Under the GD:B umbrella: Berlin’s new open data strategy

Berlin aims to modernise its administration and thus become a pioneer in the field of open data. The Open Data Strategy passed by the Berlin Senate on 7 November will help set cultural change in motion within the administration with measures in a range of different fields of action. As a specialised strategy, it will support the implementation of the Berlin Smart City Strategy, Going Digital Together: Berlin.

For Martina Klement, the new Berlin Open Data Strategy is “a key milestone” on the path towards becoming a modern, data-based administration. “We strive to simplify the exchange of data between administration employees, create synergies and foster sound, data-based decision-making processes. The potential of open data can act as a true catalyst for modernising our administration,” said the State Secretary for Digitalisation and Chief Digital Officer (CDO) within the Berlin Senate Chancellery.

The Open Data Strategy was passed in November and is the first time Berlin has expressed its goal of understanding open data as a key component of a modern, digital administration.  The technical and legal framework for Open Data Berlin is already in place; now, concrete measures will be implemented over the course of the next five years to integrate open data more fully into administrative processes. As Klement explains, “With our Open Data Strategy and the expansion of our municipal data infrastructure, we aim to make Berlin a leader in the field of open data.”    

The new Berlin Open Data Strategy focuses on technical aspects as well as on internal data management processes within the administration. But it also centres on granting Berlin’s authorities and agencies exhaustive access to data. To do so, the city plans to take stock of all data in the senate departments and district administrations as well as in authorities downstream. Another goal is to provide data of the highest quality as Linked Open Data (LOD) in future; these can be used and linked to one another freely.  

The source of the new Berlin Open Data Strategy was the Open Data Strategy developed by Fraunhofer Fokus on behalf of the Senate Department for Economics, Technology and Research in 2011, which served as a template for the process to develop the new strategy, launched in 2022. At a kick-off meeting and in various workshops, stakeholders from  business, the scientific community, administration and civil society initially developed needs-oriented measures, which were then made available to residents for comment and published on meinberlin.de (German only) for a public vote. 

The measures defined over the course of the strategy process will now be implemented as part of the new Open Data Strategy. One of them is the introduction of a modern data management system, which grants the administration comprehensive access to large quantities of data and also ensures these can be exchanged with third parties. Measures have been allocated to one of the following fields of action: Data Governance; Smart Use of Data; Strengthening Data Expertise; Publication of Berlin’s Core Data Records; Open-by-Default; Linked Open Data; and Open Data in Contracts in Data Sovereignty.

The new Open Data Strategy is simultaneously considered a specialised strategy under the umbrella of the Berlin Smart City Strategy, entitled Going Digital Together: Berlin (“Gemeinsam Digital: Berlin”, GD:B). These are both of a learning nature, which means they are open to new developments and adaptations that may arise due to changes in the framework at EU or federal level. And just like GD:B, the Berlin Open Data Strategy, and the measures it contains, will be evaluated regularly and amended as necessary; the actors involved in the development of the strategy will continue to be part of the process.

The measures of the new Berlin Open Data Strategy will be implemented by the Senate Department in cooperation with open data information office ODIS and the Open Data Officers of the district administrations and senate departments.

On Berlin Open Data Day (30 May 2024), the measures’ current implementation status will be presented to the public for the first time. (vdo)