Provision of Open Cultural Data (GR0041)
Overview
At-a-Glance
Action Plan: Greece National Action Plan 2016-2018
Action Plan Cycle: 2016
Status:
Institutions
Lead Institution: Ministry of Culture and Sports in cooperation with the General Secretariat of Culture and the regulated entities of the Ministry of Culture and Sports.
Support Institution(s): NA
Policy Areas
Access to Information, Open DataIRM Review
IRM Report: Greece Mid-Term Report 2016-2018, Greece End-of-Term Report 2016-2018
Early Results: Did Not Change
Design i
Verifiable: No
Relevant to OGP Values: Yes
Ambition (see definition): Low
Implementation i
Description
Context According to Law 4305/2014 “Open provision of Public Sector Data etc” cultural information should be open. For the moment there are no established procedures regarding publishing relevant information due to the establishment of new regulatory acts concerning cultural information (Law 3028/2002). Commitment Description The Ministry of Culture and Sports, as well as supervised public bodies, own an important amount of cultural data which can be available for re-use by citizens, academic institutes and enterprises in order to contribute to the development of the national cultural product. OGP Values: Access to public information Implementation Bodies: Implementation: Ministry of Culture and Sports in cooperation with the General Secretariat of Culture and the regulated entities of the Ministry of Culture and Sports. Objective: Provide open linked data and more specifically: the largest part of the cultural mobile monuments of the country, the largest part of the geospatial data about the location, type, description and operation of archaeological places and cultural organisations, Means for the implementation: For the implementation of the specific commitment the following prerequisites must be fulfilled: Completion of the IT project for the digitalisation and provision of open data regarding the Digital mobile monuments of National Monuments Registry. The archaeological places and monuments, in parallel with the implementation of interoperability with the National Monuments Registry. Establishing standards for opening, interoperability provision and re-use of cultural data.
IRM End of Term Status Summary
Commitment 11. Provision of Open Cultural Data
According to Law 4305/2014 “Open provision of Public Sector Data etc.” cultural information should be open. For the moment there are no established procedures regarding publishing relevant information due to the establishment of new regulatory acts concerning cultural information (Law 3028/2002). The Ministry of Culture and Sports, as well as supervised public bodies, own an important amount of cultural data which can be available for re-use by citizens, academic institutes and enterprises in order to contribute to the development of the national cultural product. Provide open linked data and more specifically: the largest part of the cultural mobile monuments of the country, the largest part of the geospatial data about the location, type, description and operation of archaeological places and cultural organizations.
Milestones: 11.1. Completion of the National Digital Archaeological Cadastral Registry which will make possible the publication of the cultural data, 11.2 Implementation of interoperability services for the re-usability of cultural data from third party bodies, academic institutions and individuals.
(Ministry of Culture and Sports in cooperation with the General Secretariat of Culture and the regulated entities of the Ministry of Culture and Sports; July 2016 – mid 2018)
Editorial Note: The action plan text has been abridged by the IRM. For the full version, please see https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/greece-national-action-plan-2016-2018/
Commitment Aim:
This commitment aimed to release information regarding cultural patrimony. Prior to this commitment the Ministry of Culture issued the ministerial decision[Note 123: The ministerial decision (in Greek), https://www.culture.gr/DocLib/APOFASI_SYNOLON_DEDOMENON_YPPOA_300616_AA_ADA_signed.pdf] which categorized the types of datasets that should be released under the provisions of Law 4305/2014 that mandates the open by default policy.[Note 124: Amendments to the ministerial decision, https://www.culture.gr/el/service/SitePages/view.aspx?iID=2714] However, the commitment had low specificity because it does not mention specific datasets. Its focus is in providing open, linked data to cultural monuments and geospatial data on archaeological sites and cultural organizations. According to the commitment text, the creation of a National Monuments Registry and common standards for data utilization were prerequisites for implementation.
Status
Midterm: Limited
The commitment had limited progress during midterm. The signing of the contract to develop the National Digital Archaeological Cadastral Registry was expected by July 2017 but did not materialize. An exact list with specific cultural patrimony datasets to be released via a new platform did not become available. In addition, the IRM researchers were unable to find cultural patrimony datasets in the central open data government portal, data.gov.gr.[Note 125: Ministry of Culture and Sport datasets at the data.gov.gr repository (in Greek), http://www.data.gov.gr/organization/yppoa] For more information, please see the 2016-2018 midterm IRM report on the Greek action plan.[Note 126: OGP, “Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) Progress Report 2016–2018: Greece”, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/greece-mid-term-report-2016-2018-public-comment]
End of term: Limited
Through the National Strategic Reference Frameworks 2007-13 and 2014-2020, the Ministry of Culture is implementing a project entitled "Enrichment of Digital Collections of Mobile Monuments of the Ministry of Culture and Sport and Development of an Information System of the National Monument Archives". According to the administrator responsible for reporting on commitment implementation, 243,000 previously unmarked mobile monuments have been documented. Also, according to the same administrator 340,000 additional monuments have been digitized and integrated into the digital registry.[Note 127: Information retrieved from the internal OGP Greece project management tool, September 2018.] Another portal is planned to host all the digitized material displaying reader friendly texts and virtual exhibitions.
Both the registry IT system and the portal are still in an early development phase. In the context of the EU funded project "Archaeological Cadastre" under the program "Competitiveness Entrepreneurship and Innovation 2014-2020”, the Integrated Information System of the Archaeological Cadastre and the "GAIA" Portal has been completed.[Note 128: Ibid.]
However, the information that has been digitized is currently accessible only internally by the Ministry of Culture and Sport.[Note 129: Ibid.] This subproject’s completion date was 3 October 2018 but may be extended for another month as a relevant request has been made by the contractor. The delay in releasing the Archaeological Cadastre received media coverage in a newspaper report stating that sources within the Ministry of Culture attribute it to disagreements that emerged between the companies responsible for developing different subprojects of the main project.[Note 130: To Vima, “The disappearance of the Archaeological Cadastre” (in Greek), https://www.tovima.gr/printed_post/yppo-eksafanisi-lfto-arxaiologiko-ktimatologio/ ] There is not enough progress in making cultural patrimony information publicly available to justify an update in the implementation status of this commitment. Therefore, the level of completion remains limited.
Did It Open Government?
Access to Information: Did Not Change
This commitment aimed to increase available information on cultural patrimony. Since no actual data has been released there is no observable change in practice.
Carried Forward?
The government has not released a new action plan and thus it remains unclear whether this commitment or any relevant development will be included. According to the representative of Open Technologies Alliance, given the fact that implementation is dependent on public procurement of IT projects, the Ministry of Culture could consider a more collaborative approach that opens up the development phase. A first step would be to provide a public-facing element where citizens and civil society could monitor the progress of IT systems and platforms and provide feedback. Beyond soliciting technical feedback, the Ministry could even crowdsource the documentation process.[Note 131: Despina Mitropoulou, General Director of Open Technologies Alliance (GFOSS), interview with IRM researcher, August 2018.
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