo by Evan Dennis on Unsplash

API Added Value

API: some benefits

• Providers• Can check statistics and performances

• Provide a stable middleware to access data

• Manage API versioning

• Manage of different formats in an easy way

• Access control

• Reinforce cyber-security layer

• Can manage different user charging mechanisms and financial models

• Easier documentation (e.g. OpenAPI)

• Users:• Can have the possibility to receive only the portion of data they need

• Can have a stable interface to develop web and mobile apps

Sharing data is not enough. APIs act as a bridge between data

and its reuse

https://apimetrics.io/us-government-api-performance-dashboard/

Framework proposal

Photo by Aron on Unsplash

Trend: OpenAPI and ReST API (OGC WFS)

WFS 3.0 [8]

• A true ReST interface

• Use of OpenAPI definition instead of OGC-specific "Capabilities" documents

• May be secured using security schemes that are commonly used on the Web today (e.g., OAuth2)

Trend: OpenAPI and ReST API (GEOSS) [12]

E.g. http://api.geodab.eu/dab/services/api-rest/sources

Trend: OpenAPI and ReST API (INSPIRE Validator) [16]

INSPIRE (Geocatalogue) Analytics [17]

e.g. https://goo.gl/iyokJv

- q=*

- facet.limit=100

- environmentalDomain:water

- resourceType:dataset OR resourceType:series

At the INSPIRE Conference: WFS 3.0 and also SensorThing

WFS 3.0• WFS 3.0 - the next version of the Web Feature Service standard

• From the Hackathon to the next version OGC WFS 3.0

SensorThing:• OGC SensorThings API – A New Approach for Meteorological Data.

• OGC SensorThings API - IoT Sensors for the Energy Domain

• Development of a national Spatial Data Infrastructure for Open Sensor Data based on citizen science initiatives

Photo by Pineapple Supply Co. on Unsplash

INSPIRE Hackathon

The INSPIRE hackathon will help us to understand

1. How to integrate INSPIRE, GEOSS, COPERNICUS data with data from other domains using web APIs, and create value added applications?

2. Which are the challenges and solutions (through some cases of this hackathon) for cross-boundary and cross-sector interoperability?

3. What are the emerging technologies in implementing, exposing and using (e.g. ReST and Open API) Geospatial and non Geospatial APIs?

The participants to the INSPIRE Hackathon

• Organized in collaboration with PLAN4ALL, NextGEOSS, DataBio, EUXDAT, EVER-Est, EU ODP and EDP

• APIs4DGov participated to two webinars (see e.g. [14])

• Very successful call: 16 Teams all over Europe

• With lots of innovative ideas!

• Many themes (Environment, Transport, Weather, Water etc.)

• Many cross-thematic proposals

• Some of the proposals provide and use APIs (especially SPARQL APIs)

Support the APIs4DGov study!

[13] https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/APIs4DGov-INSPIRE

Tell us about the APIs you provide and use!

APISearch?

References

[1] http://inspire-geoportal.ec.europa.eu/

[2] http://www.geoportal.org/

[3] https://www.europeandataportal.eu

[4] https://www.plan4all.eu/api/

[5] https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/communication-eu-egovernment-action-plan-2016-2020-accelerating-digital-transformation

[6] https://ec.europa.eu/cefdigital/wiki/display/CEFDIGITAL/About+CEF+building+blocks

[7] https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/eu-wide-digital-once-only-principle-citizens-and-businesses-policy-options-and-their-impacts

[8] https://github.com/opengeospatial/WFS_FES

[9] https://api.gouv.fr/apis

[10] https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/new-study-digital-government-apis-apis4dgov-project

[11] https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/eif_en

[12] http://api.geodab.eu/dab/api-rest-docs/

[13] https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/APIs4DGov-INSPIRE

[14] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvoHAUbo1tg

[15] https://www.plan4all.eu/inspire-hackathon-2018/

[16] http://inspire-sandbox.jrc.ec.europa.eu/etf-webapp/swagger-ui.html

[17] https://goo.gl/iyokJv

[18] https://sensorup.com/iot/comparison-of-sensorthings-api-and-sensor-observation-service/

Thanks!Any questions?

For more info: jrc-apis4dgov@ec.europa.eu