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Netherlands

Stuiveling Open Data Award (NL0020)

Overview

At-a-Glance

Action Plan: Netherlands 2016-2018 National Action Plan

Action Plan Cycle: 2016

Status: Inactive

Institutions

Lead Institution: Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations

Support Institution(s): Open Government Expertise Centre (LEOO)

Policy Areas

Open Data, Private Sector, Science & Technology

IRM Review

IRM Report: Netherlands End-of-Term Report 2016-2018, Netherlands Mid-Term Report 2016-2018

Starred: No

Early Results: Major Major

Design i

Verifiable: Yes

Relevant to OGP Values: Not Relevant

Potential Impact:

Implementation i

Completion:

Description

The government will make as much data as possible freely available to the general public and the business community. If the data is in a form that permits simple re-use and processing, it becomes possible to develop useful new applications in areas such as education and healthcare, or to promote democracy and good governance. As an incentive to the development of new applications, products and services, the government is to introduce the ‘Stuiveling Open Data Award’, which will be presented to a public or private party who has used open data in an innovative manner to address current societal challenges. The award will encourage both the public and private sectors to learn from each other’s experiences. The Open Government Expertise Centre (Leer- en Expertisepunt Open Overheid; LEOO) will strengthen the learning effect by disseminating best practices and producing handbooks based on entries for the award. LEOO will also assist those organisations which are inspired to pursue their open data activities further.

The first Stuiveling Open Data Award will be presented in 2016. It is named after the former president of the Court of Audit, Saskia Stuiveling, who for many years championed effective accountability, transparency and (technological) modernisation of government.

IRM Midterm Status Summary

2. Stuiveling Open Data Award (‘SODA’)

Commitment Text:

The government will make as much data as possible freely available to the general public and the business community. If the data is in a form that permits simple re-use and processing, it becomes possible to develop useful new applications in areas such as education and healthcare, or to promote democracy and good governance. As an incentive to the development of new applications, products and services, the government is to introduce the ‘Stuiveling Open Data Award’ (SODA), which will be presented to a public or private party who has used open data in an innovative manner to address current societal challenges. The award will encourage both the public and private sectors to learn from each other’s experiences.

Milestones:

1. An annual contest to promote the re-use of open data. Each year the winner will receive an amount of €20,000. The Stuiveling Open Data Award will be awarded up until 2020 (five times in total and twice during the duration of this action plan).

2. There will be an annual presentation ceremony.

3. To promote and support the competition, a website is to be launched in 2016. It will highlight best practice examples of the re-use of open data. All entries that meet the competition requirements will be shown on the website (the competition requirements are available online). And the finalists and winner will be showcased more elaborately.

Responsible institution: Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations

Supporting institution(s): LEOO, ICTU

Start date: 1 January 2016 End date: 30 June 2018

Editorial Note: This is a truncated version of the milestone text. For the full commitment text, please see The Netherlands National Action Plan (https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2001/01/Netherlands_NAP-Appendix_2016-2018_EN_revised-with-changes.pdf)


Context and Objectives

The objective of this commitment is to incentivize the public and private sector to develop useful applications based on government-provided data to address societal challenges. This will be achieved by creating an annual contest –The Stuiveling Open Data Award (SODA) –that awards a €20,000 prize. The overall specificity of this commitment was high, since the deliverables (e.g. contest, ceremony, and website) are clearly measurable. However, the commitment text does not provide clear criteria on how the submission will be judged and does not highlight best practices.

While one survey respondent suggested that incentivizing new initiatives should always be welcomed, one issue raised by a member of parliament is that no one outside the ‘open data circle’ has ever heard of SODA and that it is ‘nice, but not a top priority’. XX[Note68: Kamerstukken II 2016–2017, 32802, nr. 30, p.4.]XX Other survey respondents had harsher criticism, calling it ‘nice symbolism’, ‘nonsense’, and a ‘distracting show’. In terms of potential impact, the IRM researcher found that if fully implemented, the potential impact would be minor because SODA, as an award and as a website, is not known outside the inner circle. The prize money is relatively low, which raises the question of this award’s capacity to further incentivize market parties.

As written, the commitment activities include the creation of an annual contest, an annual awards ceremony and the development of a website to raise awareness of the SODA and highlight best practices. This commitment is not directly relevant to any OGP values. Though the initiative may be helpful to consumers and contractors, the IRM researcher found no direct relation to access to information, citizen participation or public accountability. While the applications developed as part of this contest may result in some innovations that could be relevant to OGP values, SODA does not aim to open more public data in a more innovative manner. It encourages the re-use of these data. XX[Note69: Stuiveling Open Data Award 2016, opendata-award.nl/documenten/publicaties/2016/09/28/2016-09-27-jurycriteria-stuiveling-open-data-award-soda-2016.]XX

Completion

There has been substantial progress on this commitment. On 12 December 2016, the Minister of the Interior presented the SODA during the ‘How Open Festival’, which was visited by about 400 people (milestones 1 and 2). XX[Note70: Bleeve wins Open Data Award, opendata-award.nl/actueel/nieuws/2016/12/11/xxxxx-wint-eerste-stuiveling-open-data-award.]XX The website, SODA.nl, was launched in March 2016. It briefly shows the 2016 Award winners and ‘best practices,’ according to the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. Other website content mentioned in the self-assessment report, such as an interview with Prince Constantijn, is appealing, but not included in the action plan.

The winner of the SODA 2016 was Bleeve, a commercial initiative that uses several open datasets to offer homeowners information on energy-saving measures for their homes. XX[Note71: Bleeve energy-saving measures, bleeve.nl.]XX According to the jury, the application uses open data – statistics, address and building registry data – in an innovative manner. It promotes environmental friendliness and offers value to society and homeowners, by helping them find and compare building contractors that offer insulation, solar energy and other energy-related improvements. XX[Note72: SODA 2016, opendata-award.nl/documenten/rapporten/2016/12/10/juryrapport-soda2016.]XX A test by the IRM researcher of the home scan (the awarded app) gave general information on the house (age, size), and direct reference to contractors. The app is, based on this small test, useful and usable and is used by more than 30,000 people, according to the website counter. However, in terms of open government and relevance to OGP values, Bleeve does not change government practice in the area of increasing the re-usability of public data nor does it promote increased civic participation or public accountability.

Next Steps

Survey respondents, CSOs, and the IRM researcher recommend that SODA not be continued as an OGP commitment.

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